March 31, 2005: Gov. Bill Richardson appoints Tommy Rodella, a former state police officer and husband of state Rep. Debbie Rodella, D-Española, to a vacant Rio Arriba County magistrate judge position.

July 4, 2005: Tommy Rodella makes a 90-minute drive to Tierra Amarilla to free DWI suspect Carlos R. Manzanares.

July 21, 2005: Rodella resigns as magistrate judge. Richardson says he asked Rodella to resign. Rodella says he resigned on his own accord.

June 6, 2006: Rodella wins the Democratic primary for magistrate judge in Rio Arriba County, defeating five opponents. Debbie Rodella is re-elected to the House of Representatives. Neither has opposition in the general election.

Summer 2006: Rodella meets with Pete and Dorothy Martinez to discuss a rental dispute they have with a tenant, according to Judicial Standards Commission documents. Rodella advised the couple to wait until he takes office to file a case and if the case is assigned to the other Rio Arriba magistrate, disqualify that judge so Rodella will get the case, the commission says.

Jan. 1, 2007: Rodella resumes job as magistrate.

Feb. 23, 2007: The commission informs Rodella that it is investigating the July 4, 2005, incident. Also on this date, The New York Times publishes a profile of Richardson that mentions the Rodella appointment.

May 2007: Rodella met with the alleged victim in a domestic violence case who was thinking twice about testifying against her husband, the commission reported. Rodella, commission documents state, told the woman if she didn't want to testify, there would be no adverse legal consequences if she ignored a subpoena.

June 4, 2007: The domestic violence case goes to trial in Rodella's court and the victim doesn't show up. After the prosecutor tells Rodella he knows about his advice to the witness, Rodella recuses himself from the case. Later, when the victim arrived, Rodella dismissed the case, despite his earlier recusal. The commission claims Rodella replaced his original recusal document with another document in the court file.

July 9, 2007: The Martinez rent dispute case goes to trial in Rodella's court. During the proceeding, Rodella, according to commission documents, cuts off Dorothy Martinez, saying, "You talk too much." He disqualifies himself from the case.

August 2007: The New Mexican obtains a copy of Rodella's written response to the commission's investigation of the DWI matter. In it, Rodella implies Richardson is using the commission to get back at him.

Nov. 9, 2007: Two weeks after the commission began investigating the Martinez rent-dispute matter, Rodella writes to the state Administrative Office of the Courts claiming Pete Martinez had forged a document in the case, prompting a state police investigation of Martinez. The commission says this amounts to harassing and intimidating a witness in the commission investigation.

April 29, 2008: The commission files a petition asking the state Supreme Court to remove Rodella from office and not allow him to run for a judicial post again.