Gallup, NM (KRQE)- A judge in the 11th Judicial District is retiring after nearly two decades on the bench. Judge Louis E. DePaoli Jr. says he now plans to “explore the wilds of New Mexico and the Four Corners region, get his golf game in shape and maybe travel internationally a time or two.”
“My greatest overall achievement has been running the court in an orderly manner, doing my job efficiently and economically and with purpose,” DePaoli, a Gallup native, said in a press release. “I have tried to do justice as best I can in my role as a judge.”
DePaoli is not the first in his family to serve as a Gallup judge. Both his father and grandfather served as judges.
“I love Gallup because my family has been here for four generations,” DePaoli said. “Many of my friends are still here where their families moved generations ago. It’s a small town where I can still wave at people I know when I pass them on the street. We are diverse and culturally different and at the same time, we get along really well. It’s a great melting pot of a city.”
DePaoli was appointed a judge in 2006 by then-Governor Bill Richardson. DePaoli has also worked as an assistant district attorney and a private-practice attorney during his legal career, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts.
