After 32 years as a judge in New Mexico, William “Chip” Johnson is retiring with memories of cases involving public corruption, families devastated by violence and sentencing requirements he came to question. In a recent interview, the former U.S. district judge reflected on the decisions and people that defined a career he said he enjoyed.
Johnson spent seven years as a state district judge in Roswell before joining the federal bench. His federal service included a seven-year term as chief judge for New Mexico’s federal courts, assignments to sit on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals and membership in the Judicial Conference of the U.S. He is the second longtime federal judge in the state to retire this year.
Among his most prominent cases was the prosecution of eight people who pleaded guilty in a $4.3 million scheme involving money stolen from construction of the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court. Former state Senate President Pro Tem Manny Aragon was among them. In 2009, Johnson sentenced Aragon to five years and seven months in federal prison, describing the corruption as motivated by greed and the misuse of public power for personal gain.
Another case remained vivid more than two decades later. Johnson presided over a wrongful death trial involving two retired Nebraska couples killed while vacationing together. A former Bureau of Indian Affairs employee, who had consumed 12 beers, drove a government truck the wrong way on Interstate 40 and caused the head-on collision. Johnson could still recall the victims’ names 22 years after the lawsuit.
The prosecution of Sandoval County Fair rodeo queen Carla Clifton raised different concerns for Johnson. Convicted of lying to a federal grand jury about who owned a cellphone, Clifton initially received a mandatory 41-month prison sentence. Johnson said sentencing enhancements had substantially increased the punishment despite her lack of a criminal history. After the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the law making the guidelines mandatory, he reduced her sentence to 24 months in 2005.
Johnson said his state court work included particularly difficult cases involving abused children and families whose children had been killed. Federal assignments could also bring a heavy workload: He recalled sometimes conducting 99 sentencing hearings in a day while serving in southern New Mexico. “You deal with the worst-case scenarios, particularly in criminal cases. You want to stay grounded,” he said.
Born in Roanoke, Virginia, Johnson graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1981 and earned his law degree at Washington and Lee University in 1985. He served as an artillery officer at Fort Sill and in the Army Reserve, reaching the rank of captain. His legal practice took him first to Houston and then to Roswell.
In 2024, Johnson helped launch a program supporting people returning to their communities after incarceration. His own plans changed after his wife, Loretta Chavez Johnson, died unexpectedly during an overseas vacation in June 2025, prompting him to reconsider the next stage of his life.
Johnson now plans to become a mediator at JAMS, a private alternative dispute resolution provider where former colleague James Browning also works following his August retirement. Johnson said he sought senior status in 2024 to clear the way for Sarah Davenport’s appointment as a U.S. district judge in Las Cruces.
