Alamogordo NM
7-02-2026 5:30am

Eddy and Lea County Exposed Newsletter Reports New Court Filing Seeking Seal the Records in Property Dispute Turned Political Flashpoint

ALAMOGORDO, NM — Eddy and Lea County Exposed releases new records on State Rep. John P. Block, IV, R-District 51, is asking a judge to seal court records, strike a discovery motion, and impose $5,000 in sanctions against his former domestic partner, Otero County Treasurer Karl P. Melton, in a civil case that has become entangled with Block’s public conduct, his bid for reelection, and his running conflict with local media.

The filing released to Lea and Eddy County Exposed, submitted June 23 in the 12th Judicial District Court by Block’s attorney, Michael J. Seibel, is a reply brief supporting an “emergency motion to strike” a discovery request Melton filed last month. That underlying motion sought court-ordered inspection of household property Melton says was removed from the pair’s former shared residence on Sunnyside Avenue — and attached text messages that Block’s filing does not deny sending, but insists have nothing to do with the property dispute.

What the filing says

Block’s reply argues Melton never followed the required procedure — a formal written discovery request under Rule 1-034 NMRA — before going straight to court, despite what the filing describes as a written warning from Block’s counsel in May that any filing containing “scandalous or impertinent matter” would trigger sanctions. Block’s team characterizes the attached texts as unrelated to the furniture dispute and says their real purpose was to put personal allegations into the public record.

Block “categorically denied” having an affair, according to the filing, while arguing that even if the allegation were true, it would have no bearing on a dispute over household items. His attorneys point to Rule 1-012(F) NMRA, which allows courts to strike “redundant, immaterial, impertinent or scandalous” material from filings, and to Rule 1-011 NMRA, the state’s frivolous-filing standard, as grounds for sanctions.

Notably, the filing singles out this outlet by name. It argues that because Melton had threatened in September 2025 messages to “work with Chris Edwards” to create a public “circus,” and because this outlet published on the discovery motion shortly after it was filed, that sequence is itself evidence Melton’s filing was made for an improper purpose — to embarrass Block publicly rather than to obtain evidence.

Block is asking the court to strike Melton’s discovery motion in whole or in part, impose the $5,000 sanction plus attorney’s fees, and seal both the discovery motion and this reply — along with a protective order barring Melton “or anyone acting in concert with him” from disseminating the allegations further.

The backdrop: a pattern of legal threats to local press

This filing did not emerge in a vacuum. Alamogordo Town News has reported for more than a year on Block’s personal conduct, his legislative record, and the breakdown of his relationship with Melton. In April, Block demanded ATN retract that reporting, raising the prospect of a defamation suit. ATN declined, citing First Amendment protections and standing by its reporting — a position the outlet has maintained as subsequent court filings, including a May 22 motion from Melton and now this June 23 reply, have continued to surface details consistent with prior coverage.

That May 22 motion — and Exhibit A attached to it — was itself the subject of an Inspection of Public Records Act request that supplied additional documentation to the Eddy and Lea County Exposed newsletter, whose reporting on Block has run in parallel with ATN’s. Block’s own filing this week references a “pending” state ethics complaint, though it does not identify the complainant.

Block, the youngest sitting member of the New Mexico Legislature and the founder of the conservative outlet Piñon Post, has built a public brand around “traditional family values” messaging and has been an aggressive user of ethics complaints himself — including one filed against Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham last year, which the Secretary of State’s Office found lacked evidence of a violation. Critics, including local voices quoted in prior ATN coverage, have pointed to the gap between that messaging and the litigation now playing out in Otero County court as a defining contradiction of his 2026 reelection campaign.

Part of a wider Otero County reckoning

The filing lands amid a broader shakeup in Otero County Republican politics. Former state GOP Chair Amy Barela — an Otero County commissioner who nominated Block for a state Senate vacancy earlier this year — was ordered off the party chairmanship by a district judge in late May over a separate dispute involving primary-election impartiality rules, a ruling the state Supreme Court left in place in June. Barela went on to lose her own commission primary by 46 votes. That case is legally unrelated to the Melton v. Block litigation, but both have fed a narrative, advanced in recent ATN commentary, that Otero County’s conservative political establishment is facing unusual public scrutiny over the space between its public messaging and members’ private conduct.

Sealing the record won’t unring the bell

Even if the court grants Block’s request to seal the discovery motion and this reply, the practical effect may be limited. The underlying May 22 filing and its attachments are already circulating outside the courthouse. Copies were pulled by multiple outlets before any sealing request was filed, including this one, and Eddy and Lea County Exposed — which obtained related documentation independently through an IPRA request and has covered Block’s conduct with the same persistence as ATN. Once a public record has been downloaded, cited, and reported on by more than one outlet, a subsequent sealing order restricts what the court file shows going forward — it does not retrieve copies already in the hands of the press or the public.

That gap is part of why Block’s request also seeks a protective order barring Melton “or anyone acting in concert with him” from further disseminating the allegations. But that language reaches Melton, not the outlets that have already published based on the public record as it existed at the time of filing. Whatever the court decides on sealing, the documents underlying this story are not going to become unknown — they are simply going to stop being updated in real time in the public docket, which cuts against transparency without changing what has already been reported.

What’s next

The court has not yet ruled on Block’s motion to strike or the sanctions request. Melton, who is representing himself in the case, has not filed a public response to this latest reply. Under the alternative relief Block’s motion proposes, the court could instead simply deny the discovery motion without prejudice and require Melton to refile a proper written request — a narrower outcome that would leave the sealing and sanctions requests unresolved.

ATN will continue to follow the case as it develops.

This article is based on court filings in Melton v. Block, Case No. D-1215-CV-2025-00757, released to Eddy and Lea County Exposed  from the 12th Judicial District Court, Otero County, and prior 4 years of reporting by Alamogordo Town News and other outlets on state Representative John Block. 

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