 Thereafter he served as a district judge for the Seventh Judicial District in Socorro until 1920, being twice re-elected.On the twelfth of February 1910, in Santa Fe, Judge Mechem was married to Miss Eleanor Frances O’Heir, a native of Chicago, Illinois.In September 1917 in a famous attempt to silence the press Judge Mechem convicted the editor of the "New Mexican" of criminal contempt for publishing a story about the judge’s affidavit in a separate libel case against the newspaper.