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Gov. Susana Martinez embraces Amy Orlando during Orlando's public swearing-in ceremony as the new Do a County District Attorney on Friday at the County Commission Chambers in the Do a County Government Center. Orlando had been an assistant under Martinez, who left her position as DA after being elected governor.

LAS CRUCES - Her name is already on the glass doors, but Amy Orlando is still in a little bit of shock.

"I keep thinking I'm going to wake up and it's going to be a dream," said the new 3rd Judicial District attorney on Friday.

Orlando was officially sworn in during the first hours of the new year; her appointment was one of the first made by Gov. Susana Martinez, herself sworn in at midnight on Jan. 1 after resigning as district attorney. But everybody who wasn't patrolling the streets, investigating crimes or trying cases in court packed the County Commission chambers Friday afternoon for Orlando's swearing-in ceremony - and that was before the new governor's tinted Explorer pulled up to the curb with two unannounced guests and a new entourage of security.

3rd Judicial District Court Judge Lisa Schultz administered Friday's public oath to Orlando and 20 of the office's attorneys. In remarks, Orlando promised to follow in the footsteps of Martinez, one of her early mentors.

"Susana understood I had a passion for (the work)," Orlando said. "The passion has stayed with me for all this time. And I can't even express how proud and honored I am."

Orlando assured the office's attorneys and staff that their mission and tone, "tough but fair," and fighting to protect victims, would stay the same under her leadership.

"We will continue to make that fight for the victims and those who don't often have a voice, especially children and the elderly," she said.

Orlando

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encouraged her colleagues and the public to hold her accountable and welcomed "words of wisdom and guidance."

"You don't know how full my heart is," she said, a standing ovation greeting her.

An Albuquerque native, Orlando went to work as a county prosecutor in 1993, just a year out of law school. After three years assigned to juvenile cases, she was assigned in 1996 to prosecution of serious violent offenses, including those involving physical and sexual abuse of children. She became one of two chief deputy district attorneys in 2006 (the other, Susan Riedel, who Orlando also described as a mentor, is under consideration for a district court judgeship) and specialized in violent felony offenses, including gang-related murders and child abuse, for 14 years.

"This is really about Amy and her staff and her attorneys and her work," Martinez, invited to speak, told the crowd Friday.

Martinez, beaming, said she was "very proud" to put the office in Orlando's hands, though her voice choked up with emotion as she passed on the office she held for 14 years.

"This office was very hard to leave," she said, "but I leave it in good hands."

Ashley Meeks can be reached at (575) 541-5462.