The trial of a former investigative consultant accused of providing methamphetamine and fentanyl to an inmate during professional visits to smuggle into the Weld County Jail may again be delayed while proceedings in Weld await a Colorado Supreme Court ruling expected to be handed down later this week.
The defense for Laura Tellers, 53, filed a Rule 21 petition Tuesday requesting the case not proceed to trial — which is slated to begin Jan. 6 — for three reasons. The petition alleges Tellers’ right to a speedy trial was violated; the Weld District Attorney’s Office should be disqualified for reviewing and possessing private information; and Tellers was wrongfully denied the ability to use the contents of her phone to help her case at trial.
A Rule 21 petition asks the Supreme Court to overrule a trial court order that requires immediate correction.
Tellers was arrested Nov. 17, 2023, on suspicion of two counts each of conspiracy to distribute drugs and knowingly introducing contraband, after a nearly month-long investigation. She pleaded not guilty to all charges in a status conference Feb. 13.
Police say Tellers provided Marquise Daniels, 28, meth and fentanyl in documents addressed to him during professional visits. Daniels would then use rubber bands to strap the drugs to himself and smuggle them back in to the jail, according to an affidavit for Tellers’ arrest.
Daniels has been in the Weld jail since January 2021 in connection with the December 2020 killing of Blaire McQueen.
Tellers was working for Sedlak Law, which was representing Daniels in a murder case. She has since been removed from the Sedlak Law website’s list of staff.
Through an informant, police learned Daniels would broker the deals from inside the jail, according to law enforcement records. Then, several different people would pick up the drugs from 27-year-old Ethen Butts — who was in a Lakewood Intervention Community Corrections Services facility — and either drop them off or mail them to Tellers’ Fort Collins address, according to the affidavit.
Daniels told the informant that Tellers would bring 2 ounces of meth and 200 suspected fentanyl pills at a time, police allege. The informant said the pills that came in the last delivery Tellers brought Sept. 28 were very strong — to the point that inmates were overdosing on just a quarter of a pill.
Daniels overdosed in his cell Oct. 4 and had to be revived with Narcan. He was found with meth and fentanyl in his cell a week later, on Oct. 11, according to arrest records.
Tellers’ phone — which her defense has argued contains attorney-client privileged information, as well as evidence that would show Tellers’ innocence — was confiscated when she was arrested in November 2023. In a December 2023 hearing, Vigil required the production of additional phone records beyond what can be accessed by a basic phone extraction report, including some call and text data, as well as calendar appointments and other information.
Pirraglia said the additional phone records, which show a more complete call and text history, would help fill in gaps left by the extraction report.
Prosecutors received the extraction report of Tellers’ phone at the beginning of a July 9 hearing — just 13 days before her trial was slated to start. The file was 23 gigabytes, and Pirraglia said it would likely take weeks to comb through it all.
“The phone, which has led to all of these issues,” lead defense attorney Lee Christian said in a pre-trial readiness conference Tuesday. “Never has one piece of evidence led to so many issues.”
All three of the issues the defense raised in the Rule 21 filing directly stem from the court’s handling of Tellers’ phone.
First, the petition alleges that Weld District Judge Vincente Vigil was wrong in granting the prosecution a six-month continuance in that July 9 hearing.
“The District Attorney delayed asking for a continuance until 13 days before trial, having known well before then they would request additional time to prepare for trial,” the defense wrote in the petition. “The district attorney had numerous opportunities to inquire as to the reason for the delay.”
Next, it alleges the Weld District Court released the contents of the entire phone instead of a redacted version, compromising not only this case, but also Daniels’ case.
And while the District Attorney’s Office still has the unreacted phone records, the petition alleges Tellers was required to return the phone download to Daniels’ attorney. She was also ordered not to use any evidence found on the phone to help her case at trial and not to discuss the phone, according to the petition.
“At a minimum, their court should order the trial court to permit Ms. Tellers to be able to use the contents of her own phone at trial,” the defense wrote in the petition.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Christian said he expects to have a ruling on the petition by Thursday or Friday.
There is no set number of petitions the Supreme Court will grant, but it usually only grants 5-10% of petitions filed each year regarding cases from lower courts, according to the Colorado Judicial Branch website.
Tellers has another hearing set for 11 a.m. Dec. 30, but both parties agreed to push that up to Friday afternoon if a ruling is handed down in time.
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