The Colorado Supreme Court Monday overturned a local judge’s decision to toss wiretap evidence in a drug case because of an “appearance of a conflict of interest” by the chief judge who approved the surveillance.

In a unanimous 34-page ruling, the high court ruled that 4th Judicial District Judge Deborah Grohs erred when she excluded the wiretap evidence from the trials of five people accused of being part of a methamphetamine ring.

The court also overruled Grohs’ finding of technical errors in the warrant that allowed investigators to listen to cellphone conversation involving Jorge Perez and the other defendants.

On May 27, 2010, Grohs ruled that the warrants approving the wiretaps were flawed because they were signed by Chief Judge Kirk Samelson at a time when his son Michael was working as an assistant district attorney.

Michael Samelson was not involved in the prosecution of the drug case. He later left the DA’s office to go into private practice.

Perez’s lawyer, Josh Tolini, argued that there was a conflict for Kirk Samelson, noting that he had recused himself from presiding over criminal court cases during the period in which his son worked as a prosecutor.

Grohs agreed and ruled that Kirk Samelson should have recused himself from signing warrants requested by his son’s employer.

But in a decision written by Justice Alex J. Martinez, the Supreme Court disagreed.

The question, Martinez wrote, was not an ethical question of whether Kirk Samelson had an “appearance of a conflict,” but, rather, a constitutional question on whether he was “neutral and detached” when he signed the wiretap warrants.

As part of the decision, the justices reviewed the evidence in the case and concluded independently that there was enough probable cause for the wiretap approval.

Doyle Baker, a deputy district attorney who handles appeals, said he was gratified by the ruling. Baker said he was not sure the case could have gone forward if the suppression of the wiretap evidence had been upheld.

Tolini said he was disappointed in the ruling, but said the apparent conflict, not the wiretap content, was his reason for trying to exclude it from evidence.

“In the long run, my client didn’t make any incriminating statements on the wiretap because my client is not a drug dealer,” he said.

Perez was one of several people arrested stemming from a seven-month-long wiretap investigation that police dubbed Operation Jeez Luis. Police said the investigation yielded seizures of 2 pounds of meth, five guns and $8,475.

The case was one of four which the district attorney’s office has appealed Grohs’ decisions to the Colorado Supreme Court within the last year. Prosecutors have prevailed on all four.

For more on this story, visit “The Sidebar” blog at gazettedev.gazette.com

Air Force Academy baseball team pitchers take part in a yoga session together in the team locker room Monday, April 11, 2011. Mark Reis, The Gazette Photo by MARK REIS, THE GAZETTE

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