Weld County jail authorities say they were too “trusting” of professionals entering their facility, a fault which allowed a private investigator to allegedly bring in drugs.
Captain Matt Turner of the Weld County Sheriff’s Office says deputies and drug task force investigators began their investigation into Laura Tellers after an increase of drug activity and overdoses in the jail.
“We had been interacting with some very strange drug problems in the jail, stuff we hadn’t seen before,” Turner said. “We began working with the drug task force when we learned an investigator for an attorney’s firm might have been bringing drugs into our facility.”
But the lawyer for Tellers, arrested last year and accused of smuggling in fentanyl and methamphetamine, says his client is innocent and that she’s been unjustly blamed for the jail’s drug problem.
“Laura Tellers had nothing to do with any conspiracy to brings drugs into Weld County Jail,” says defense attorney Lee Christian.
“She has a long history of exceptional and credible work for attorneys throughout Weld and Larimer County. She has a teenage son. She is engaged to be married. There are numerous attorneys and judges who will testify as to her honesty, credibility, and reputation.”
Christian is concerned the sheriff’s office is speaking publicly about the case when it isn’t the arresting agency – Greeley police made the arrest – and the case remains before the courts.
Tellers, 52, a private investigator, was arrested on November 17 on two counts each of intent to distribute drugs and knowingly introducing contraband into the jail. She plead not guilty before her trial was delayed until next year.
At the time of her arrest, Tellers was working as an investigator for Fort Collins-based criminal and family law firm, Sedlak Law, which was defending Marquis Daniels, an inmate facing murder charges.
According to the Greeley police, Tellers smuggled drugs into the jail concealed in documents before giving them to Daniels who sold them to other inmates.
The case against Tellers is largely built on interviews with jailhouse informant Frederick Rios, who shared a cell Daniels. Rios told police Tellers was regularly bringing Daniels drugs.
Kari Jones Dulin, president of the Colorado Trial Lawyer Association (CTLA), says the rights of defendants must be respected and their lawyers and investigators must be allowed to speak to their clients in a safe space.
“If in fact, in this particular scenario, something inappropriate happened, such that this investigator has been unjustly charged, and it has caused a chilling effect in that regard, that should not be happening.”
Since Tellers was arrested, the jail has begun stepping up its security, and will provide tablets for the inmates, which will eliminate mail that might contain drugs making its way into the facility.
