IN RE: The PEOPLE of the State of Colorado (2025)

ORDER OF COURT

Upon consideration of Petitioner Laura Tellers's Petition for Order to Show Cause Pursuant to C.A.R. 21, the responses filed by the People and the Weld County District Court, and Petitioner's reply, and being sufficiently advised in the premises,

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED as follows:

The Order to Show Cause issued by this Court on December 19, 2024 is hereby MADE ABSOLUTE. In its December 6, 2024 bench ruling, the District Court found that the confidential and privileged information in the Cellebrite extraction of an iPhone belonging to Petitioner was related to Marquise Daniels's case, not this case. Consequently, the court concluded that the Cellebrite extraction contained no information protected by Petitioner's attorney-client and work-product privileges. Petitioner asserts that this finding is demonstrably incorrect and that the Cellebrite extraction, in fact, contains information protected by Petitioner's attorney-client and work-product privileges.

The record provided to this Court is insufficient to allow the Court to resolve this dispute, the resolution of which is central to the District Court's order denying Petitioner's motion to disqualify the Weld County District Attorney's Office.

Accordingly, the Court remands this case with instructions that the District Court make more detailed findings as to whether the Cellebrite extraction contains information protected by Petitioner's attorney-client and work-product privileges. Upon making such findings, the District Court shall then reconsider Petitioner's motion to disqualify the Weld County District Attorney's Office, making findings as to whether Petitioner has carried her burden of establishing the “special circumstances” necessary to support her motion. Nothing in this Order should be construed as expressing any view on the merits of Petitioner's motion to disqualify.