A Denver District Court judge has sided with the state’s ethics commission in a case involving Secretary of State Scott Gessler, who was found guilty of violating Colorado’s ethics laws by using state money to attend a Republican event in Florida in 2012.
Gessler had appealed the 2013 decision of the Colorado Independent Ethics Commission on several grounds, alleging his rights to due process and free speech were violated.
“The IEC decision is affirmed,” Judge Herbert L. Stern wrote in Wednesday’s ruling.
Deputy Secretary of State Suzanne Staiert said Gessler probably will appeal. She said her boss was “actually very calm” when he heard the news, but she was fired up. Staiert is a critic of how the five-member commission operates.
“It’s absurd. Every official in Colorado is subject to getting snared up in (the commission’s) shell game,” Staiert said of the ruling.
Luis Toro, director of Colorado Ethics Watch, the group that filed the complaint against the secretary of state, said the ruling “should surprise no one.”
“It is time for Scott Gessler to stop spending the people’s money defending the indefensible. He should pay the fine and move on,” he said.
Gessler, who already has repaid the state $1,279, still owes $1,515.
Lynn Bartels: 303-954-5327, lbartels@denverpost.com or twitter.com/lynn_bartels
