Journal Staff Report

A temporary gag order that prohibited the Cortez Journal from reporting on a district-court hearing concerning District Attorney Mike Green’s personal relationship with a defendant in a drug case was vacated yesterday by Judge Sharon Hansen.

And an oral motion from Montrose Deputy District Attorney Susanne Ross that the newspaper and a Journal reporter be fined for contempt for publishing other information Tuesday about the case was denied for the time being.

Representing the Journal, attorney Steve Zansberg argued that the 10-day gag order, issued Monday by Montezuma County Judge Christopher Leroi, was "facially unconstitutional" as a clear case of prior restraint, or forbidding publication of legally obtained material.

In arguing for the continuation of the gag order, Ross maintained that because of Green’s position as a public official, such information coming out in the press would "severely compromise the people’s right to a fair trial and taint the jury pool."

Ross also maintained that the paper and reporter had violated the terms of Leroi’s gag order and should be punished.

"(The reporter) was told he could take notes and preserve them, but that nothing could be published," she said, "and within one day he wrote everything negative about the hearing.

"What we have here is an attempt to set up Mike Green," Ross added, maintaining that the reporter had a "personal ax to grind" with the district attorney because Green had previously declined to prosecute a case that involved the reporter as an alleged victim.

She said the publication of information concerning the relationship was part of a conspiracy that now included the newspaper to "subvert and destroy the reputation of the district attorney . . . a man who has done nothing except try to protect this community from drug dealers."

However, Zansberg responded that Leroi had informed him yesterday that after reading the article in Tuesday’s paper, he found no violations of his order. Zansberg said he would not "dignify" Ross’s allegation concerning the reporter’s motive with a response, but noted that Leroi had told him any information the reporter had in his possession before the hearing was "fair game."