The Gilpin County Sheriff’s Office was apologizing Monday after a weekend effort to help a research group led to complaints about what appeared to be a DUI checkpoint – but wasn’t.

Sheriff’s officials who participated in the stops now acknowledge that the nonprofit organization requesting voluntary DUI and drug tests from drivers was overly persistent, according to complaints.

“It was like a telemarketer that you couldn’t hang up on,” said Gilpin County Undersheriff John Bayne.

Sgt. Bob Enney said deputies assisted the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation in stopping motorists at five sites along Colorado 119 for surveys on any drug and alcohol use. Surveyors then asked the motorists to voluntarily submit to tests of their breath, blood and saliva. At least 200 drivers were tested, Enney said. About five motorists later complained, he said.

Roberto Sequeira, 51, said he and his wife, Terry, were detained for 15 minutes Friday evening despite their protestations that they needed to get their sleepy 10-year-old child back to their home in Nederland.

He said they had to deal with two Pacific Institute researchers. After Sequeira’s repeated refusals, the officials offered his wife, who was driving, $100 in an attempt to get the couple to participate in a DUI breath test.

“I think it’s very dangerous,” said Sequeira, a Boulder radio personality on Latino issues. “Sometimes at checkpoints, unfortunate things happen. I don’t think they’re authorized to do what they’re doing, and I view it as a gross violation of law-enforcement protocol.”

The research is part of a nationwide study partly financed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Pacific Institute officials defended the initiative. They said the collection of vital statistics measuring, over time, the number of people driving under the influence helps gauge the impact of laws and enforcement policy changes.

The survey, which began in July and will continue in other locations through November, is conducted every 10 years.

“We’ve been literally surveying thousands of people,” said John Lacey, the director of the Alcohol, Policy and Safety Research Center in Calverton, Md., through which Pacific Institute conducted its research. “So you can imagine if you stop people in the middle of the night, there will be complaints.”

The survey results are anonymous and aren’t shared with police, he said.

He said the researchers try to be sensitive to those not wanting to participate, but they push a small subset of those who initially refuse to reconsider – even offering incentives.

“If we don’t do that, the criticism will come out that we had so many who were refusers,” Lacey said.

Bayne said a similar study conducted in Gilpin County 2 1/2 years ago by the same researchers resulted in no complaints. But he added that last weekend’s effort was more aggressive.

“The people were too persistent,” Bayne said. “Some people didn’t feel it was voluntary.”

Cathryn Hazouri, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado, said the participation of sheriff’s officials and the blue jumpsuits worn by the survey team may have confused some of those who were stopped. But she said the fact that surveyors stressed that the DUI and drug tests were voluntary eased her concerns about the incident.

Sequeira has invited Pacific Institute officials to appear on his radio show broadcast in Boulder and Denver on KGNU community radio, 88.5 FM and 1390 AM. The show airs at 7 p.m. Tuesdays.

Recalling Friday’s incident, he said Gilpin County sheriff’s officials directed him to pull over on Colorado 119 about 10:45 p.m. when his family was returning from a dinner. He said neither he nor his wife had been drinking.

They were greeted by “youthful, college” surveyors dressed in jumpsuits and blue generic caps.

“We had a 10-year-old in the back who’s tired, we tell them thanks but no thanks, we have to get this child back home to bed,” Sequeira said.

He said a worker persisted, saying that the researchers would assist in driving the family home if they needed assistance.

When the Sequeiras again demurred, a supervisor offered them a $100 money order.

“We say, ‘No, thank you, we have to get our child home,”‘ Sequeira recalled. “At this point, both clones start chortling at us and ridiculing us.”

Sequeira plans to file a complaint at the Gilpin County courthouse seeking to force the organization to stop the roadside tests.

“I want them to cease and desist their unethical, unsafe and unqualified roadside practice,” Sequeira said.

For now, Gilpin County officials don’t have to decide whether they would participate with the group again. For now, the surveys in that county are completed.

Staff writer Christopher N. Osher can be reached at 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com.