DENVER -- Hundreds of sexually explicit and romantic e-mails exchanged between Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder Tracy Baker and his deputy clerk can be released for everyone to read, a district judge ruled Thursday.

However, District Judge Thomas Levi gave the couple a week to appeal his decision.

Levi ruled Thursday afternoon that correspondence couldn't be released until Jan. 9 -- giving Baker and his assistant chief deputy clerk Leesa Sale time to appeal to the Colorado Supreme Court.

Reporters have asked for copies of the e-mails under the Colorado Open Records Law.

Baker is under fire from county commissioners for having an extramarital affair with Sale. He's been accused of sexual misconduct and mismanagement for allegedly paying Sale $20,000 in overtime and nearly tripling her salary -- giving her $40,000 in raises in less than three years. They accuse him of traveling with her to conferences and billing the county for upgraded hotel accommodations.

They also say he used county computers and pagers to send hundreds of sexually explicit e-mails.

County Attorney Kathryn Schroeder argued in a hearing earlier in the day that the messages show Baker and Sale have spent time "trysting on county property on county time."

"They took a gamble, your honor, and they lost. Any embarrassment that may come from their disclosure has been brought on by themselves," Schroeder told Levi.

Baker and Sale argued that those communications were private. Attorneys for Baker and Sale argue the only reason for their release would be for titillation and to spread gossip.

Sale's lawyer Bob Goodwin argued that Sale and Baker expected their messages to remain private and that private correspondence is not subject to the state's open records law.

The 622 e-mails were discovered during a three-month investigation of Baker undertaken by the county after his former assistant accused him of creating a hostile work environment.

According to the report, Baker and Sale took 11 business trips together in just over a year. On a three-day election retreat, they allegedly stayed in the same room at a Breckenridge hotel and other employees reported that only about three hours were spent working.

County commissioners released the investigator's findings in October but withheld copies of the e-mails referenced in it. Of the 622 e-mails found, the report said 570 were sexual or romantic in nature.

Commissioners are adamant that he should quit but he has refused. Baker cannot be fired because he is an elected official. Commissioners have taken away his county credit cards and keys to his county car.