SAN DIEGO -- A prosecutor elected to the Superior Court bench in March can remain on the Kristin Rossum murder case, another jurist ruled Wednesday in denying a defense motion.

Attorneys for Rossum wanted Deputy District Attorney Dan Goldstein off the case, arguing that his election to the bench would give the prosecution "enhanced credibility and authority" in jury selection and prevent the defendant from receiving a fair trial.

Rossum, 25, is a former toxicologist with the San Diego Medical Examiner's Office. She is charged with murder and a special circumstance allegation of murder by poison in the Nov. 6, 2000, death of her husband, Gregory de Villers, 26.

Defense attorney Alex Loebig wondered why Goldstein wasn't taken off his criminal cases and given other administrative jobs until being sworn in as a judge, as is normally done.

"It's curious that it happens here, in an election year," Loebig said in court, referring to District Attorney Paul Pfingst's re-election bid.

Loebig told Superior Court Judge John Thompson that attorneys couldn't control "an aura of special treatment."

Loebig said people look up to judges and trust them.

"I'm just a public defender. (Goldstein's) not just a (deputy) district attorney," Loebig said.

On a recent "48 Hours" program, Goldstein called the case against Rossum "immaculate."

"Jurors are going to hear, 'This case is immaculate,'" Loebig told Thompson. "When do we get our fair hearing? How do we control that?"

But Deputy District Attorney James Atkins told the judge that Rossum's lawyers hadn't come close to showing that Goldstein would be anything other than "even-handed" in his handling of the former toxicologist's trial.

"Merely being elected a judge is not a conflict of interest," Atkins said.

Loebig said removing Goldstein as prosecutor would lessen the risk of jurors being exposed to pretrial publicity.

"This case grabs people," Loebig said, even referring to a courtroom of reporters and curious onlookers.

Thompson earlier this year placed a gag order on all participants in the case.

Rossum was arrested eight months after the Nov. 6, 2000, death of her husband, who was found dead in bed in the couple's apartment on the Torrey Pines-area grounds of University of California San Diego.

Prosecutors decided against seeking the death penalty against Rossum, who faces life in prison without parole if convicted.

Trial is set for June 3.

Prosecutors theorize that Rossum gave de Villers a lethal dose of fentanyl after he threatened to turn her in for methamphetamine use and an affair with her supervisor, Michael Robertson.

Fentanyl is sometimes given to cancer patients and is not normally screened in toxicology tests. It is said to be many times more powerful than morphine.

A quantity of fentanyl was missing from the county Medical Examiner's Office, according to preliminary hearing testimony.

Loebig said conditions in the Medical Examiner's Office at the time were "lax," and drugs were available to "anybody who was there."

Rossum, a summa cum laude graduate of San Diego State University with a degree in biochemistry, originally told police her husband committed suicide.

The couple had been married for about a year and had dated for around five years.

Investigators became suspicious of de Villers' death because the victim's body was covered with rose petals, something they did not believe a man would do before killing himself.

The crime scene was reminiscent of "American Beauty," which Goldstein said authorities learned was a movie Rossum loved.

Late last year, Rossum and Robertson were fired from the Medical Examiner's Office -- Rossum for drug use, and Robertson for failing to report her. He has denied any involvement in de Villers' death and has moved back to his native Australia.