Top Stories of 2023: No. 2, Multiple investigations into the District Attorney's Office

Carie Canterbury

Dec 28

EDITOR'S NOTE: The No. 2 story is District Attorney's Office under investigation.

The 11th Judicial District Attorney's Office has come under fire this year.

There have been multiple requests for an investigation into the DA's Office submitted to the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, a federal lawsuit was filed against the office, several judges recused themselves from a hearing and an allegation was made by a former sitting judge that the DA had an investigator interview his ex-wife about their marriage.

Two requests for investigations were submitted to the Colorado Supreme Court's OARC in late 2022, citing violations of Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct by the DA's Office.

The requests were filed by Douglas County resident Tom Chelston, who was one of the hundreds of citizens who assisted in the search for Suzanne Morphew, who went missing in May 2020 in Chaffee County. He alleges that District Attorney Linda Stanley's actions during the open case violated the CRPC.

"My concerns were further realized when DA Stanley failed to provide formal interviews with actual news organizations while holding online interviews about this murder case with amateur YouTube crime channels," Chelston's letter states.

While still waiting for a decision by the OARC on the first request for investigation, Chelston wrote to the OARC, expressing concern that other victims may be harmed or their rights compromised as they continued to investigate.

He sent information to the OARC regarding an alleged sex assault on a child case that was first reported to law enforcement in 2020 but was not charged until 2022 after it had been reported for a second time by a separate party.

Timothy Shane Neely was charged with sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust.

Defense Attorney Tyler Jolly in a motion related to a separate case said the Neely case "was dismissed by the District Attorney, at least in part, due to the rampant discovery violations that occurred."

In April, Iris Eytan, the defense attorney for Suzanne Morphew's husband, Barry Morphew called for Stanley's disbarment or "the severest sanction possible" against Stanley and six other prosecutors who worked on the Morphew case.

Eytan submitted a complaint to the OARC requesting them to fully Investigate and discipline the prosecutors for alleged misconduct and violations of the CRPC.

Morphew initially was arrested in connection with his wife's disappearance. On April 19, 2022, just days before the homicide case was to go to trial in Fremont County, the DA's Office dismissed all murder and related charges against Morphew, claiming they believed her body was buried under deep snow and they could not access the location before trial.

Morphew filed a $15 million federal civil rights lawsuit in May alleging the now-dropped criminal prosecution violated his constitutional rights. He alleges malicious criminal prosecution in his wife's disappearance. He is suing Chaffee County, the sheriff's office and board of commissioners, Stanley and members of her staff, as well as Colorado Bureau of Investigation and FBI agents.

In April, Thom LeDoux, the attorney representing the woman previously charged with child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury of her child, filed a motion to dismiss her case based on "outrageous government conduct" by Stanley.

The motion, filed by LeDoux on behalf of his client, Brook Crawford, 20, claims Stanley's comments made in an Aug. 1 television interview with KRDO Channel 13 regarding the case were highly prejudicial.

Crawford's son, 10-month-old Edward Hayes, died May 23 after he allegedly was abused by his caregiver, William Jacobs, 21, Crawford's live-in boyfriend. He has formally been charged with first-degree murder.

Crawford's felony charge of child abuse resulting in serious bodily injury was dismissed in August for lack of probable cause. Her other charges stemming from this case were moved to county court.

Fremont County Court Judge Alexandra Robak in October, along with other judges in the 11th JD, however, recused themselves from presiding over a motions hearing for Crawford in November.

Patrick Murphy, the Chief Judge of the 11th JD, issued an order Nov. 13 directing the case to the State Court Administrator's Office to be reassigned.

He provided further explanation in his order stating that he was concerned that "if, after hearing, the allegations in the motion proved to be true, the presiding judge might feel compelled to file an ethics complaint against the elected District Attorney, Linda Stanley. This could possibly lead to the recusal of that judge from all cases prosecuted by Mrs. Stanley. Removing a local judge from all criminal cases in a small district for an indefinite period of time would create a vacuum that would be impossible to fill."

In a separate case, the Colorado Supreme Court on Dec. 11 found by a 4-3 vote that the Fremont County District Court did not abuse its discretion by reducing charges from first-degree murder to second-degree murder as a sanction for the DA's Office for discovery violations in a January 2023 homicide case involving Joseph Tippet.

After examining 20 of nearly 30 cases, the Colorado Supreme Court found that there was a pattern of discovery violations on behalf of the DA's Office, including cases dating back to July 2021.

"The 20 cases illustrate, among other things, multiple significant discovery violations by the District Attorney's Office; explicit warnings from various judges that a pattern of neglect was emerging or had emerged; a lack of understanding by prosecutors regarding their Rule 16 obligations; an apparent lack of oversight by the District Attorney in the face of significant continuing discovery problems; and a pattern by the District Attorney's Office of dismissing cases when faced with discovery sanctions," court records state.

Since July 2021, five different judicial officers sitting in the 11thJD entered orders finding that the DA's Office had engaged in a pattern of discovery violations, and imposed deterrent sanctions including bond reductions, exclusion of late-disclosed evidence, exclusion of expert witness testimony, and ultimately, reduction in charges.

Those cases include allegations of vehicular eluding, homicide, sexual exploitation of a child, sexual assault and sexual assault against a child.

The Supreme Court also found that the DA's Office had notice of their "pattern of discovery violations"; that the District Court properly sanctioned for deterrence purposes; Tippet suffered prejudice as a result of the discovery delays; and the District Court possessed the authority to reduce charges as a discovery sanction.

Similar investigations are making their way through the process, including one filed in May 2022, by Ramsey Lama, a former judge in the 11th JD.

While still on the bench, Lama filed a complaint against Stanley with the OARC alleging potential violations of Rules of Professional Responsibility. He alleged Stanley had sent an investigator to interview his ex-wife about their marriage in an attempt to work up a basis to file a motion to recuse.

In an "answer to complaint" filed Dec. 18 by Stanley's attorney, Steven Jensen, Stanley states that the decision to interview Lama's ex-wife was a team decision and she was "by no means the driving force in pushing for an interview."

Stanley took office in January 2021 and has stated that she will not seek re-election in 2024.