The U.S. District Court on Tuesday granted a motion to dismiss a $15 million civil action lawsuit filed by Barry Morphew against 11th Judicial District Attorney Linda Stanley and other prosecutors and staff in the case, along with the Chaffee County commissioners and sheriff, and several CBI agents.
U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Domenico dismissed the case without prejudice.
Morphew was previously charged in the death of his wife, Suzanne Morphew, after she disappeared from their Salida home in May 2020. After a year of investigation, he was charged with her murder, but shortly before the trial began, his legal team discovered that the DA's Office had not disclosed a variety of potentially exculpatory information to him and the court. Prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss all charges against Morphew without prejudice, and the case was dismissed April 19, 2022, just before it was set for trial.
Suzanne Morphew's remains were found in September 2023 in Saguache County. Her manner of death was ruled as homicide.
In an email to the Daily Record on Wednesday morning, Morphew's attorney, Iris Eytan, said her client's legal battle is far from over.
" As Judge Domenico ruled, 'it appears everyone involved now agrees that Mr. Morphew should not have been arrested, at least not at that time' and agrees that the 'uncertainties raised by some of this evidence would have made it very difficult for the prosecution to secure a conviction at trial beyond a reasonable doubt, and prosecutors, generally, understand they have an ethical obligation not to bring charges that they cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt,'" she wrote. "'Did the investigators and prosecutors have an obligation to Plaintiff and the state courts to be more careful and candid? Yes. Did they fail to live up to that duty? By all appearances, yes.'"
In the lawsuit, Morphew alleged malicious prosecution, fabrication of evidence, arrest-affidavit violations, conspiracy, unlawful retention of property, failure to intervene, reckless investigation and municipal liability.
"Even including the facts that Plaintiff alleges were misleadingly omitted from the affidavit and setting aside those he says were wrong-fully included or fabricated, no reasonable person could have looked at the allegations in it and found that probable cause was lacking," Domenico wrote. "As alleged in the complaint .... the investigation developed hundreds of facts that support probable cause that Plaintiff does not dispute. Out of the 129-page arrest affidavit, Plaintiff only disputes the facts discussed in the background section [of the order]. Accepting, as I must at this stage of the case, that Plaintiff's allegations are true, there remains ample reason to find probable cause that he was involved in the murder of his wife."
The order states that omitting significant evidence, failing to follow up on or answer questions that may have undermined the case against Morphew, and misrepresenting material facts "all are wrongful, and all undermine the criminal justice system in serious ways."
"There should be, and are, consequences for that conduct," Domenico wrote. "But civil liability for money damages is not necessarily one of those consequences. All of Mr.Morphew's asserted causes of action suffer from one or more legal deficiencies. Chief among those deficiencies is that, despite the failings of the investigation and prosecution, there was still probable cause to arrest and charge him with murder."
Eytan said Morphew, "who should not have been arrested and was wrongly prosecuted," has no recourse to get the costs of the damage to him back from the offending prosecutors because they cannot be sued in the United States.
"While DA Stanley must pay back costs to the Supreme Court lawyers who fought for her disbarment, and she is being asked to pay back Fremont County for costs of her defense, the law shields her from reimbursing Barry Morphew for wrongly locking him up and prosecuting him," she said.
Eytan agrees with the Court's statement that Morphew, "like anyone accused of a crime, deserves better than what happened here. The People of the State of Colorado, on whose behalf and in whose name the charges against Plaintiff were brought, deserved better. And Suzanne Morphew certainly deserved better. Perhaps Barry Morphew is right that immunity doctrines ought to be revisited and it should be easier to sue those who mishandle prosecutions like this for damages in federal court."
Domenico also wrote, "Perhaps Plaintiff is right that immunity doctrines ought to be revisited and it should be easier to sue those who mishandle prosecutions like this for damages in federal court. But that is a question for another day and another court."
Eytan and PEP (Protect Ethical Prosecutors) were the signators on the March 2023 request for the investigation of Stanley's unethical conduct in the failed Morphew prosecution.
A state board earlier this month released an order disbarring Stanley for ethical violations and misconduct in the Morphew case and another unrelated one in Fremont County.
"As has been the pursuit of Protect Ethical Prosecutors, it is time to change the law and lift the shield to allow prosecutors to be sued like every other professional in the U.S.," Eytan said. "But, in the meantime, Mr. Morphew has every intention to continue this legal battle."
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