Board rules DA in murder case against missing Colorado woman's husband should be disbarred
The Colorado district attorney at the center of the failed murder prosecution of the husband of Suzanne Morphew, who disappeared in 2020 and was later found dead, should be disbarred over multiple “ethical violations” while in her elected position, a state disciplinary board ruled Tuesday.
Linda Stanley — the district attorney for the 11th Judicial District, who led the prosecution team against Barry Morphew — “gravely abused her position of trust as a public official and minister of justice” after she made improper statements to the media; did not adequately supervise the prosecution, which included numerous discovery violations; and used her team to go after the judge who presided over the case, state disciplinary authorities ruled.
The disbarment would take effect in 35 days, and Stanley has a week to appeal the decision. A lawyer for Stanley and the DA’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
“In the majority’s estimation, the Colorado legal profession and its prosecutorial community cannot rely on [Stanley’s] sense of integrity, probity, or righteousness to protect the public interest or to faithfully pursue justice for the citizens of the State of Colorado,” the 83-page disciplinary order says. “Her disbarment is therefore warranted.”
The decision comes three months after Stanley faced a two-week disciplinary hearing before a three-member panel under the Colorado Supreme Court, at which state regulators accused her of professional misconduct. The Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel first brought the case in October. Stanley, a former police officer who was elected district attorney in November 2022, had already said she would not seek re-election.
“This is a case about a ship with a captain who never manned the bridge,” Jonathan Blasewitz, an attorney for state’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, said during the hearing, according to The Colorado Sun, a news website based in Denver.
The defense attorney for Barry Morphew, husband of Suzanne Morphew, whose remains were found last year, praised the order.
“This was absolutely the right outcome,” Iris Eytan said in a statement.
Eytan, who founded Protect Ethical Prosecutors and had asked the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel to investigate Stanley, added that “Stanley will no longer be permitted to use a prosecutor’s unlimited power and discretion to prosecute” and said her organization “hopes that this case serves as a springboard to protect ethical prosecutors and also for more unethical prosecutors to be held accountable."
The bombshell ruling is the latest twist in the failed case against Morphew in connection with the May 2020 disappearance of his wife of 26 years.
Morphew, who released a video days after Suzanne vanished pleading for her safe return, was charged in May 2021 with first-degree murder and tampering with physical evidence. Days later, he was hit with additional charges after, prosecutors said, he cast a mail-in ballot for Donald Trump on behalf of his wife. (Morphew pleaded guilty in the voter fraud case in July 2022 and did not serve any jail time.)
State regulators allege that soon after Morphew was arrested, Stanley began texting the host of the “Profiling Evil” YouTube channel about the case. After the charges were made public, she sought to provide information about the case to the host after the host questioned the criminal complaint against Morphew, regulators alleged.
After the host floated a theory online that Morphew strangled his wife in a hot tub, Stanley texted him to shoot it down and told him that the tub looked like it had not been used “in a long time,” according to the state regulators. “But keep on spinning ideas in your brain!” Stanley texted, according to the order.
Stanley then appeared on the YouTube show on Aug. 30, 2021, despite reservations from fans who saw promotions about the interview, the order says. On the show, she discussed the public information about the case, the process of a preliminary hearing and how her office did not get the full case file until after Morphew was arrested.
“She concluded the segment by noting that she was a little insulted that people would question whether she should appear on the show and insisted that ‘[a]nything out in the public is ok to talk about,’” the order says, noting that she also responded to comments by viewers under the YouTube video.
According to the order, Stanley during the disciplinary hearing justified replies to viewers’ posts by claiming an “important distinction” between her public persona as an elected DA and her private persona, who should be able to “defend herself from personal attacks.”
“She reasoned that in her responsive comments, she was acting as a person, not the elected district attorney, as evidenced by her use of her personal picture, as opposed to her professional headshot, and her personal email, rather than her business email,” the order says, adding that Stanley also testified that she responded to one comment “to correct the record to show that no-body homicides could be prosecuted successfully.”
State regulators, however, say Stanley took it a step further when she reached out to the host of a YouTube podcast, “True Crime with Julez,” after she questioned the investigation in one of the videos. The order says Stanley reached out to the host directly on Facebook to defend herself and even shared her personal cell number. When the host asked her whether Morphew was “getting ready to flee,” Stanley responded “possibly.” (Stanley said during the hearing that her response was “straight, neutral, down the line,” the order says.)
“I was shocked, nervous, and unsettled when she contacted me,” the host told The Daily Beast about Stanley’s outreach. “I was intimidated.”
While Stanley had time to respond to the media, she and her team could not keep up with deadlines to push the case forward, the order alleges. Judge Ramey Lama then ruled that the trial be moved out of the county because of Stanley’s public statements, and he continued to hammer the prosecution for being “sloppy” and blowing past discovery deadlines.
Amid the unfavorable rulings against the prosecution less than two months before the expected April 2022 trial start date — including a ruling barring most of the prosecution witnesses set to testify about cellphone data — Stanley “instructed her chief investigator to interview” Lama’s ex-wife “to determine whether the judge committed domestic abuse,” according to the order.
“Even though she had no credible evidence to believe that the judge had ever engaged in such criminal conduct, [Stanley] ordered the investigation in an effort to uncover information about the judge that would require him to recuse from the case,” the order says.
Shortly after an interview with the judge, Stanley moved to dismiss the case against Morphew without prejudice, meaning charges could be refiled. Lama resigned as a judge in April 2022 for personal reasons.
Suzanne Morphew’s remains were discovered in September, and the DA’s office has yet to announce charges in the case. Barry Morphew has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit over his arrest.
At the disciplinary hearing, Stanley’s lawyer argued that Stanley did not have the resources to handle such a high-profile case and struggled to hire prosecutors. He also argued that Stanley had the right to investigate Lama because he had been “incredibly biased” to her team.
The order, however, says Stanley was “ultimately responsible for all actions in her office, including the prosecution team’s failures that resulted in the case’s dismissal — an outcome decidedly not in the public interest.”
“In short, the Morphew case suffered because she did not act with reasonable diligence in exercising appropriate leadership and assuming appropriate managerial responsibilities,” the order says.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
