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During a hearing Monday, District Court Judge Amanda Hunter denied Barry Morphew’s request to reconsider a previous ruling relating to public access to the information contained within the case alleging that Morphew killed his wife.
Hunter’s ruling affirms her April 13 orders denying six motions (five by the defense and one by the prosecution) to limit public access.
In her order, she stated that in a criminal case, court records are “presumed to be accessible to the public” and to deny the public access to a court record or any part of a court record, the Court must follow certain procedures unless the record is inaccessible to the public pursuant to other statute, rule, regulation or Chief Justice Directive.
“While it may be legally possible for Mr. Morphew to be tried in this matter, whether and when he will be tried is a matter of speculation,” Hunter’s order states. “The arguments advanced by Mr. Morphew that relate to the proximity of trial and the ability to impanel a jury are significantly weakened by the dismissal of charges. The same conclusion is reached with respect to his argument that his right to a fair trial will be damaged by release of the records.”
“Even an attempt to impose a delay in the release of the records in order to ‘wait and see’ if Mr. Morphew is prosecuted a second time would be speculative,” Hunter’s order states. “It would also subject to later argument that the Court should continue to extend such ‘wait and see’ period. Such a decision would negate the Rule’s clear language demanding that any orders limiting public access not be indefinite. The Court cannot identify any substantial interests that would allow such a deviation from the Rule. Without a pending case and a looming trial date, the substantial interests cited by Mr. Morphew fail to override the presumptive public access to the court records.”
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Three years after Suzanne Morphew’s disappearance, Eytan said all the prosecution has is “a feeling” that they will find her body.
“At this point, we believe that there is going to be no prosecution against Mr. Morphew, I believe that,” Eytan said. “I believe Mr. Morphew is innocent.”
But Hurlbert said the motion to dismiss the case was made in good faith and that at the time, the prosecution felt it was imminent that Suzanne Morphew’s body would be found.
“She is in a very difficult spot, but we have not found her yet,” he said. “We actually have more than a feeling, we have some specific investigative leads that the People are not going to get into at this point – but it is more than a feeling and the sheriff’s office is continuing to look for Ms. Morphews’s body.”
The 11th Judicial District on Monday said authorities are still looking for the body of Suzanne Morphew so that her homicide case can be prosecutable either against her husband, Barry Morphew, or s…
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