Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, Chaffee Co, 10 May 2020 *Case dismissed w/o prejudice* *found in 2023* #115

[Niner]

So - are we waiting for Judge Domenico to rule on these motions from the 8/21/24 hearing?

8/21/24 Docket updates: Motion Hearing held on 8/21/24. Taking under advisement [87] Motion to Dismiss. Taking under advisement [94] Motion to Dismiss. Taking under advisement [95] Motion to Dismiss. Taking under advisement [97] Motion to Dismiss. Taking under advisement [98] Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim. Taking under advisement [104] Motion to Dismiss. Taking under advisement [108] Motion to Dismiss for Failure to State a Claim. Court indicates that a written order shall follow. Court Reporter: Tammy Hoffschildt. 8/28/24 Docket update: [158] Filed & entered: Supplement/Amendment. Docket Text: SUPPLEMENT/AMENDMENT to [130] Response to Motion, [129] Response to Motion, [132] Response to Motion, [134] Response to Motion, [137] Response to Motion, [136] Response to Motion, [135] Response to Motion Notice of Supplemental Authority Re Response to Motions to Dismiss by Plaintiff Barry Morphew. (Fisher-Byrialsen, Jane).


I will have to go back & look & see who 87, 94, 95, 97, 104 belong to re motions to dismiss.

This is who I have left in my notes waiting for motions to dismiss:

Defendants: DA Linda Stanley, in her individual & official capacity, Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze, in his individual & official capacity, Chaffee County Undersheriff Andrew Rohrich, 11th Judicial DA’s Office Investigator Alex Walker, Deputy DA Jeffrey Lindsey, Deputy DA Mark Hurlbert, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Director John Camper, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agents Joseph Cahill, Megan Duge, Caitlin Rogers, Derek Graham, Kevin Koback, Kirby Lewis, Colorado Bureau of Investigations Deputy Director of Investigations Chris Schaefer, John/Jane Does 1-10 & other unknown employees of the 11th Judicial District Attorney & other unknown officers of the Chaffee County Sheriff's Dept.

 

[GatorFL]

Sheesh, after reading that document it is clear that Judge Ramsey Lama was not out of line at all by issuing his ruling to dismiss the experts. LS had that office in such disarray they simply couldn't keep up. She should have waited to charge Barry when they had the case well organized. Pretty executive simple management. As I recall, law enforcement was not ready for her to bring charges.

<modsnip>

 

[SortaSleuthy]

FCavanaugh:

“Linda and her team imo were all in over their heads with this case for many reasons not least of which the office being short staffed and overworked with prosecutors handling way too many cases and seemingly right hand not knowing what left hand was doing half the time, poor organization, administration snafus, and LS lack of strong leadership all tolled, killed/botched the first attempt at prosecution of BM.
This high profile/voluminous evidence case imo definitely needs a lead prosecutor working solely on the case and making sure their team are organized, all on the same page and everyone completing delegated tasks timely and aggressively pursuing justice for Suzanne. I have faith that in the second go around, the 12th district will not be making the same mistakes the 11th did.”

==================

Outstanding points!

Linda asked the County Commissions for more funding and was turned down. This is typical for significant mid-year requests. She couldn’t wait till the next budget cycle, as Barry had already been arrested when they saw him fleeing. I’m sure she rationalized that the resulting botched prosecution was the Commissions’ fault … not hers.

 

[Momofthreeboys]

Sheesh, after reading that document it is clear that Judge Ramsey Lama was not out of line at all by issuing his ruling to dismiss the experts. LS had that office in such disarray they simply couldn't keep up. She should have waited to charge Barry when they had the case well organized. Pretty executive simple management. As I recall, law enforcement was not ready for her to bring charges.
<modsnip>

I have always thought it was a calculated timed arrest. The day Barry was on his way to his daughter's college graduation AND the day a "famous" You Tuber was on his way to town...I wasn't born yesterday LOL. That alone and the attire and words she chose for the press conference made me decide there was something "smelly" in Salida and made me very interested in what the state had in terms of evidence to prosecute.

 

[Love Never Fails]

As a true crime follower for decades, imo LS was out of her depth, in over her head so to speak with this high profile murder case.
IE knew it and took full advantage of the situation and threw in some dirty tricks by disparaging the victim SUZANNE, misstating facts and misleading the public about glovebox DNA belonging to a sex offender which wasn’t the case at all as we know,
it was a limited genetic material partial profile match i.e., a probable relative of the sex offender.
LE did their due diligence and ruled the glovebox DNA partial profile out. Period.
But that fact still didn’t stop IE from pontificating and misleading the public about sex offender DNA.
SMDH.

IMO IE is not only intelligent and a good at her job defense attorney, she also can play dirty as they come if she has to and will stoop to lowest of lows to get the desired outcome she wants. Ethics and morals be damned when it comes to the hurricane IE and the Morphew case, yet where is any legal oversight on her ethics or I should say, lack thereof throughout this case? Like when she claims with zero evidence that LE officials planted evidence in a household dryer and planted BAM is Suzanne’s bone marrow at autopsy?? Seriously how can she get away with that?
Who in the legal system fact checks her when she claims her team can’t open files the prosecution sent them and in the next breath claims the prosecution hasn’t turned over certain evidence? Are we just supposed to take her word for it that something wasn’t turned over by the prosecution? Honestly this goes on in a lot of cases especially high profile ones across the country lately and imo it’s a strategic tactic used by some DT’s when they are defending an indefensible client. Attack LE and the prosecution and try to get case thrown out/dismissed on technicalities when they have no defense of their client.
Giving DT benefit of the doubt, what if it’s buried somewhere in a megaton terabyte file or within thousands of pages of discovery the prosecution turned over and got missed by the DT when they were going through everything?? That doesn’t mean the prosecution never turned it over!
IANAL and don’t know what the answer is but it just seems to me there should be a better way for someone in the court system, court clerk? IOW, some neutral 3rd party that works for the court to look into and determine/prove whether something was turned over or not between the prosecution and the defense instead of just relying on defense team word they never received something/evidence that the Prosecution says/swears they turned over.

Moving on, IMO LS’s heart is in the right place with a desire and strong supporter of justice for victims, however, her seemingly shoot from the hip style/no filter (outrageous comments she made to reporter in the baby murder case)/lack of tact and diplomacy, and poor judgement about appearing on a true crime podcast show while the case was still ongoing, that all these things combined imo culminated in a total disaster for LS. Even though she didn’t release any details/specifics about the case during the PE podcast show, just the fact she agreed to appear on the show was not a good look in many case follower’s eyes for a sitting DA to appear on a YouTube true crime podcast show for any reason during pre-trial proceedings, and feel she should have waited until after the case was settled in court. IE knew the overall public perception of LS decision to go on the show was bad, took advantage of it, exaggerated it and ultimately, capitalized on it/used it to her and BM’s benefit.
LS was an easy target for IE to use to further her agenda and make an example out of which as we know she got her wish as we just learned that LS has been disbarred.

Having said all that, I further opine that I’m still not convinced it was all LS’s fault as to the missteps during the first attempt at prosecution of BM however yes as the leader of the office imo she should’ve had a better handle on things and ensuring things were getting done/deadlines were being met etc. Linda and her team imo were all in over their heads with this case for many reasons not least of which the office being short staffed and overworked with prosecutors handling way too many cases and seemingly right hand not knowing what left hand was doing half the time, poor organization, administration snafus, and LS lack of strong leadership all tolled, killed/botched the first attempt at prosecution of BM.

This high profile/voluminous evidence case imo definitely needs a lead prosecutor working solely on the case and making sure their team are organized, all on the same page and everyone completing delegated tasks timely and aggressively pursuing justice for Suzanne. I have faith that in the second go around, the 12th district will not be making the same mistakes the 11th did.

As to the rest of IE’s claims/spinning about wrongful arrest, malicious prosecution, and BM’s presumption of innocence being tainted/compromised forevermore as a result is imo complete BS, utter nonsense!

HOW is it wrongful arrest when a Judge (Murphy) found there was enough probable cause and signed the Arrest Warrant?

HOW is it malicious prosecution when after a task force/3 combined agencies of LE investigators during a one year investigation following tips and leads, ruling things out, follow all the evidence collected totality of which leads to one suspect, presents the case to the DA and DA decides there’s enough evidence to file charges against the suspect like happens every day all over the country?

HOW is BM’s presumption of innocence tainted/compromised forevermore when the court of public opinion can decide for themselves whether they think he’s guilty or innocent based on the known evidence which has absolutely zero to do with his legal right to due process and presumption of innocence in a court of law in which during voir dire any case followers or other biased for whatever reason people will be dismissed?

Sorry Iris, not everyone in the state of Colorado or the entire U.S. as you claim he could never get a fair trial due to his presumption of innocence being tainted follow, know about or ever heard of BM or this case. Stop exaggerating IE. BM is not that special and his presumption of innocence will be upheld in a court of law and non bias jury of his peers will be seated to judge him in the hopefully not too distant future.

In closing, I reiterate the evidence against BM hasn’t changed and LS knew they had the right man and though she messed up in getting there, I really believe she passionately cares about victims and wanted to bring justice for Suzanne. I wish her well in her future endeavors.


All of the above IMOO

#JUSTICEFORSUZANNE

ETA-punctuation

Exactly. Wish I could put forth my thoughts the way you did.
Thank you.

 

[scapa]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1833732290830057977

Board rules DA in murder case against missing Colorado woman's husband should be disbarred

11th Judicial District DA Linda Stanley should be disbarred over multiple ethical violations in connection with the high-profile murder case of Suzanne Morphew, state regulators ruled.

www.nbcnews.com

[…]

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.

[…]

Thanks for posting the crucial bits -- I tried to find as many ways as possible to emphasize the final clause, since it seems to provide the raison d'être for the whole exercise, from Squall Iris' POV at least. And, of course, once one DA attached to the SM case has been disbarred, any and all investigators, past present and future, are suspect also. I think we can all agree that on this wee planet we call home, there is not a single jurisdiction in which BM, Our Persecuted Martyr of the Mountain Lions, can receive a fair trial. Ever.

I understand, thanks to all the detailed explanations upthread, the reasons for this particular action as regards LS. But I fully expect BM's team to milk the presumed guilt-by-association forevermore. Drat.

 

[scapa]

I know, I had the same thought. How the hell she is protecting ethical prosecutors is beyond me. I hope she puts her money where her mouth is when DA Kelly charges Barry with murder. I expect to see lots of protection going on.

Exactly.

My lukewarm take is that, for IE and her fellow PEPers, there are no ethical prosecutors. Only ethical defence attorneys.

And, of course, their ethical clients. Stumble forward, BM!

 

[Momofthreeboys]

Thanks for posting the crucial bits -- I tried to find as many ways as possible to emphasize the final clause, since it seems to provide the raison d'être for the whole exercise, from Squall Iris' POV at least. And, of course, once one DA attached to the SM case has been disbarred, any and all investigators, past present and future, are suspect also. I think we can all agree that on this wee planet we call home, there is not a single jurisdiction in which BM, Our Persecuted Martyr of the Mountain Lions, can receive a fair trial. Ever.

I understand, thanks to all the detailed explanations upthread, the reasons for this particular action as regards LS. But I fully expect BM's team to milk the presumed guilt-by-association forevermore. Drat.

I agree this is all an issue for the 12th. But the fault lands squarely on the original prosecution team. People can complain all they want about IE but she wasn't even in the picture when they arrested Barry prematurely. She just came along and figured out the issues quickly and took advantage of the weaknesses which she was paid to do. Novices like me saw issues early on and got flamed for it with zero regard to the issue of whether he is guilty or not guilty which legally and emotions aside at the point he was arrested he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

 

[mrjitty]

My reading of the ruling is that arresting Barry "before they were ready" is not the cause of the issues.

The case was dismissed because of failure to file the expert bios. This is a simply administrative step during the trial process. Nothing to do with the investigation. The prosecution team send emails around as the deadline draws closer, then simply fail to execute the task properly.

They had basically a year post arrest to prepare these basic filings that every major murder case has to file.

I can't stress enough that they simply botched an administrative task inside the DAs office that had nothing to do with BMs arrest. There appear to be two main reasons. 1) under resourcing AND 2) bureaucratic incompetence.

Also the ruling makes clear there was no conspiracy to hide the experts or any other such nonsense. They just failed to do stuff on time.

 

[mrjitty]

Thanks for posting the crucial bits -- I tried to find as many ways as possible to emphasize the final clause, since it seems to provide the raison d'être for the whole exercise, from Squall Iris' POV at least. And, of course, once one DA attached to the SM case has been disbarred, any and all investigators, past present and future, are suspect also. I think we can all agree that on this wee planet we call home, there is not a single jurisdiction in which BM, Our Persecuted Martyr of the Mountain Lions, can receive a fair trial. Ever.

I understand, thanks to all the detailed explanations upthread, the reasons for this particular action as regards LS. But I fully expect BM's team to milk the presumed guilt-by-association forevermore. Drat.

I mostly disagree.

The discovery violations do not prejudice BM. He already had his remedy for that.

The out of court statements were not great, but neither judge felt they prejudiced the trial to any serious degree

 

[MTW2011]

My reading of the ruling is that arresting Barry "before they were ready" is not the cause of the issues.

The case was dismissed because of failure to file the expert bios. This is a simply administrative step during the trial process. Nothing to do with the investigation. The prosecution team send emails around as the deadline draws closer, then simply fail to execute the task properly.

They had basically a year post arrest to prepare these basic filings that every major murder case has to file.

I can't stress enough that they simply botched an administrative task inside the DAs office that had nothing to do with BMs arrest. There appear to be two main reasons. 1) under resourcing AND 2) bureaucratic incompetence.

Also the ruling makes clear there was no conspiracy to hide the experts or any other such nonsense. They just failed to do stuff on time.

I’m having some internal debate over which scenario may be “worse”, but it feels like no matter what the conclusion remains the same.

If they missed filings that were so standard in other murder case, that seems sloppy to me. Either they don’t realize they need to do something that is seemingly so standard for other cases, or they do know they needed to do it but it still fell thru the cracks. The 83 page report makes it pretty clear that LS didn’t seem to have time to support her attorneys working under her - couldn’t answer emails, barely found in person when they needed help with questions - but she had no problem finding time to answer questions about non public info to ProfilingEvil on YouTube. When I read the messages of him asking for specifics on the weapon which were not public, I was pretty disappointed. It’s hard for me to believe all his rhetoric of “justice for Suzanne” all the while he was befriending the DA to attempt to get exclusive info about the case. And - lucky for him but unfortunately for her - she was happy to provide it to him “only because it’s you, Mike”. Shame that all this other “stuff” derailed the train of justice in this case. Hopefully not permanently but still. LS getting disbarred is the exact type of accountability IMOO she should face for this.

 

[mrjitty]

These seem to be the crucial failures that led to sanctions/dismissal, if you don't read anything else.

First up is LS management failure, and failure to appoint lead counsel

While the majority does not adopt Garnett’s viewpoint that all cases need a sole leadcounsel, we do believe that all cases require accountability and, at a minimum, clearly delineatedand communicated spheres of responsibility. The Morphew case lacked that structure. AfterOctober 2021, certain essential activities—tracking calendaring, ensuring all tasks were accountedfor, and developing a reasonably comprehensive command of the evidence—had no identifiablepoint person. This was Respondent’s failing. Respondent did not designate chains of command.She did not appear to appreciate that because her human resources were stretched thin, theymight overlook tasks that were not obviously in their bailiwicks. She did not exercise appropriatesupervision to guarantee the team had developed, vetted, and internally communicated acoherent theory of the case. In short, she failed to take reasonable measures to establish aleadership structure that ensured accountability within the Morphew prosecution team.

Second the specific failure to file the expert disclosures. Even leaving it to a week before, there ought to have been enough time to comply ....

This leads the majority to what it believes was Respondent’s third supervisory failing. InFebruary 2022, the weaknesses inherent in the prosecution’s effort to “fight a war by committee”were laid bare. One week before the expert witness disclosures deadline, Edwards, whose remit asbest as we can tell did not in any way encompass expert endorsements, noticed the team hadmade no headway on this crucial project. In the absence of other leadership, Edwards volunteeredto compile the endorsements. Respondent did not so much as inquire about the project’s status.She did not offer resources. Nor did she respond to the two increasingly urgent emails Edwardssent in the days before the deadline. She assumed but did not confirm that Hurlbert and Weinerwere taking care of the project. They, in turn, were distracted by other matters and assumed thatEdwards was not just organizing the endeavor but singlehandedly completing the work. As aresult, on the day before the endorsements were due, at least two anticipated experts—Walkerand Spence—had not talked to any prosecutor about the disclosures. At least four experts—Spence, Wolfe, McConnell, and McDermott—had not produced reports or statements. And nodomestic violence expert was identified. As Weiner and Edwards conceded, and as Judge Lamafound, the endorsements did not comply with the case management order. But it is Respondent’s inattention to this matter after February 14, 2022, that the majorityfaults the most. By that point, Respondent was aware that her experienced motions lawyer wasembarrassed by the endorsements. On February 22, 2022, she discovered that the defense soughtto exclude the prosecution’s experts. And on February 24, 2022, she learned that Judge Lamafound the prosecution’s endorsements wanting but granted the team a brief reprieve to cure thedeficiencies. The team therefore had just a few days to address the defense’s arguments andsalvage expert testimony widely deemed essential in successfully prosecuting the case.

The judgement notes these failures essentially occur from mid February 2022. In other words, all the stuff about arresting BM too early is a canard. Ditto IE's conspiracies are just that.

This was simply incompetence where they wasted the months of time they had, and were stretched too thin by IE's blizzard of motions.

 

[mrjitty]

I’m having some internal debate over which scenario may be “worse”, but it feels like no matter what the conclusion remains the same.

If they missed filings that were so standard in other murder case, that seems sloppy to me. Either they don’t realize they need to do something that is seemingly so standard for other cases, or they do know they needed to do it but it still fell thru the cracks. The 83 page report makes it pretty clear that LS didn’t seem to have time to support her attorneys working under her - couldn’t answer emails, barely found in person when they needed help with questions - but she had no problem finding time to answer questions about non public info to ProfilingEvil on YouTube. When I read the messages of him asking for specifics on the weapon which were not public, I was pretty disappointed. It’s hard for me to believe all his rhetoric of “justice for Suzanne” all the while he was befriending the DA to attempt to get exclusive info about the case. And - lucky for him but unfortunately for her - she was happy to provide it to him “only because it’s you, Mike”. Shame that all this other “stuff” derailed the train of justice in this case. Hopefully not permanently but still. LS getting disbarred is the exact type of accountability IMOO she should face for this.

BIB. The report makes this clear. They knew they needed to do it. They just failed administratively to do it, despite multiple opportunities and warnings.

 

[Momofthreeboys]

My reading of the ruling is that arresting Barry "before they were ready" is not the cause of the issues.

The case was dismissed because of failure to file the expert bios. This is a simply administrative step during the trial process. Nothing to do with the investigation. The prosecution team send emails around as the deadline draws closer, then simply fail to execute the task properly.

They had basically a year post arrest to prepare these basic filings that every major murder case has to file.

I can't stress enough that they simply botched an administrative task inside the DAs office that had nothing to do with BMs arrest. There appear to be two main reasons. 1) under resourcing AND 2) bureaucratic incompetence.

Also the ruling makes clear there was no conspiracy to hide the experts or any other such nonsense. They just failed to do stuff on time.

True that the early arrest wasn't the primary issue, but in some ways it was an underlying issue to the issues that lead to this point. In my opinion it contributed to the poorly written AA, and the general disorganization and lack of planning. There were things that should have been in place prior to the arrest.