One of the state’s top former law enforcement officers testified Friday that comments made by 11th Judicial District Attorney Linda Stanley during a television interview about two murder suspects she was prosecuting were the worst he’s ever seen.
“I can’t recall anything more egregious in heightening the public condemnation of the accused,” John Suthers said. “There’s nothing about it that comes anywhere close to a law enforcement purpose.”
Suthers is a former Colorado attorney general, U.S. attorney and mayor of Colorado Springs. His scathing comments were made during the fifth day of Stanley’s disciplinary hearing, which could result in the sitting district attorney’s disbarment.
Suthers was hired by the arm of the Colorado Supreme Court that oversees attorney misconduct to testify as an expert in prosecutorial ethics.
Stanley’s public comments caused murder charges against a mother and her live-in boyfriend in the death of her 10-month-old baby to be dismissed last month in Fremont County court.
Last August, during an interview with Colorado Springs television station KRDO about the alleged murder of Edward Hayes, Stanley explained that his mother’s boyfriend, who was accused of killing him, had no love for the child.
“I mean I am going to be very blunt here. He has zero investment in this child, zero. He is watching (the child) so he can get laid, that’s it, and have a place to sleep. I’m sorry to be that blunt, but honest to God that’s what’s going on.”
Stanley’s attorney Steve Jensen explained that she believed that she was off the record when she made the comments, but reporters said that she had a microphone on and should have known she was being recorded.
The order granting the motion to dismiss was filed by Fremont County District Court Judge Kaitlin Turner. Turner has been present listening to testimony in the gallery of the courtroom, but is not scheduled to testify at Stanley’s hearing.
Stanley has sat quietly during the proceedings, often working on her laptop computer.
In addition to the Fremont County case, Suthers was also asked about extrajudicial statements made by Stanley as lead prosecutor in Barry Morphew’s murder case: first when he was arrested on May 5, 2021, and then on a national podcast after the evidentiary hearing.
On Aug. 30, 2021, after 11th Judicial District Judge Patrick Murphy found probable cause that Morphew might have murdered his wife and that he had motivation to do so, Stanley appeared on a podcast called “Profiling Evil.” The mere name of the program caused problems, Suthers said.
“Let’s start with the fact that you’re going on a podcast called ‘Profiling Evil.’ There’s substantial likelihood that this heightens the public’s condemnation of the accused,” Suthers said.
In addition, Suthers found that Stanley’s comments during an appearance at a press conference on May 5, 2021, when Morphew was arrested were “something even a rookie prosecutor understands.”
Stanley, who remains the sitting 11th Judicial District attorney until January 2025, is being investigated by the arm of the Colorado Supreme Court that oversees attorney misconduct, mostly in regard to her work on Barry Morphew’s murder trial. She could be disbarred by the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel if she is found to have violated ethics rules. She could also be censured, suspended or her case could be dismissed.
Suzanne Morphew investigation: Complete coverage from the Denver Gazette
Suthers said that he is being paid $250 an hour with a cap of $5,000 to testify.
Also testifying Friday was Stan Garnett, former Boulder district attorney, and Grant Grosgebauer, a prosecutor who was borrowed from the 18th Judicial District to help in the month leading up to the oncoming trial. He described those last tumultuous weeks as “a snowball that kept rolling down the hill.”
Grosgebauer said that Morphew’s attorney, Iris Eytan, whom he described as “fierce,” made prosecutors’ lives difficult in the month-and-a-half before trial by filing motions that he felt were stretching a prosecution team that was outmanned.
“The defense had three full-time lawyers and six paralegals, plus investigators. They were filing every motion they could file but they were hammering the case,” said Grosgebauer.
Grosgebauer, who got out of the prosecution business partly he said because of how difficult it has become to do that kind of work, is now a defense attorney in private practice. He told a three-person panel overseeing the hearing that it felt like former 11th Judicial District Judge Ramsey Lama treated the prosecution and the defense differently, particularly when he struck 13 of 16 district attorney witnesses as sanctions on the eve of trial, because the prosecution had engaged in “consistent” discovery violations, missing “already extended deadlines” for data involving the witnesses.
Grosgebauer countered that this was not true, and that Lama’s ruling was “really quick,” based on the word of the defense, which was filing motions, he felt, for the sake of keeping the prosecution on its heels.
On the other hand, Stan Garnett said that Lama’s findings “were exactly right.” The problem with the Morphew case, Garnett said “was the leadership, the lack of focus, the lack of accountability”
Suzanne Morphew’s remains were found in September in a remote area of central Colorado more than 40 miles south of her home as authorities were pursuing a different case. An autopsy report released in April labeled her death a homicide, but said she died by “undetermined means.” A co*cktail of drugs that are used to tranquilize wildlife was found in one of the 49-year-old woman’s bones but there was no indication of trauma, the report said.
Monday, Stanley is expected to testify in the hearing, which is scheduled to last the rest of the week. A decision by the board is not expected for at least 56 days after the hearing is concluded.
