Colorado prosecutors in Barry Morphew’s dismissed murder case accused of scheming against judge
Colorado prosecutors are facing new complaints related to Barry Morphew’s dismissed murder case.
In 2021, Barry was charged with murder in connection with his wife Suzanne Morphew’s May 2020 disappearance, but a judge dismissed the charges in April 2022.
The Colorado Supreme Court’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel (OARC) has since filed formal complaints against 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office prosecutors Robert Weiner and Mark Hurlbert, accusing them of withholding evidence in the Morphew case and plotting against District Judge Ramsey Lama in a text thread.
“It was well known that prosecutors in the Morphew case abused their authority and power to wrongly charge Mr. Morphew,” Iris Eytan, Barry’s lawyer, told Fox News Digital. “But, it is new news that these prosecutors also threatened the rule of law and our democracy by attempting to intimidate and threaten the presiding judge due to his rulings and sanctions for their pattern of misconduct.”
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Hurlbert, the lead prosecutor on the Morphew case, told FOX 31 Denver his “only comment is that we deny the allegations and will be filing a response.”
Allegations against prosecutors
The complaints allege that Weiner and Hurlbert failed to turn over evidence in a timely manner, misstated facts in pleadings, violated court orders and attempted to intimidate Judge Lama in an “abuse of power.”
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A text thread between the prosecutors cited as evidence in the complaint began in response to a debunked theory stemming from a crime podcast called “True Crime with Julez.” The podcast host, Julez Wolf, started a petition claiming “the ex-wife of Judge Lama is an advocate of Suzanne Morphew and victims of Domestic abuse.” After 11th Judicial District Attorney Linda Stanley requested a criminal investigation into Lama’s conduct in the case, 11th Judicial District criminal investigator Andrew Corey found no “wrongdoing.”
Lama’s wife told Corey that “never did any type of Domestic abuse happen in the relationship,” according to the complaint.
Stanley shared the petition with Weiner and Hurlbert in March 2022, writing, “You guys might want to read this…” Screenshots of texts between the three prosecutors included in the complaint show Stanley questioned the accuracy of the claims in the petition but suggested they investigate the judge. “[I]t could DEFINITELY explain why he hates us so much,” Stanley wrote of the judge.
“Holy crap! Let’s go after him!”
“Holy crap! Let’s go after him! He should have disclosed this. We need to confirm asap,” Weiner wrote.
“Let’s pull his divorce case,” Weiner said of Lama in another text, adding later, “He should not be on the bench.” Hurlbert called the judge “obviously biased.”
The OARC does not comment on pending complaints.
Allegations against DA Linda Stanley
The counsel filed a similar complaint against Stanley in October. The complaint accused Stanley of sharing information about the case with true-crime podcasters.
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The complaint also alleges that the district attorney failed to share discovery, including DNA-match evidence, with the defense in a timely manner, among other accusations of misconduct.
No signs of human remains or blood have ever been located near the Morphew home in Maysville or in their family vehicles. But DNA was found on Suzanne’s glove box.
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The partial profile investigators were able to obtain matched profiles developed in sexual assault cases out of Chicago, Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona, Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent Joseph Cahill said during a hearing in 2021, as reported by the Denver Post. Barry’s DNA did not match that sample, his lawyers told KUSA-TV at the time.
In a July interview with FOX 21 Colorado Springs, Stanley called the OARC’s investigation “a witch hunt.”
“I stand up for people all the time, every day.”
“I stand up for people all the time, every day. So, me not being able to stand up for myself was difficult,” she told the outlet. “As of right now, the office is majorly underfunded.… If one person quits, it will set back everything, and that’s the kind of shoestring budget it is at this point.… But we have nothing but very, very experienced prosecutors in this office, and I’m so proud of that.”
Latest in the Suzanne Morphew murder case
In September 2023, authorities located Suzanne’s remains in a “shallow grave” in a desert about 45 miles south of Maysville while they were searching for another missing woman. Authorities have not named any other suspects in her murder since her husband’s case was dismissed nearly two years ago.
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Morphew’s bike was discovered on the same day she went missing in 2020 in a ravine along Highway 50 and County Road 225 in Chaffee County, near her family’s Maysville home. Barry said he was working in Broomfield, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, at the time.
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Text messages from Suzanne and Barry, who had been married 25 years, that were unsealed in June 2023 suggest they were both having affairs just before her disappearance.
Four days before her disappearance, Suzanne sent Barry a text saying she was “done.” “I could care less what you’re up to and have been for years,” she wrote, adding that they needed to figure things out “civilly.”
Earlier in 2023, Barry’s legal team filed a $15 million lawsuit against prosecutors and investigators, accusing them of violating his constitutional rights.
“Barry was the most scrutinized, dissected, surveilled individual, minute by minute, hour by hour, using law enforcement cameras posted by his home, phone taps and GPS devices placed on his car – all during the time frame of her disappearance and the years following,” Eytan said in a statement at the time.
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“What needs to be done instead of pointing fingers at Barry Morphew, is asking the officials about the number of missing people and number of human remains that have been recovered in or from Saguache County in the recent past,” Eytan continued.
Authorities are asking anyone with information about the case to contact 719-312-7530.
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