SUB-HEADING: "Texts show how unfounded conspiracy theory led prosecutors to secretly investigate judge's family."
SUB-HEADING: "District Attorney Linda Stanley is accused of launching a clandestine investigation against the judge presiding over the Suzanne Morphew murder case."
GIST: "In the middle of one of the most high-profile murder cases in the state, an unfounded conspiracy theory amplified by a YouTuber could now cost an entire team of prosecutors their law licenses.
In March 2022, nearly two years after Suzanne Morphew went missing and almost a year after her husband was charged with her murder, a Change.org petition asked that the judge presiding over the case be removed. It alluded to unfounded conspiracy theories that former Judge Ramsey Lama abused his ex-wife.
The same day it was posted online, District Attorney Linda Stanley sent a link to the petition in a group text with her team of prosecutors who were investigating the Morphew case. “You guys might want to read this,” she wrote.
“But I’m not sure how true it is,” she added.
Lead prosecutor Mark Hurlbert chimed in, saying the judge must be biased because he ruled against prosecutors in the case during pre-trial hearings. Attorney Bob Weiner says the team should make plans to secretly investigate the judge.
“Holy crap!! Yes let’s go after him!” Weiner wrote.
“I can get an investigator on it.” Stanley concluded.
Judge Ramsey Lama told 9NEWS last year that he believed Stanley and her team of prosecutors secretly investigated him and his ex-wife based on the conspiracy theory because they didn’t like his rulings in the Morphew case.
"Using resources in that manner clearly designed to intimidate a judge or if it was for retribution, it’s so wrong. It’s unethical," Lama said.
On Tuesday, he told 9NEWS in an email he had no idea the entire team of prosecutors conspired together to initiate the secret investigation launched by the conspiracy theory.
"My ex-wife was followed," Lama told 9NEWS in an interview in November. "Strangers were appearing at her church, following her to a playground with our son, asking, 'Hey, tell us about Judge Lama and your marriage. Was he abusive? Did he beat you? We’re trying to get him off the case.'"
The Change.org petition was started by a YouTuber called Julez Wolf. Stanley even texted the group saying, “She has a YouTube channel. I’m not sure that’s a credible source.” Even after the sheriff’s office declined to investigate Lama because there was no evidence, Stanley sent her own investigator to interview Lama’s wife, concluding herself that the conspiracy theory was indeed wrong.
Which leads to today.
"Anything that they put in writing, anything that they said to each other, all of that is going to be used against this group of attorneys as Attorney Regulation Counsel tries to prove their case," said David Beller, an ethics attorney with years of experience representing clients in Attorney Regulation Counsel complaints.
Lama was one of the parties that filed a complaint against the team of prosecutors, including Stanley and Hurlbert, with the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel (OARC).
All three prosecutors in the group text are now facing complaints filed by the OARC to the Colorado Supreme Court.
"This is a perfect example of prosecutors deciding what their conclusion is going to be and then going out and looking for evidence to support the conclusion," Beller said. "The reality is that is just not the way our system is supposed to work."
Hurlbert is a very well-known prosecutor in Colorado.
He was the district attorney in the Kobe Bryant case and was also involved in the Aurora theater shooting prosecution. He told 9NEWS he denies the allegations against him.
"Attorney Regulation Counsel bringing an action against a district attorney, let alone an entire team or office of district attorney’s, is pretty unprecedented," Beller said. "Frankly, it’s something I’ve never seen or heard of in my entire career."
Charges against Barry Morphew were dropped by Stanley nine days before his trial was supposed to start for reasons unrelated to the conspiracy theory. Suzanne Morphew's body was found in September of 2023, but no one is currently facing charges in connection with her death."
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resurce. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/
SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/
FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;
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YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:
David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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