QUOTE OF THE DAY: "Iris Eytan, a defense and civil rights attorney who represented Morphew and now runs a nonprofit called Protect Ethical Prosecutors, filed a complaint against Lindsey with state attorney regulators over his conduct in the Morphew case. She has been an outspoken critic of the office and pushes to end absolute immunity for prosecutors. "This was an extraordinary penalty against Jeff Lindsey and the DA's office," Eytan said. She called the sanctions rare but insufficient to change what she described as a systemic problem. "These are rare judicial sanctions, but they're not solving the underlying problem," she said."
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QUOTE TWO OF THE DAY: "The original case against Morphew was dismissed without prejudice in 2022, shortly before he was set to stand trial after a change of venue moved the case to Fremont County. He was re-indicted in 2025 by a grand jury in the 12th Judicial District after his wife Suzanne's remains were found in that jurisdiction, and a trial is set for 2027. He has pleaded not guilty.
"Linda Stanley was the first and only prosecutor in the state of Colorado that has ever been disbarred for case misconduct," Eytan said. Eytan spoke out about the concerns over ethical violations after the Morphew case. Now she's doing it again after a similar pattern of violations from the same DA's office in the same courthouse under a new district attorney. "Prosecutors aren't held accountable truly for the damage and abuse they cause to people and the criminal legal system," Eytan said."---------------------------------------
PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "District Judge Lauren Swan issued the ruling July 13 in the case of Toni Gurule, ordering that all counts against Gurule be reduced to second-degree murder and that a special prosecutor be appointed to take over. Swan also removed District Attorney Jeff Lindsey and his entire office from the prosecution. Gurule is one of three people indicted in the shooting deaths of two men whose bodies were found off Phantom Canyon Road in Fremont County in February 2022. According to the court's ruling, prosecutors under Lindsey repeatedly failed to turn over evidence to the defense as required. Beyond the discovery failures, Swan found the office lacked candor to the court — meaning it made representations that proved untrue."
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STORY: "Judge disqualifies entire 11th Judicial District Attorney's Office from murder case, reduces charges by, 9News Reporter Marc Salinger. published by Yahoo News, on July 16, 2026.
GIST: "A Fremont County judge has reduced the first-degree murder charges against a woman accused in a 2022 double homicide and disqualified the entire 11th Judicial District Attorney's Office from the case, sanctioning prosecutors for what she found was a pattern of discovery violations and a lack of candor to the court.
District Judge Lauren Swan issued the ruling July 13 in the case of Toni Gurule, ordering that all counts against Gurule be reduced to second-degree murder and that a special prosecutor be appointed to take over. Swan also removed District Attorney Jeff Lindsey and his entire office from the prosecution.
Gurule is one of three people indicted in the shooting deaths of two men whose bodies were found off Phantom Canyon Road in Fremont County in February 2022.
According to the court's ruling, prosecutors under Lindsey repeatedly failed to turn over evidence to the defense as required. Beyond the discovery failures, Swan found the office lacked candor to the court — meaning it made representations that proved untrue.
Lindsey declined an interview with 9NEWS but released a statement Wednesday saying his office "respects the authority of the court and will comply with all directives contained in the final order," including transferring evidence and records to the special prosecutor.
The office said its "first concern" is the impact on the victims' families, whom it said it would contact directly. Lindsey said he has directed independent outside counsel to review the court's findings and the office's discovery practices, and that the office is implementing new oversight measures, including additional supervisory review of serious felony cases, written verification of discovery deadlines and centralized documentation of confidential-informant agreements.
"We recognize that public confidence must be earned through transparency, accountability and consistent performance," Lindsey said in the statement. "We will comply with the court's order, cooperate with the special prosecutor and take concrete steps to ensure that our procedures meet the obligations the justice system places on prosecutors."
In a separate email, Lindsey told 9NEWS that the case "did not involve me as the individual prosecutor" and that he was "only involved peripherally," saying the discovery findings were made against the individual prosecutor assigned to the case. Lindsey is the elected district attorney; the prosecutors in the case work in his office.
The disqualification is a rare sanction, and it is not the first time the 11th Judicial District Attorney's Office has drawn exceptional scrutiny.
Lindsey's predecessor, Linda Stanley, was disbarred in 2024 for a series of ethical violations tied largely to her handling of the high-profile prosecution of Barry Morphew. A disciplinary hearing board ordered the disbarment in September 2024, and the Colorado Supreme Court upheld it 4-2 in September 2025.
Iris Eytan, a defense and civil rights attorney who represented Morphew and now runs a nonprofit called Protect Ethical Prosecutors, filed a complaint against Lindsey with state attorney regulators over his conduct in the Morphew case. She has been an outspoken critic of the office and pushes to end absolute immunity for prosecutors.
"This was an extraordinary penalty against Jeff Lindsey and the DA's office," Eytan said.
She called the sanctions rare but insufficient to change what she described as a systemic problem.
"These are rare judicial sanctions, but they're not solving the underlying problem," she said.
The original case against Morphew was dismissed without prejudice in 2022, shortly before he was set to stand trial after a change of venue moved the case to Fremont County. He was re-indicted in 2025 by a grand jury in the 12th Judicial District after his wife Suzanne's remains were found in that jurisdiction, and a trial is set for 2027. He has pleaded not guilty.
"Linda Stanley was the first and only prosecutor in the state of Colorado that has ever been disbarred for case misconduct," Eytan said.
Eytan spoke out about the concerns over ethical violations after the Morphew case. Now she's doing it again after a similar pattern of violations from the same DA's office in the same courthouse under a new district attorney.
"Prosecutors aren't held accountable truly for the damage and abuse they cause to people and the criminal legal system," Eytan said.
The entire story can be read at:
District Judge Lauren Swan issued the ruling July 13 in the case of Toni Gurule, ordering that all counts against Gurule be reduced to second-degree murder and that a special prosecutor be appointed to take over. Swan also removed District Attorney Jeff Lindsey and his entire office from the prosecution.
Gurule is one of three people indicted in the shooting deaths of two men whose bodies were found off Phantom Canyon Road in Fremont County in February 2022.
According to the court's ruling, prosecutors under Lindsey repeatedly failed to turn over evidence to the defense as required. Beyond the discovery failures, Swan found the office lacked candor to the court — meaning it made representations that proved untrue.
Lindsey declined an interview with 9NEWS but released a statement Wednesday saying his office "respects the authority of the court and will comply with all directives contained in the final order," including transferring evidence and records to the special prosecutor.
The office said its "first concern" is the impact on the victims' families, whom it said it would contact directly. Lindsey said he has directed independent outside counsel to review the court's findings and the office's discovery practices, and that the office is implementing new oversight measures, including additional supervisory review of serious felony cases, written verification of discovery deadlines and centralized documentation of confidential-informant agreements.
"We recognize that public confidence must be earned through transparency, accountability and consistent performance," Lindsey said in the statement. "We will comply with the court's order, cooperate with the special prosecutor and take concrete steps to ensure that our procedures meet the obligations the justice system places on prosecutors."
In a separate email, Lindsey told 9NEWS that the case "did not involve me as the individual prosecutor" and that he was "only involved peripherally," saying the discovery findings were made against the individual prosecutor assigned to the case. Lindsey is the elected district attorney; the prosecutors in the case work in his office.
The disqualification is a rare sanction, and it is not the first time the 11th Judicial District Attorney's Office has drawn exceptional scrutiny.
Lindsey's predecessor, Linda Stanley, was disbarred in 2024 for a series of ethical violations tied largely to her handling of the high-profile prosecution of Barry Morphew. A disciplinary hearing board ordered the disbarment in September 2024, and the Colorado Supreme Court upheld it 4-2 in September 2025.
Iris Eytan, a defense and civil rights attorney who represented Morphew and now runs a nonprofit called Protect Ethical Prosecutors, filed a complaint against Lindsey with state attorney regulators over his conduct in the Morphew case. She has been an outspoken critic of the office and pushes to end absolute immunity for prosecutors.
"This was an extraordinary penalty against Jeff Lindsey and the DA's office," Eytan said.
She called the sanctions rare but insufficient to change what she described as a systemic problem.
"These are rare judicial sanctions, but they're not solving the underlying problem," she said.
The original case against Morphew was dismissed without prejudice in 2022, shortly before he was set to stand trial after a change of venue moved the case to Fremont County. He was re-indicted in 2025 by a grand jury in the 12th Judicial District after his wife Suzanne's remains were found in that jurisdiction, and a trial is set for 2027. He has pleaded not guilty.
"Linda Stanley was the first and only prosecutor in the state of Colorado that has ever been disbarred for case misconduct," Eytan said.
Eytan spoke out about the concerns over ethical violations after the Morphew case. Now she's doing it again after a similar pattern of violations from the same DA's office in the same courthouse under a new district attorney.
"Prosecutors aren't held accountable truly for the damage and abuse they cause to people and the criminal legal system," Eytan said.
The entire story can be read at:
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. 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. Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith 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; 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;
