Tag: Case

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.”

SUZANNE MORPHEW MURDER: DA UNDER FIRE AS HUSBAND, DAUGHTERS SAY THEY’RE ‘DISCOURAGED’ IN UNSOLVED CASE

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.”

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.”

SUZANNE MORPHEW’S REMAINS FOUND IN ‘SHALLOW GRAVE,’ HUSBAND’S ATTORNEY SAYS

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! 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.

The counsel filed a similar complaint against Stanley in October. The complaint accused Stanley of sharing information about the case with true-crime podcasters.

SUZANNE MORPHEW’S HUSBAND, DAUGHTERS ‘STRUGGLING WITH IMMENSE SHOCK AND GRIEF’ AFTER REMAINS FOUND

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. 

MISSING SUZANNE MORPHEW: NEWLY RELEASED DOCS REVEAL AFFAIRS, TROUBLED MARRIAGE BEFORE DISAPPEARANCE

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. 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.”

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.

MISSING SUZANNE MORPHEW: COLORADO PROSECUTORS REVEAL BODY IS IN ‘VERY DIFFICULT SPOT’

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.

“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.

Kirby Smart pleads Georgia's case for College Football Playoff bid after losing SEC title game

For the first time in two years, the Georgia Bulldogs lost a football game Saturday.

The top-ranked, two-time defending national champions were upset in the SEC title game by No. 8 Alabama, creating chaos for the College Football Playoff committee.

Georgia was riding a 29-game winning streak entering Saturday afternoon, and its last loss came Dec. 4, 2021 in the SEC championship against Alabama.

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But that loss didn’t keep the Bulldogs out of the 2021 College Football Playoff. And Georgia got its revenge by beating Alabama in that season’s national championship.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart says Saturday’s loss shouldn’t keep his Bulldogs out this year either. 

“[Committee executive director] Bill Hancock said it’s not the most deserving,” Smart said after the game. “Simply, it’s the best four teams. You’re gonna tell me somebody’s sitting in that committee room and doesn’t think that Georgia team is not one of the best four teams? I don’t know if you’re in the right profession. 

“It’s a really good football team. It’s a really talented football team. It’s a really balanced football team. They have to make that decision, but it’s the best four teams.”

WASHINGTON HOLDS OFF OREGON TO WIN FINAL PAC-12 CHAMPIONSHIP, ALL BUT SECURING COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF SPOT

Georgia scored a touchdown on its first possession of the game, but the Crimson Tide earned its seventh conference title in the last decade.

It’s rare a team has made the CFP without winning its conference. But it happened with Ohio State in 2016, Alabama in 2017 and the 2021 Georgia team.

No. 7 Texas remains in the mix with its Big 12 title. At the time of publication, No. 4 Florida State looks like it will finish 13-0 with an ACC title, which still might not even be enough. And who knows what happens if No. 2 Michigan is upset by No. 19 Iowa in the Big Ten championship?

The Bulldogs will find out their fate Sunday afternoon.

Breonna Taylor's death: Mistrial declared after jury fails to reach verdict in case of ex-Louisville cop

Jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict on federal civil rights charges Thursday in the trial of a former Louisville police officer charged in the police raid that killed Breonna Taylor, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial.

Brett Hankison was charged with using excessive force that violated the rights of Taylor, her boyfriend and her next-door neighbors. Hankison fired 10 shots into the Black woman’s window and a glass door after officers came under fire during a flawed drug warrant search on March 13, 2020. Some of his shots flew into a neighboring apartment, but none of them struck anyone.

The 12-member, mostly white jury struggled fruitlessly to reach a verdict over several days. On Thursday afternoon, they sent a note to the judge saying they were at an impasse. U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings urged them to keep trying, and they returned to deliberations.

FORMER KY OFFICER FACES SECOND CONVICTION ATTEMPT AFTER FIRING INTO BREONNA TAYLOR’S APARTMENT

BREONNA TAYLOR DEATH: FORMER LOUISVILLE DETECTIVE PLEADS GUILTY TO FALSIFYING AFFIDAVIT FOR RAID

The judge reported there were “elevated voices” coming from the jury room at times during deliberations, and court security officials had to visit the room. Jurors then told the judge Thursday they were deadlocked on both counts against Hankison, and could not come to a decision — prompting Jennings’ declaration of a mistrial.

The mistrial could result in a retrial of Hankison, but that would be determined by federal prosecutors at a later date.

Federal prosecutors didn’t immediately respond to an email afterward seeking comment.

Before the mistrial was declared, the lead federal prosecutor, Michael Songer, said in court that it would take “enormous resources … to retry this case.” Songer wanted the jury to keep deliberating.

Jennings said she believed the jury would not be able to reach a verdict. “I think the totality of the circumstances may be beyond repair in this case,” the judge said. “They have a disagreement that they cannot get past.”

Lonita Baker, an attorney for Taylor’s family, said afterward that Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, was disappointed with the outcome but remained encouraged “because a mistrial is not an acquittal. And so we live another day to fight for justice for Breonna.”

Hankison, 47, was acquitted by a Kentucky jury last year on wanton endangerment charges. State prosecutors had alleged he illegally put Taylor’s neighbors in danger. Months after his acquittal last year, the U.S. Department of Justice brought the new charges against Hankison, along with separate charges against a group of other officers involved in crafting the warrant.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT CHARGES 4 LOUISVILLE POLICE OFFICERS IN BREONNA TAYLOR INVESTIGATION

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Taylor, a 26-year-old nursing student, “should be alive today” when he announced the federal charges in August 2022. The charges that Hankison faced carried a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Hankison was the only officer who fired his weapon the night of the Taylor raid to be criminally charged. Prosecutors determined that two other officers were justified in returning fire after one was shot in the leg.

Songer said Monday in the trial’s closing arguments that Hankison “was a law enforcement officer, but he was not above the law.” Songer argued that Hankison couldn’t see a target and knew firing blindly into the building was wrong.

Hankison’s attorney, Stewart Mathews, countered that he was acting quickly to help his fellow officers, who he believed were being “executed” by a gunman shooting from inside Taylor’s apartment. Taylor’s boyfriend had fired a single shot when police burst through the door. Her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, said he believed an intruder was barging in.

“If his perception was reasonable in the chaos of that moment, that was not criminal,” Mathews said.

The night of the raid, Hankison said he saw the shot from Taylor’s boyfriend in the hallway after her door was breached. He backed up and ran around the corner of the building, firing shots into the side of the apartment.

“I had to react,” he testified. “I had no choice.”

The single shot from Taylor’s boyfriend hit former police Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, who dropped to the ground and fired six shots. Another officer, Myles Cosgrove, fired 16 rounds down the hallway, including the bullet that killed Taylor. Mattingly testified as a defense witness for Hankison in the federal trial, while Cosgrove was called to testify by prosecutors.

Cosgrove was fired by Louisville police along with Hankison. Mattingly retired.

BREONNA TAYLOR DEATH: LOUISVILLE POLICE DOCUMENTS SHINE LIGHT INTO INVESTIGATION DETAILS

Taylor’s death didn’t initially garner much attention, but after the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020 and the release of Taylor’s boyfriend’s 911 call, street protests over police brutality erupted around the country. Demonstrators in Louisville shouted Taylor’s name for months, along with high-profile Black celebrities like Oprah and Lebron James who demanded accountability for the police officers involved in the case.

Taylor’s case also cast intense scrutiny on so-called “no-knock” warrants, which were later banned in the city of Louisville. The warrants allow officers to enter a residence without warning, but in the Taylor raid officers said they knocked and announced their presence. The Louisville police chief at the time was subsequently fired because officers had not used body cameras the night of the raid.

Three other former officers involved in drawing up the warrant have been charged in a separate federal case. One of them, Kelly Goodlett, has pleaded guilty to helping falsify the warrant. She is expected to testify against former detective Joshua Jaynes and former Sgt. Kyle Meany in their trial next year.

Goodlett’s guilty plea remains the only criminal conviction of a police officer involved in the Taylor case.

Joran van der Sloot case: Prime Natalee Holloway suspect to be arraigned on extortion charges

Joran van der Sloot will be arraigned on Friday morning at 11 a.m. in a Birmingham, Alabama, federal courthouse on extortion charges related to the disappearance of Natalee Holloway.

Van der Sloot arrived in Birmingham on Thursday afternoon after being flown on a Department of Justice jet with agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which left from Lima, Peru.

Van der Sloot is the prime suspect in the May 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba during a Mountain Brook High School, Alabama, senior trip.

The Dutch national will now face charges of extortion and wire fraud in the U.S. after allegedly attempting to sell Beth Holloway, Natalee’s mother, information regarding the location of her daughter’s body.

NATALEE HOLLOWAY SUSPECT JORAN VAN DER SLOOT ARRIVES IN US TO FACE EXTORTION, WIRE FRAUD CHARGES

Federal prosecutors say van der Sloot asked for $250,000 — $25,000 upfront for the information, and the rest to be paid out when the body of Natalee Holloway was positively identified.

However, van der Sloot lied to Beth Holloway’s lawyer, John Q. Kelly, about where her daughter’s remains were located, according to American prosecutors.

The alleged extortion scheme took place between March 29, 2010, and May 17, 2010. 

JORAN VAN DER SLOOT CASE: FBI LEAVES PERU WITH NATALEE HOLLOWAY SUSPECT TO FACE CHARGES IN US: SOURCE

Van der Sloot then traveled to Peru and met Stephany Flores, 21, at a Lima casino owned by her father. Van der Sloot admitted to killing Flores, claiming he murdered her May 30, 2010, in a fit of anger after the 21-year-old found out he was connected to Natalee Holloway’s disappearance.

JORAN VAN DER SLOOT WILL LIKELY BE TRANSFERRED TO US DESPITE LAST-MINUTE EFFORTS: INTERPOL OFFICIAL

The charges were filed by federal prosecutors in 2010, but Peruvian officials didn’t agree to release van der Sloot into American custody until this May.

He was originally sentenced to 28 years in prison for the killing of Flores, but more time was added because of a drug smuggling scandal he was involved in while in jail.

Once van der Sloot’s federal case concludes, he will head back to Peru to finish his sentence for murdering Flores. After finishing his sentence in Peru, van der Sloot will then come to an American prison, if convicted.

Federal government rests its case in ex-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder's racketeering trial

The federal government rested its case Monday in former Republican Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder’s racketeering trial after presenting jurors with reams of financial documents, emails, texts, wire-tap audio and firsthand accounts of what prosecutors allege was a $60 million bribery scheme to pass a $1 billion ratepayer-funded nuclear bailout.

The prosecution completed its work in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati five weeks to the day after opening statements in Ohio’s largest ever corruption case. Their portion took a bit longer than projected because a spate of illnesses hit the courtroom, prompting Judge Timothy Black to pause proceedings.

Lawyers for Householder, 63, and co-defendant Matt Borges, 50, a lobbyist and former state chair of the Ohio Republican Party, went immediately to work to begin their defense, calling state Sen. Bill Seitz to testify on the merits of the bailout bill at the case’s heart.

FORMER OHIO HOUSE SPEAKER LARRY HOUSEHOLDER REMAINS OPTIMISTIC AS CORRUPTION TRIAL BEGINS

Householder, once one of Ohio’s most powerful politicians, could testify on his own behalf. He has said he couldn’t wait for his defense to begin.

It’s been two-and-a-half years since Householder, Borges and three others were arrested and charged in an elaborate scheme, secretly funded by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp., to secure Householder’s power, elect his allies, pass legislation containing a $1 billion bailout for two aging nuclear power plants, and then vex a ballot effort to overturn the bill with a dirty tricks campaign.

OHIO INMATE WHO HAS SPENT DECADES ON DEATH ROW MAY BE RELEASED ON PAROLE FOLLOWING RESENTENCING

The prosecution called two of those arrested — Juan Cespedes and Jeff Longstreth, who have both pleaded guilty — to the stand to give firsthand accounts of what they said are not ordinary political contributions, but bribes intended to secure passage of the bailout bill, known as House Bill 6. Householder’s attorneys have described his activities as nothing more than hardball politics.

Monday’s witness, political operative Tyler Fehrman, testified that Borges tried to bribe him with a $15,000 check to secure inside information about the referendum campaign on the bill that he was working for at the time. Borges’ attorneys have said the money was a loan for a friend in need.

“Matt’s requests to me were shocking,” Fehrman told jurors. “I felt like I was being taken advantage of by someone I trusted.”

Sister of Colorado girl who went missing at 14 became investigator in already bungled case

On Aug. 16, 1983, teenager Beth Miller left her Idaho Springs, Colorado, home for a jog and never returned.

For weeks, there was a massive community search effort for the 14-year-old as neighbors and law enforcement came together to bring her home, but that never happened.

“I’m not young anymore, and I’d like to know what happened to Beth,” Miller’s sister, Lynn McLaughlin, told Fox News Digital. “And I want to be able to tell Mom, who’s not a spring chicken, either — I’d like to be able to tell her, ‘This is what happened to Beth, and this is where she’s buried. Let’s go get her and give her a good Christian burial.'”

McLaughlin was so determined for answers after her sister’s disappearance that she became directly involved in the case in the 1990s when she joined local law enforcement, and doing so led her down an even more complicated path toward answers.

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“That’s really why I got into law enforcement. I wanted to find my sister,” McLaughlin told Fox News Digital.

But when she began sorting through the evidence in her sister’s case, she was confronted with an unsalvageable mess.

VERMONT COLD CASE MURDER SUSPECT FLED COUNTRY, BECAME MONK AFTER STRANGLING WOMAN

“When I went to the Idaho Springs Police Department, I was told that I was about a month too late — that most of the reports and everything they didn’t think was important had been destroyed,” she said. “There was very little left of this case.”

Leads that would have previously taken up a “bathroom-sized room” full of papers — pre-computers — now only took up two drawers, she said.

McLaughlin began her law enforcement career with the Idaho Springs Police Department and then went on to the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office (CCCSO), which told Fox News Digital it is still actively investigating the case but could not comment further on developments at this time.

“When I started working on the case, and that publicity drew a lot of new leads to us. So, we were able to take a lot of that information and those leads and investigate those leads. And through that, we found a couple of very good suspects that we dug a lot further into,” McLaughlin explained. “…It’s frustrating.”

Another girl said she saw Miller jogging on Aug. 16, 1983 and waved to her. That witness told investigators that she saw a red pickup truck drive by Miller near the same area where search dogs eventually lost her scent, according to McLaughlin.

McLaughlin named two potential suspects in Miller’s disappearance who were never charged as Edward Apodaca, a former law enforcement officer, and his former girlfriend, Viola Moya. Apodaca lived nearby and owned a red pickup truck similar to the one the witness described at the time of Miller’s vanishing.

Moya apparently gave a statement to an investigator in 1993 saying they had dismembered the 14-year-old and buried her remains.

So McLaughlin, as a CCCSO investigator, went to the alleged burial site with other investigators, began to dig and eventually found a “t-shirt similar to the one Beth was wearing at the time of her disappearance.” 

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She went to the sheriff at the time and told him what she had discovered. When she returned to the scene, a large piece of equipment had been moved over the apparent burial site, obstructing McLaughlin’s access to anything of potential importance in her sister’s case. The man operating the equipment told McLaughlin that he was taking “orders from the sheriff,” she said. 

“I can’t remember if it was a bulldozer or a backhoe or what it was, but it was covering up everything, and it completely — the trees, bushes, everything was gone where we had markers [that] the bloodhounds had alerted,” she recalled. 

When McLaughlin confronted the sheriff, she was told she “would be charged with interfering with an investigation, with trespass and a list of charges” if she “ever went back to that site again.”

“That was the end,” she said.

In 2006, a grand jury was called to investigate several witnesses over the course of 10 months. 

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Apodaca’s wife and her mother killed him in New Mexico in 1990, according to The Denver Post. Moya had grown old and was considered too incapacitated to be questioned or charged, McLaughlin said.

The grand jury concluded that there was a “clear lack of professionalism and cooperation in the investigating bodies,” including the Idaho Springs Police Department, CCCSO, the Denver Police Department, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the FBI. They also found a “lack of meaningful investigation at the outset of this case.” As a result, the jury could not formally indict any suspects.

“Jurisdictional disputes were particularly at fault in slowly and eventually sabotaging the investigation. During the [then-24-year-old] investigation involving five agencies many documents and statements became hard to corroborate, and others were destroyed,” the grand jury stated.

Now, more than anything, McLaughlin says she just wants to find Miller’s remains and give her a proper burial.

“I know whoever did it — they’ll still face their best judgment time when they die,” she said.

Mickey Joseph, Nebraska's interim coach before Matt Rhule hire, arrested in domestic case

Mickey Joseph, who served as an interim head football coach for Nebraska this season, was arrested on Wednesday afternoon for strangulation and third-degree domestic assault charges, police said.

Joseph was taken into custody after officers responded to a domestic disturbance at around 2 p.m. local time, the Lincoln Police Department said in a statement on social media.

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After officers concluded their investigation, police said he was arrested on the charges.

Joseph had been Nebraska’s interim head coach for most of this season up until the university hired Matt Rhule as their head coach.

“I was made aware of the charges against Coach Joseph and given the nature of the allegations and based on University policy he has been placed on administrative leave,” Nebraska athletic director Trev Alberts said on Wednesday. “We will have no additional comment at this time.”

No further details about the incident were released.

The 54-year-old was originally hired by the school as the wide receivers coach, associate head coach, and passing game coordinator, but was tagged as the interim head coach on Sept. 11 after they fired Scott Frost.

There was a clause in his restructured contract that allowed him to return to his role as associate head coach, but that has not been officially exercised yet. Rhule has not said whether he would keep Joseph on his staff.

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Joseph was a quarterback for the Cornhuskers for 32 games between 1988 and 1991, but he struggled on the stat sheet and was unable to stay healthy for most of his tenure at the school. 

Nebraska went 2-6 while Joseph was the head coach.

Understaffed Portland police forced to shutter cold case unit, deal 'devastating' blow for families

Portland Police Bureau Chief Chuck Lovell told employees that he was temporarily shutting down the cold case unit and redirecting staff to create a third homicide detail as the department’s resources have been strained by soaring murders and other major incidents.