Tag: prosecutors

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.

FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X

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.

SEAN HANNITY: Far-left radical prosecutors want Trump to die in prison

Fox News host Sean Hannity sounds off on the Democrats’ “weaponization of justice” as former President Donald Trump faces 4th indictment on “Hannity.”

WHO ARE THE 19 PEOPLE INDICTED IN THE GEORGIA ELECTION CASE AGAINST TRUMP?

HANNITY: Now the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, is probably the most recognizable person on the face of the earth, but last night, Fulton County, Georgia, officials insisted that the former president take a mug shot. Now, Trump told Fox News Digital that it was, “not a comfortable feeling – especially when you’ve done nothing wrong.” The process is the punishment, but only part of the punishment. You have far-left radical prosecutors trying to put Donald J. Trump behind bars for hundreds of years. They want him to die in prison. Why? Because he dared to challenge the results of an election. 

Now, this is something, by the way, Democrats have done virtually every major election that they lost since 2000. Let’s take Hillary Clinton, for example. She attempted to delegitimize the 2016 election results with a dirty Russian disinformation dossier. Remember, she paid for that from an ex foreign spy, Christopher Steele, though, through money that was unintentionally mislabeled as a mere legal expense. No, it wasn’t a legal expense. No mugshot, no arrest for Hillary Clinton. Her campaign, the DNC, merely forced to pay a small fine. All was forgiven. She got off even easier after she mishandled troves of top secret classified documents on private servers and then, of course, destroyed evidence deleting and bleach bidding, 33,000 subpoenaed emails and, yeah, destroying hard drives in the process along with devices that may have had copies on them. 

But according to James Comey, no reasonable prosecutor would ever prosecute, would charge Hillary Clinton. No rage, no mug shots of Hillary Clinton. Comey said this about five years before the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago and the Justice Department charged Donald Trump, oh, for basically the exact same thing, top secret classified documents that they thought were mishandled, but he was the president. She was the Secretary of State. Joe Biden also accused mishandling as senator, vice president, top secret material stored it in his garage, the Penn Biden Center, University of Delaware, his beach house, and guess what? Did it in some cases for decades. Naturally, for Joe Biden, no consequences, no mug shot, no raid, nothing.

For more Culture, Media, Education, Opinion, and channel coverage, visit foxnews.com/media. 

Senegalese prosecutors file appeal for opposition leader who received 2-month sentence

Prosecutors in Senegal who had sought two years in prison for opposition leader Ousmane Sonko have filed an appeal after he was given a much lighter, two-month suspended sentence for his conviction on libel charges in a case his supporters say was politically motivated.

The outcome of Thursday’s verdict allows Sonko to run for president next year though he still faces unrelated criminal charges in a pending rape case that would disqualify him if he is convicted. Sonko is widely viewed as the top opposition candidate in Senegal’s elections next year.

Sonko has not yet decided whether to appeal the sentence in the libel case, his lawyer Bamba Cisse told The Associated Press.

SENEGAL’S TOP OPPOSITION POLITICIAN GETS 2-MONTH SUSPENDED SENTENCE FOR LIBEL

Sonko was also ordered to pay about $330,000 to Tourism Minister Mame Mbaye Niang, who accused the politician of defamation and public insults.

Neither Sonko nor his lawyers were present on Thursday when the verdict and sentence were delivered.

SENEGAL POLICE SMASH WINDOWS OF OPPOSITION LEADER’S VEHICLE, FORCIBLY REMOVING HIM

Each of Sonko’s previous court appearances led to protests in the streets of Dakar, the capital, and Sonko himself was forcibly removed from his vehicle by police on two occasions. Demonstrations have taken place not only in Dakar but in cities throughout the country.

Sonko’s supporters see the charges against him as the latest attempt to cut short his political career. Sonko finished third in Senegal’s 2019 presidential election and has called on President Macky Sall to declare publicly that he won’t seek a third term.

The ruling party says Sall should be allowed to run after a constitutional change in 2016 — made while Sall was president — which changed presidential terms to five years.

Sonko also faces rape charges based on accusations from a female employee of a massage salon who said she was assaulted by him. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and would be barred from running for president. No date has been set yet for the that trial.