The district attorney who prosecuted the high-profile investigation into the disappearance and possible murder of Suzanne Morphew is being investigated herself. Linda Stanley, 11th Judicial District Attorney, has had at least two complaints leveled against her with the Colorado Supreme Court’s Office of Regulation Counsel. 

“The investigation into those complaints is still pending regarding Ms. Stanley,” confirmed Jessica Yates, Attorney Regulation Counsel, to the Denver Gazette.

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One of those complaints came from a Douglas County man who was one of the hundreds of people who helped search for the Chaffee County wife and mother who went missing in the spring of 2020. Tom Chelston requested the investigations citing a potential violation of the rules for professional conduct. 

Chelston’s letter, which was obtained by the Canyon City Daily Record, states: “My concerns were further realized when DA Stanley failed to provide formal interviews with actual news organizations while holding online interviews about this murder case with amateur YouTube crime channels.” 

Stanley appeared on the YouTube show “Profiling Evil” Aug. 30, 2021 to discuss the preliminary hearing which had just wound up in Chaffee County Court. The judge determined enough evidence exists to send the murder case against Mrs. Morphew’s husband, Barry Morphew, to trial. Morphew was arrested May 5, 2021, almost a year to the date to when Suzanne Morphew went missing. 

Chelston’s letter also stated that Stanley displayed a “combination of ego, arrogance and demonstrated incompetence” — which he said placed the rights of Suzanne Morphew and the rights of any other victims of crime “to qualified representation and justice in jeopardy.”

Prosecutors themselves dismissed the controversial Morphew case in April 2022 without prejudice, meaning that the investigation would continue, but that Morphew was free of all charges against him, including first-degree murder. 

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Besides the complaint regarding the Morphew investigation, there are others filed against Stanley’s office calling her competency into question.

Two were made by a sheriff in one of the counties she represents. Fremont County Sheriff Allen Cooper filed two formal complaints against the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s office in the last year and a half alleging Stanley’s prosecutors were lying in court about his deputies alleging that they were not sharing evidence with them.

Cooper said it got so bad, he had his deputies hand-carry evidence to the judge themselves to show that they were not withholding important documents. 

“I see this as a failure of leadership,” said Cooper. “The real people who suffer here are the victims because they’re being re-victimized by the district attorney’s office.”

Last summer, Stanley’s law license was suspended due to her failure to complete the required hours of continuing legal education for the years 2019 2020 and 2021.

As of Wednesday, the Colorado Supreme Court’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel showed that Stanley’s law license is active. Under Colorado Supreme Court guidelines, her license could be reinstated once she filed a plan to make up the 45 hours of continuing legal education she and all state attorneys are required to complete every three years.

Yates confirmed that Stanley did complete the required work. 

She is handling the Park County docket for the 11^th Judicial District.

“Yates said that if there is sufficient evidence of ethical violations, the complaints against Stanley could be resolved through one of two actions. One, there would be a stipulation with an attorney with a proposed resolution to the disciplinary judge, or there will be an evidentiary hearing on the complaints by a three-person panel of adjudicators.

Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze insists that the investigation into Suzanne Morphew’s 2020 disappearance is still open.

“This is an active case,” he told the Denver Gazette, but wouldn’t comment further.

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Mrs. Morphew has not been seen since the Saturday before Mother’s Day 2020 when she sent her last “proof of life” photo to her lover. In their motion to dismiss, prosecutors said they planned to look for the 49-year-old’s body in the mountainous terrain near the Maysville home she once shared with her husband, Barry Morphew.

Morphew, 56, has been a free man since the case was dismissed and will continue to be unless new evidence is found which would lend probable cause to arrest him a second time.

Stanley did not respond to a The Denver Gazette’s request for comment. She is up for reelection in 2024.