District Attorney Linda Stanley has found herself in trouble again for allegedly improperly speaking publicly about a case before trial.

The controversial prosecutor in the Barry Morphew case was already reprimanded once before for doing a pre-trial television interview about Suzanne Morphew’s disappearance on a podcast called “Profiling Evil.”

In the latest incident, an attorney has asked for dismissal in a trial involving a baby’s death over comments Stanley made on a news program which were so abrasive, a curse word she uttered had to be bleeped out.

During an interview with Colorado Springs’ KRDO TV about the upcoming murder trial of the baby’s mother and her boyfriend, 11th Judicial District Attorney Stanley said that there was no love between Brook Crawford and William Jacobs. The couple moved in together in a Canon City Motel 6 last May, according to Crawford’s preliminary hearing, but Stanley said it was a relationship of convenience and sex.

“Without the caring factor, without the love factor, the baby is a pain in the a__,” Stanley told a reporter in an on-camera interview which aired Aug. 1.

The TV station bleeped-out Stanley’s language for the on-air product.

Stanley went on to say that Jacobs, 21, had recently been released from prison for a sex crime, and was watching 10-month-old Edward Hays while Crawford worked “so that he can get laid, that’s it.”

Jacobs, who was the last person to see the baby alive, according to the arrest affidavit, told investigators that he shook him and slapped him on the back to get him to breathe. Edward died at Children’s Hospital in Colorado Springs May 23 and it was then that Stanley upgraded Jacobs’ criminal charge from child abuse resulting in death to first-degree murder.

Crawford is charged with child abuse resulting in death.

In a motion for dismissal filed Monday, Crawford’s attorney, Thom LeDoux, accused Stanley of “outrageous government conduct” for her statements and asked for a dismissal of the case. LeDoux took issue with Stanley’s portrayal of Crawford in the interview as a bad mother, which he called “breathtaking in their prejudicial nature.”

LeDoux pointed out in his motion that Stanley also violated pre-trial publicity orders during the Morphew case, which resulted in the trial being moved from Salida to Canon City.

The Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, an independent organization which oversees attorneys for the Colorado Supreme Court, confirmed that since the interview aired publicly, it has received a complaint related to Stanley’s television interview.

Usually, the OAR does not confirm, nor deny, complaints it has received, but “she’s the one who put it out there,” said Jessica Yates, who heads up the OAR office.

It’s not the first time the regulation office has received complaints regarding Stanley as elected district attorney. Yates said that the status of Stanley’s behavior regarding the Crawford investigation is pending along with four other complaints OAR has received against her.

At least three of the five total complaints against Stanley are related to the Morphew case, Yates confirmed. The ensuing investigation into the multiple complaints have already taken months and could take even more time as investigators must assess each one as it comes in, conduct depositions and undertake numerous interviews.

“They have to look at each complaint with fresh eyes,” Yates said.

LeDoux said that he is aware that a complaint was made on behalf of his case. He contended in his motion that in speaking out, Stanley violated the Rules of Professional Conduct — which limits what district attorneys can say about an ongoing case: “A lawyer who is participating or has participated in the investigation or litigation of a matter shall not make an extrajudicial statement that the lawyer knows or reasonably should know will be disseminated by means of public communication and will have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing an adjudicative proceeding in the matter.”

Former Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett added that the rule is even more important in a less-populated jurisdiction like Fremont County, where the jury pool is smaller.

“It could create a real problem in the case,” Garnett said. “It’s appropriate for prosecutors to explain what’s going on, but you have to make sure that DAs don’t decide guilt or innocence.”

Fremont County Judge Kaitlin Turner has yet to decide whether or not to dismiss the case and a hearing on the request for dismissal had not been scheduled.

Crawford has her next hearing Oct. 11 and Jacobs’ preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 27.

Small-town politics may come into play with the baby case, as there’s a web of previous adversarial history to the legal cast of characters.

In 2020, Judge Turner lost the district attorney’s race to Stanley, who took office the following January.

Months before that, LeDoux also lost to Stanley in the Republican Primary Election. LeDoux was the previous 11th Judicial District Attorney.

The law firm he works for is in part owned by Ramsey Lama, the last judge to oversee the Morphew case. Lama granted Stanley’s motion to dismissed the case without prejudice in April 2022 and resigned from the bench soon after.

Stanley will be up for reelection in November 2024.

Garnett, who has opened a new law practice in Boulder, said that if Stanley’s baby murder trial is dismissed, it will not likely affect the Morphew case.

“It’s not going to help, but I don’t see that it has a direct impact. If evidence is developed in the Morphew case, I don’t see that the DA’s indiscreet comments on another case could affect it,” he said.

Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office said that it was aware of the complaints against Stanley but said he “will not be entering the situation.”

DA Stanley did not return a request for comment by The Denver Gazette.