The former judge in the Suzanne Morphew case is speaking out for the first time about what went on behind the scenes as the first-degree murder case of Barry Morphew wound its way toward a trial that never happened.

Ramsey Lama said that as he oversaw the high-profile case, 11^th Judicial District Attorney Linda Stanley launched an investigation into his prior marriage looking to dig up dirt on him in order to remove him.

“It was shocking to me,” he said in an interview with The Denver Gazette. “These were flagrant bullying and retaliatory actions and I thought the public needed to know.”

A month after he dismissed the case without prejudice, Lama stepped down from the judiciary citing health reasons. The term “without prejudice” means that the case can be re-tried if enough evidence comes in to bring charges.

Suzanne Morphew was reported missing on Mother’s Day, May 10, 2020. Her husband, Barry Morphew, was the last known person to see her alive, according to an arrest affidavit.

The bones of the 49-year-old mother of two were found scattered in a desert brush-studded field in Saguache County by a team of Colorado Bureau of Investigation investigators on Sept. 22.

Not long after he left the bench, Lama filed a complaint with the Colorado Supreme Court’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel (OARC) against Stanley claiming that she had her own investigator follow his ex-wife around to dig up dirt on him in retaliation for his rulings — including one in which he struck a domestic violence expert from testifying at trial.

The 20-page OARC complaint outlines what happened.

Stanley was suspicious that Lama may have abused his ex-wife, according to the complaint. She wrote her team in a group text that there must be a reason that Lama’s orders were “so egregious against us” and encouraged getting an interview with his ex-wife to see if “there was something going on,” according to the OARC complaint. She said that his rulings were making the case “almost impossible to prosecute.”

Stanley first asked Chaffee County Sheriff’s investigator Alex Walker to investigate the sitting judge. When he refused, she had her own DA investigator take it on, who did so, even following his ex-wife and their child to a park, according to the complaint.

Four days before trial, 11^th Judicial District investigator Andrew Corey interviewed Lama’s former spouse, who denied that there was any domestic abuse in the marriage and that Lama never spoke with her about the Morphew case, the complaint alleges. After that, Stanley stood down.

Lama threatened

Lama said that Stanley had no basis to look into his personal life except for rumor and manufactured conspiracy theories. In particular, he believes she was influenced by a YouTube video of a man dressed in a bulletproof vest who criticized Lama’s handling of the case.

In the video, which was live streamed last March, the man forwarded a theory that Lama’s rulings were influenced by alleged domestic violence in his marriage. Lama described a disturbing moment when the man looked into the camera and threatened him: “Judge Lama get off the case or else more is coming.”

The situation was so scary, he said, Canon City police kept watch on Lama’s home and even escorted him to court for a time afterward.

Multiple complaints

The OARC’s 20-page complaint lists multiple violations which it found during an extensive investigation into Stanley’s behavior since she took over the Morphew investigation in January 2021.

One of those pointed to her relationship with the host of a YouTube channel called “Profiling Evil” leading up to, and after, Morphew’s May 5, 2021 arrest. In a text, host Mike King asked her whether Morphew “strangled Suzanne in the hot tub” to which Stanley responded: “We know it wasn’t bloody … but keep on spinning ideas in your brain!” The texts continued as the investigation moved toward the preliminary hearing.

Morphew was bound over for trial but released on $500,000 cash-only bail.

After the hearing that August, Stanley appeared on King’s YouTube show to explain the legal process of such a proceeding — a move which shocked at least one long-time prosecutor.

“My God you don’t go on a podcast. That’s prosecution 101,” said former Adams County DA Bob Grant. “Assuming that the bulk of the allegations and the complaint are proven and factually accurate, she wasn’t ready for the complexity of the Morphew case and I’m afraid that what she was ready for was the headlines.”

The OARC document recognized other allegations against Stanley, including a host of discovery violations and the fact that, according to the complaint, she did not ask for additional funding for the Morphew prosecution when she submitted her 2022 budget to county commissioners.

A month later, Stanley’s lead prosecutor Jeff Lindsey resigned.

Lindsey, who is now a prosecutor in Pueblo, recently announced a run to replace Stanley as district attorney in the 11^th Judicial District. Stanley will be up for reelection in November 2024.

Lama told The Denver Gazette that Stanley was so “brazen” about going after him, it dawned on him that she thought her behavior was OK.

“She believed she could do it,” he said. “That there was nothing wrong with it.”

Prosecutors were indeed upset with some of Lama’s rulings in the months leading up to trial, including one where he struck a domestic violence expert from being able to testify.  In all, during the months just before trial, he struck 15 of 16 of the prosecution’s expert witnesses because, he explained, of a “pattern of neglect” he saw with their failure to meet deadlines, according to the OARC complaint.

The only expert who was not prevented from testifying was a nurse who would speak to the timing of injuries found on Barry Morphew’s arms. Those banned from testimony included cellphone, DNA and Telematix experts. Telematix is a black box on some vehicles which tracks vehicle movement.

The move was a blow to the case considering the huge weight their testimony would carry in light of Mrs. Morphew’s body having not been found at the time.

Lama told The Denver Gazette that instead of investigating him on her own, Stanley should have gone through normal legal channels and filed an emergency appeal to his rulings to the Colorado Supreme Court with an explanation as to why she disagreed with them.

Veteran prosecutor Grant said: “Lama had to know what he was doing to Stanley’s case when he struck all of her experts” and added that Morphew’s attorneys had the upper hand.

“They played a rural judge and they played an inexperienced DA and they’re going to make it difficult for any prosecutor to prosecute Barry Morphew in the death of his wife,” Grant said.

Frayed relationship

No doubt, there was friction between Lama and the prosecution from the beginning.

He took over the case Jan. 31, 2022 when the trial was moved from a Chaffee County courtroom to Fremont County, in part due to concerns that Stanley had already been too vocal with media making “pretrial extrajudicial statements,” according to the OARC complaint.

The original judge, the 11^th District’s Patrick Murphy, recused himself due to a childhood friendship with one of the attorneys linked to the Morphew case.

At times during the two-plus months leading up to trial, Lama was tough on the prosecution. He once chastised Stanley’s team in open court for being late on discovery deadlines, calling the group “reckless” and “sloppy.”

On April 19, 2022, Lama granted the prosecution’s motion to dismiss the doomed case without prejudice due to the fact, the DA’s team explained, Morphew’s body had not been found.

In September, her bones were discovered scattered in a field near Moffat, 50 miles south of the Morphew family home. That’s where the last known proof of life photo was sent by Mrs. Morphew of herself to her lover on the afternoon of May 9, 2020.

Stanley had no comment when asked to respond to the OARC complaint and to Lama’s allegations. Attempts to reach Lama’s wife also went unanswered, as well as did an email to the Alliance of Salida — a domestic violence service with which she has been involved.

Stanley’s future as 11th Judicial District Attorney may hinge on the OARC’s investigation, but first she must respond to it.

“The respondent has 28 days to file an answer, much like a civil case,” said Jessica Yates with the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel. There have been at least half a dozen complaints leveled against Stanley with the OARC, including Lama’s. One of those was filed by Fremont County Sheriff Alan Cooper and another by a citizen sleuth named Tom Chelston.

The 20-page complaint does not ask for a specific punishment, but Lama said that during his short time presiding over the Morphew case, he saw enough that he believes Stanley should be disbarred.

“I think she should lose her law license,” Lama said. “I do not believe she should be practicing law. This was an abuse of her position.”