The Morphew case still turns.
A federal judge has dismissed Barry Morphew’s $15 million civil lawsuit against at least 19 defendants who investigated and prosecuted a murder case against him in 2021, saying that though there were problems with the investigation, there was probable cause to arrest him in connection with his wife’s murder.
U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Domenico granted seven different motions filed by the defendants to dismiss the claims against them.
Morphew’s complaint alleged that the arrest affidavit made misleading statements and omissions to establish probable cause, in effect, maliciously conspiring to prosecute him.
Though he dismissed the lawsuit, the judge wrote the prosecution had "infuriating flaws."
Morphew was arrested May 5, 2021, almost a year after his wife, Suzanne Morphew, 49, disappeared. He met with investigators 60 times, according to the arrest warrant, and has maintained his innocence since the beginning. The case was dismissed without prejudice in April 2022 and Morphew filed his lawsuit a year later.
His wife's remains were found in September 2023 in Moffat, Colorado, around 45 minutes to the south of the Morphew family home.
Domenico said that though there should be consequences for omitting significant evidence and failing to follow up on several unanswered questions — damages are not one of those.
In his 33-page ruling, Domenico stated: “All of Mr. Morphew’s asserted causes of action suffer from one or more legal deficiencies. Chief among those deficiencies is that despite the failings of the investigation and prosecution, there was still probable cause to arrest and charge him with murder. For this and the other reasons set forth below, Plaintiff’s claims must be dismissed."
In her response, Morphew's civil attorney Iris Eytan said that Barry Morphew's legal battle "is far from over."
Noting that in Domenico's order — he wrote that Morphew should not have been arrested at the time that he was — she added that he should not have been arrested at all, not at any time. She said Morphew "was wrongly prosecuted, has no recourse to get the costs of the damage to him back from the offending prosecutors because they cannot be sued in the United States."
Among those sued were Chaffee County Undersheriff Andy Rohrich, Chaffee County Sheriff's Investigator Alex Walker, 11th Judicial Assistant District Attorney Mark Hurlbert, former Colorado Bureau of Investigation Director John Camper and six CBI agents who worked on the case, the Chaffee County commissioners, and Chaffee County.
Also sued were defendants listed as "John and Jane Doe’s 1-10," who were described as any other “unknown employees” who may have worked with the Chaffee County sheriff's department or the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s office.
Domenico took issue with that, writing that claims against unnamed defendants "were vague and failed to meet the pleading standards."
What now?
The case is now in fresh hands, transferred to the 12th Judicial District, which operates out of Alamosa, Colorado.
Twelfth Judicial District Attorney Anne Kelly has been working with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. This August, she told The Denver Gazette in an email that the case is ongoing.
Suzanne Morphew's autopsy report, released in April 2024, revealed chemicals in the marrow of her femur bone that are used to euthanize wild animals. The coroner determined her death to be “homicide by undetermined means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication," a mixture referred to in layman's terms as "BAM."
The 129-page arrest affidavit mentioned a theory that Morphew controlled his wife by injecting her with a poison dart and killed her later.
Domenico noted in his ruling that Morphew, 56, "used BAM, Telazol, and Xylazine as tranquilizers and that he brought these chemicals, which he knew to be controlled substances, from Indiana."
Regarding the tranquilizer theory, the judge also noted in the order that several exculpatory facts were not mentioned in the affidavit.
"The tranquilizer gun is the only method by which to shoot a tranquilizer dart and Plaintiff’s tranquilizer gun, which was stored in a locked gun safe, was inoperable and had not been used in a long time," he noted, for instance.
Nearly two-and-a-half years after Suzanne Morphew's case was dismissed, the Colorado Supreme Court has advised to disbar Linda Stanley, the former 11th Judicial District Attorney who led the original Barry Morphew prosecution.
Four-and-a-half years after Suzanne Morphew went missing from her Salida-area home, the case remains unsolved.
In a text Wednesday, her sister, Melinda Moorman Balzer, wrote: "My desire remains the same … justice for my beautiful sister Suzanne Morphew."
Similarly, the last paragraph of Domenico's ruling, he noted: "Suzanne Morphew certainly deserved better."
This story was originally published on Sept. 24 at 8:35 a.m.
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