11th Judicial District Attorney appeals sanctions in murder case, calling them ‘unjust, excessive’

FREMONT COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- 11th Judicial District Attorney Linda Stanley is asking the Colorado Supreme Court to review the sanctions handed down in a first-degree murder case for being “arbitrary and unjust.”

On April 4, Fremont County Judge Kaitlin Turner — Stanley’s opponent in the race for 11th Judicial District Attorney back in 2020 — dropped first-degree murder charges against Joseph Tippet because of alleged ongoing discovery violations by the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

Tippet is accused of shooting his father, William Tippet, in the back of the head in January. He later confessed twice to jail deputies on video, according to the petition. Tippet is now charged with second-degree murder because the defense alleges it took more than two months to receive one-tenth of the evidence from the DA’s office — a violation of Colorado court rules.

In a petition for rule to show cause filed with the Colorado Supreme Court, Stanley doesn’t deny evidence was late and “constituted a discovery violation” but claims the majority of the evidence was given to the defense 28 days after the filing of charges — still seven days later than court rules allow but sooner than the defense’s allegations.

Stanley goes on to object to the court’s authority to reduce charges for those violations before a preliminary hearing was scheduled. Stanley didn’t respond to our multiple requests for comment.

Former 4th Judicial District Attorney Dan May told 13 Investigates the sanctions seem extreme given the case was still in the early stages.

“That's probably what the Supreme Court is looking at now is, ‘Wow, that's a really extraordinary sanction this early in the proceedings,’” May said. “‘Is that appropriate in this case or has the judge abused their discretion?’”

The Colorado Supreme Court granted the rule to show cause, which May said is rare and only happens about 5% of the time. He said the court could take six months to a year to rule on the appeal, meaning the proceedings for the Tippet case, including the preliminary hearing on May 17, are on hold until a decision is made.

Judge Turner ordered sanctions against the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in the case before a preliminary hearing was scheduled. In the petition, Stanley claims there are no Colorado cases where this has happened.

“If a judge can reduce charges at such an early stage, there is no charge and no case that is safe from such an action,” the petition states. “Defendants that should be punished may then escape punishment.”

In the defense’s motion to dismiss, Adam Tunink, the public defender representing Tippet, claimed the discovery violations within the DA’s office were a systemic problem and pointed to other cases with alleged evidence mishaps. Tunink declined to comment about the recent petition.

However, in her petition, Stanley argues the defense and judge never explained how the evidence violations affected the defense.

Over the last several weeks, 13 Investigates uncovered 33 separate criminal cases with alleged discovery violations.

Of the 33 cases where the DA’s office violated Rule 16, 13 Investigates confirmed five were entirely dismissed. Those include two child sexual assault cases, a murder case, a child porn case, and a strangulation case.

In the petition, Stanley claims there isn’t a “pattern of discovery violations.”

“A pattern is not automatically established simply because a number of dissimilar cases have discovery violations occurring within them over a period of time,” the petition said. “There is no distinction in the trial court’s ruling as to any objective factor such as numerosity of violation, timeline of violations, type of violations, their timing within case procedure, or the cause of violations.”

She then said the prosecution never had an opportunity to argue the alleged pattern of discovery violations.

“There is no greater injustice to the victims and the community than a court finding a pattern of discovery violations with no particular objective standard being utilized, failing to allow the People to investigate and object to such a finding, and then failing to conduct a hearing to identify what exactly constitutes a pattern prior to reducing the homicide charge to a lower level felony,” the petition states.

May said judges are supposed to impose the least restrictive sanctions possible to make sure both parties receive the necessary evidence for a fair trial.

“To get to the level that you are now dismissing charges, changing charges, now you're affecting the outcome of the case,” he said. “You shouldn't be doing that unless there's something really extraordinary that you just can't level the playing field at this point.”

The Colorado Supreme Court ordered the Fremont County District Court and Tunink to respond to Stanley’s appeal by May 24 and explain why it shouldn’t be granted. The DA’s office will then have 14 days to respond.

A representative for the victim’s family in the Tippet case said the family shouldn’t be the ones punished by these sanctions, as the accused now has lesser charges.

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