Disbarred DA Linda Stanley ordered to pay $300K+ to Fremont, Custer, & Chaffee Counties

FREMONT COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) - A judge has ordered former 11th Judicial District Attorney, Linda Stanley, to pay more than $300K in damages to Fremont, Custer, and Chaffee counties.

According to court documents, in total Stanley must reimburse these counties $307,264.23. According to a lawsuit obtained by KRDO13 Investigates. The three counties accused Stanley of using taxpayer money to pay her own legal fees in an ethics trial.

KRDO13 Investigates reached out to Linda Stanley following this ruling and she hung up on us.

Stanley was disbarred by the State of Colorado following two separate instances of ethics violations and misconduct in her position as DA. She handled the prosecution of Barry Morphew, the husband of Suzanne Morphew, who went missing in May 2020. Stanley charged Barry with murdering his wife before the case was later dismissed by a judge without prejudice, meaning it could be re-filed in the future.

Stanley also made comments in an on-the-record interview with KRDO13 in August 2023 about an accused baby killer, William Jacobs from Cañon City. In the interview, Stanley claimed the defendant was only hanging out with the mother of the child he was accused of killing, just to 'get laid'. It was those comments, among others in that interview about the case, that led to Jacobs' charges being dropped in June 2024, over what the state deemed was "outrageous government conduct". The judge presiding over the case explained in her decision that: "DA Stanley knew or reasonably should have known that her on-the-record comments to reporter Rice about Mr. Jacobs and co-defendant Ms. Crawford would be disseminated by means of public communication and that they would have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing these criminal proceedings."

After these incidents, Stanley was under fire by the State, and her law license was brought into question through an ethics trial. Eventually, the State felt there was enough evidence, and motioned to disbar her in September 2024. The lawsuit from the counties followed in December 2024.

KRDO13 also previously reported that Stanley had appeared to cut checks for over $50,000 in her office's name, in order to pay her attorney's fees.