Fremont Co. Sheriff details process of submitting evidence after DA blames law enforcement for evidence delays

FREMONT COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) -- Fremont County Sheriff Allen Cooper showed 13 Investigates how his agency hands over evidence to the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, after District Attorney Linda Stanley blamed law enforcement for evidence delays.

13 Investigates uncovered at least 33 criminal cases affected by the DA’s office's failure to turn over evidence since Stanley took office. In six of those cases, charges were dismissed because prosecutors didn’t hand over evidence by court-ordered deadlines.

Those sanctions include two murder cases, including the case against Chaffee County husband Barry Morphew in his wife Suzanne's disappearance on Mother's Day 2020.

On Tuesday, a first-degree murder charge against Fremont County man, Joseph Tippet, was dismissed and reduced to a lesser charge due to what a judge calls 'gross negligence' by District Attorney Linda Stanley's office.

The other criminal case dismissals from these evidence problems are two child sex assault cases, a child porn case, and a strangulation charge.

Fremont County Sheriff Allen Cooper took 13 Investigates behind-the-scenes to better understand how evidence is handed over to the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

It’s a fairly simple process. Sheriff deputies file case evidence into the agency’s records management system. Nearly every other day, that evidence is then exported and placed into E-Discovery — a system shared by law enforcement and the DA’s office.

Cooper said some high-level cases can have more than 200 gigabytes worth of evidence.

When the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office submits that evidence, it receives a confirmation email with a date alongside each piece of evidence for when the DA’s office received it.

Through this process, 13 Investigates learned the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office had nearly all the evidence in the Tippet case from the sheriff's office back on Jan. 26 — less than three weeks after the initial arrest.

The sheriff’s office submitted two more files of evidence on Feb. 2. However, it still took District Attorney Linda Stanley's office nearly two months to get all of the evidence to Tippet's lawyers.

“We've invested a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of resources into developing these cases,” Cooper said. “It does a disservice to my staff when they're not pursued to the fullest extent of the law, in addition to not rendering justice for the victims in these cases.”

Cooper said filing evidence to the district attorney’s office always had occasional glitches, but it has never been this bad until Stanley took office.

“A systemic failure in any organization rests at the top,” he said.

Stanley continues to ignore 13 Investigates’ calls and emails and remains absent from court hearings.

Cooper said he is in communication with Stanley’s staff and they are taking steps to improve the situation. He said the issues stem from high turnover and a lack of training with E-Discovery — the evidence software system.

But to improve the situation, Cooper said he is sending deputies to the district attorney’s office to hand deliver evidence on hard drives for major cases.

Cooper said the failures by the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office right across the street from the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office are having an effect on his staff.

“Our line staff are sometimes going to say, ‘Why am I doing this work if it's going to be wasted?’ That's kind of a moral issue and a morale dilemma,” he said.