Although Linda Stanley was removed from office last November, her inability to handle any caseload is now haunting a triple murder trial in Custer County. While new District Attorney Jeff Lindsey has moved swiftly to rebuild the District Attorney’s Office (DA) in the wake of Stanley’s ineptitude, it was not enough to prevent District Judge Lauren Swan from sanctioning the DA’s Office in the prosecution of Hanme Clark and reopen the preliminary hearing on Tuesday, May 21, which will allow for additional cross-examination of evidence and witnesses that were not available to the defense of Clark in early 2024.
Judge Swan said that the defense’s cross-examination would have gone differently if body-worn camera footage and other testimony had been made available to the defense at the time.
Linda Stanley was notorious for not filing documents with the courts in a timely manner, and often, she failed to file anything at all, leaving frustrated Judges no other choice but to sanction her cases with severe penalties. Most notorious of all was Stanley’s failure to send the defense of Barry Morphew, who was suspected of murdering his wife in Salida in 2020, a list of the expert witnesses on the eve of the long-awaited murder trial. Ultimately, Judge Ramsey Lama found that the repeated discovery violations amounted to “trial by ambush.” What was key in Judge Lama’s ruling was that he did not see the pattern to be willful, but it was simply a pattern of Stanley’s that he had no choice but to punish. Judge Lama’s ruling that most of the expert witnesses were not allowed forced Stanley to dismiss the charges against Morphew.
District Attorney Lindsey acknowledged the issue, “This is the type of case that requires significant oversight, and that didn’t happen.” For most of 2024, Stanley was almost never seen at the DA’s Office, and the staff was generally completely leaderless until she was disbarred by the Colorado Supreme Court and removed in November. Lindsey stated as well, “If this case had proceeded (under Stanley), this could have been another Morphew.” Meaning that the charges would have been dismissed against Clark.
However, the problems with discovery and evidence are not all the result of Stanley’s incompetence. As noted in the Tribune before, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been dealing with a considerable backlog of evidence to process due to a former CBI Scientist, Missy Woods, who specialized in DNA evidence, was accused of falsifying reports and court testimony over the past 20 years. Now, the CBI is reopening thousands of cases and retesting DNA, which has created a backlog of evidence needing to be processed (Woods was arrested and charged with 102 felonies in January). Clark’s defense is still waiting for the discovery of ballistics, DNA, and serology, with the trial looming in June.
Another complicating factor is that the defense made it clear that they want to cross-examine former Custer County Deputy Jason Salbato, as he was one of the first deputies to take complaints about Clark before the incident happened in November of 2023. Salbato was likely wrongfully arrested after an investigator with Linda Stanley’s Office filed an affidavit, and then Stanley filed an arrest warrant for Salbato in March 2024. The affidavit erroneously claimed that Salbato had not reported an instance of possible child abuse. The reality was that Salbato was the officer investigating the report. The court dismissed all charges, and the case was sealed, but by that time, the Custer County Sheriff’s Office had fired Salbato instead of placing him on standard administrative leave. Judging by Stanley’s constant incompetence, it is clear from the dismissed charges that Salbato should never have been arrested in the first place.
Last, Custer County’s Sheriff’s Office completely turned over most of its staff in 2023 when newly elected Sheriff Rich Smith took over the office. One of his hires was Detective Sargent Elizabeth Robinson, who was in charge of evidence reports. Much of the confusion about discovery in 2023 stemmed from each department working on the investigation using different numbering and filing systems. The District Attorney’s Office used one system, Custer County was using essentially two systems (its existing system and the system Robinson used when she worked in Colorado Springs), and the new DA worked to get everyone to use the same system in November of 2024. According to statements made during the Tuesday hearing, most of those issues have been worked out, and the District Attorney’s Office and the Custer County Sheriff’s Office use the same and consistent numbering system.
Two motion hearings have been set for the case on April 1 at 10:30 a.m. and another on May 6 at 1:30 p.m. at the Custer County Courthouse.
After the discovery questions were concluded, Clark’s Attorney asked for a reduction in the bond from $2 million to $250,000. However, several victims spoke, asking the judge not to let Clark out of jail. The judge refused to drop the $2 million bond, and Clark will remain in the Pueblo County Jail.
The trial for Clark is scheduled to start on June 16 and last for two weeks at the Custer County Court House. The Tribune will continue to update this story.
Jordan Hedberg