Many people have seen the recent media stories regarding District Attorney Linda Stanley. During the past few weeks, several are wondering why? And why haven't we heard from our District Attorney?
But anybody who knows Linda Stanley, who successfully campaigned and overwhelmingly won the race for District Attorney, knows she is not going to comment on frivolous accusations. She's not like that.
But enough is enough.
Instead of immediately firing back at her accusers, she wanted to make sure she had her research done before she made any comments at all. Technically, she can't comment on any open or sealed cases, but she wants you to know what is really going on. So much so, that there will likely be follow ups on this story to help educate the public. Are there really issues with this DA or this DA's office? After being the District Attorney since January of 2021, why now? Who or what is behind it all?
The first thing everyone needs to remember is that Linda Stanley is the District Attorney for the 11th Judicial District. The 11th Judicial District encompasses four counties: Fremont, Custer, Chaffee, and Park. Of the four counties in the district, the only county reporting problems with the DA's office (in the media) is Fremont County.
“No one else is having problems with this office ---- no issues with discovery, no issues with me and no issues with our office. Stanley said in a recent interview with The Crusader. “So do the math. What's the common denominator?” Stanley added that if the alleged incidents were actually occurring, they would be occurring throughout the entire district.
Law enforcement agencies in other counties have not had any problems, she added, and encouraged us to reach out to them to see what they think of the District Attorney and the office.
“The sheriff's office has a very good working relationship with the entire staff in Salida,” said Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze. He reiterated he has no issues with the DA or the office.
In a similar response, Custer County Sheriff Rich Smith said he has had “zero” issues with the DA regarding timely discovery/evidence delivery, and has no other issues with the DA or the office.
Park County Sheriff Tom McGraw had similar words to say.
“We have a good working relationship with Linda,” he said. “Our DAs assigned here, we're very happy with them. I don't have any issues from our county. I think she's hired great people to work in our county and I think Linda is doing a good job on what she's doing. I have no issues.”
Cañon City Police Chief John Schick also spoke of his interaction with the DA's office.
“My agency as with all of our peer agencies maintains open lines of communication,” he said. “Specifically, regarding any issues with the District Attorney's Office, we communicate directly to try to avoid or mitigate any potential issues. DA Stanley will and has made herself available to me and my officers to discuss any issues or concerns when necessary, and that is greatly appreciated.”
The problems stated by some Fremont County officials is that DA's office doesn't submit discovery in a timely manner. Stanley indicated she wanted to explain what discovery is before she explains the role law enforcement has in getting discovery to the DA's office.
“The first thing, (Discovery Rule) Rule 16 says is if it's in the possession or control of law enforcement, it's (considered to be) in ours too even if we don't know about it,” she explained. “That's a big issue because if we have opened a case, we regularly send emails to the law enforcement agency in all four counties, just a reminder to send all body cams, photographs, videos, reports, supplemental reports, statements, etc. We ask them to produce everything that they have in their possession or control. The problem is some law enforcement officers don't understand that when they have it, it's considered that we also have it and we have to produce it for the defense.” Stanley added the system is run by humans, so mistakes will occur. And they will occur on occasion from either side. She reiterated, “We are NOT withholding evidence. We don't have a super-secret file cabinet that we keep super-secret evidence to release whenever we feel like it. That's simply ridiculous.” What's interesting to note, she said, is that these issues don't occur (or are extremely rare) in the other three counties. Also, they only occur in cases with the public defender's office. Stanley said, “We just don't have these kinds of issues with private defense attorneys.”
Another comment that was made recently in the media was in regards to the number of dismissals in the DA's office. There's something in the law called dismissed without prejudice, Stanley explained.
“If we ask for a motion to dismiss without prejudice, it means the prejudice stays there in the court,” she said. “When it stays there in the court, we, the District Attorney's office, can refile that case later and the judge has to grant a motion to dismiss without prejudice.”
“Here's why that's important. If a potential issue is brought up in court, perhaps a potential discovery violation and we didn't have time to research it because the public defender filed a motion the night before but the judge wants to hear it that day, we don't have the ability to research where it is or if it exists and they know it,” Stanley continued. “The judge is not supposed to hear it the next day. They're supposed to set it out, but they do hear it. What our attorneys are doing is asking the court to dismiss the case without prejudice if it appears we don't have everything or there may be a violation. Why? First, we can refile the case later when we know what law enforcement has and what we have. Second, if the public defender files a motion to dismiss and it's granted, it's never, ever without prejudice and we lose all ability to prosecute that case again. That's what (certain law enforcement) does not understand. (They) just see the dismissals. (They) don't understand why it was dismissed and they don't reach out to me or the attorney assigned to the case so I can explain it.”
Also, there are 100s of private attorneys in this area, who are not complaining on the news. It's only a couple attorneys in the public defender's office, Stanley added.
“However, in the other three counties, this just does not happen,” she said. “The other thing Rule 16 states is a requirement to confer with the other side. If the defense has some document or they don't even know it exists, they're supposed to come to us and ask us about it. Quite frankly, in Fremont County, it's my firm opinion that the public defenders know they have a sympathetic ear with the Polis appointed judges so they will file a motion the night before, which they're not supposed to do and they won't confer with us, which is against the rules, and Rule 16 says no motion shall be filed, (but) they file a motion. They get away with all of this here in Fremont County. That kind of gamesmanship just doesn't occur with any kind of frequency (in three other counties). We really have no issues overall with the other judges in this district. We rarely, if ever, have problems with discovery or with law enforcement.”
She pointed out that Fremont County Sheriff Cooper's allegations are incorrect.
“I'm not going to talk about specific cases because they're still open and I'm not going to jeopardize those cases,” Stanley said. “He should do the same. Right now, he's tampering with a potential jury pool by making claims that are, at least partially, incorrect and if he wants to see that they're not correct, I will show him, but I will not put that information out into the media and try to tamper with a potential jury. By doing that, he is assisting in the likelihood of a not guilty verdict at trial.” She added that the entire time she has been in office, Sheriff Cooper has refused to meet with her one on one. This was confirmed recently when The Crusader attempted to set up a meeting between Cooper and Stanley. Stanley confirmed. Cooper refused.
To add to the frustration, Stanley stated everyone in her office has been doing the job of one and a half people.
“Everybody who works at our office has not had a raise in two years,” she said. “Nobody. Because we can't afford it. We continue to get work piled on us with no relief in sight. For instance, starting last year, the legislature passed a new law that requires weekend advisements (so no one has to wait until Monday to see a judge). That's every Saturday and Sunday.”
Prior to the new legislation, if somebody was arrested on a Friday night and taken to jail, that person would not see a judge until Monday morning. But with the new legislation, the DA's office must be available around 3 or 4 on Saturday and Sunday to read all the cases (in all four counties) and be ready to argue for bond at 6 p.m.
“There was nothing in that bill to help fund these new requirements,” Stanley continued. “So now we have attorneys work right through their dinner on weekends and there's no extra pay for it. This also includes administrators who have to set up the cases and victim advocates who have to contact the victims.” She added the public defenders have hired contract attorneys to conduct their weekend advisements, but their budgets are funded by the State and are much larger than the District Attorney's office which is funded by the Counties. “We're working these people to the bone right now. The only reason I haven't had a whole lot of people leave, quite frankly, is because we've created a very good environment. It's like a family environment. That's why, I think, they don't leave.”
When the County Commissioners only gave the DA's office a 3 percent cost of living raise, she told the Commissioners she would lose good attorneys, which she did. “Even gas went up more than 3 percent,” Stanley added. In the meantime, as far as administrative assistants and paralegals, the average salary in Fremont County is a little more than $44,000 a year, which is 8 percent lower than the U.S. average, Stanley added, quoting recent data.
“Our administrative assistants make around $45,000 so it's about $700 more than the average,” she said. “The people who are doing this kind of work, where they're trusted to keep things confidential and are working so many hours on so many cases, should get paid a little higher than the median because of the nature of their position, but they don't because I can't give them a raise.”
Stanley also wanted to address some specific allegations regarding certain media outlets and their sensationalism of the facts. For instance, recently there were allegedly 30 cases or so that have had discovery violations in the last two years (since she has been in office). What the media doesn't report is the problem. First, several of those violations occurred before Stanley was in office. Second, after totaling the number of cases the DA's office has handled over that period of time, the 30 cases are less than 1 percent of the total cases handled (and as she stated previously, mistakes will happen when the system is run by human beings). Third, what is that percentage compared to the other 21 judicial districts in the State of Colorado? Compare apples to apples. Fourth, why are the vast majority of those cases in Fremont County? Fifth, why are the majority of those cases, if not all, only with the public defender's office?
Stanley believes this is a political attack. But she will not step down.
She said, “I will continue to take the arrows in my back and the insulting comments from the media because I simply won't allow another Polis appointed District Attorney for the 11th Judicial District.”
When she was asked if she had concerns about any of the allegations, she said, “I walk by Faith, not by sight.”