After being removed from a double murder and kidnapping case for discovery violations across 23 different cases, 11th Judicial District Attorney Jeff Lindsey announced his office is implementing reforms.

Lindsey and his office were removed from a Fremont County case on July 13 by Judge Lauren Swan, who called the violations an “egregious” pattern that’s persisted since Lindsey was appointed in November 2024, when former attorney Linda Stanley was disbarred for “reckless” discovery violations and public comments made over the Suzanne Morphew murder case. Lindsey was a deputy district attorney for the office at the time and was also part of that case.

Swan’s July 13 ruling was in the case of Toni Gurule, one of three people indicted in the deaths of two men whose bodies were found off Phantom Canyon Road in Fremont County in February 2022. Gurule’s counts were reduced to second-degree murder, and Swan ordered a special prosecutor be appointed to take over.

“Our office does not intervene in ongoing court cases. In responding to requests for information about whether our office is reviewing or investigating a particular complaint or attorney, we are bound by Colorado Rule of Professional Conduct 242.41. Pursuant to that rule, I can neither confirm nor deny that Mr. Lindsey is under any type of review by our office,” said Jessica Yates, spokesperson for the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel.

According to a news release, the District Attorney’s office considered appealing Swan’s order but decided against after speaking with senior members within the office and experienced Colorado appellate attorneys.

“Our responsibility now is not to continue litigation over the ruling, but to learn from it and make our office stronger,” Lindsey wrote in the release.

It states the office has made the following changes since the ruling:

• Reassigned attorneys within the office, including placing Lindsey in the division where the discovery issues occurred so he can provide direct oversight and implement improvements.
• Convened senior staff to conduct a comprehensive review of current discovery procedures.
• Scheduled mandatory staff office-wide training focused specifically on discovery obligations and best practices.
• Conducted a detailed review of the office’s intake process.
• Assigned a custodian dedicated to improving document management, records retention and discovery compliance.

In addition to the changes, the office is also consulting with the Prosecutors’ Center for Excellence and other district attorneys across the state to explore further improvements.

“These actions represent only the beginning of our efforts,” Lindsey wrote in the release. “We recognize that public confidence is earned through action, not words.”

Iris Eytan, a former defense and civil rights attorney who represented Barry Morphew and now runs a nonprofit called Protect Ethical Prosecutors, filed a complaint against Lindsey with state attorney regulators over his conduct in the Morphew case. An outspoken critic of the office, Eytan expressed her doubts that Lindsey is taking accountability.

“Lindsey is all but admitting in this statement that he lied under oath and hid evidence,” Eytan said in a statement. “Even though he’s done this over and over, he wants us to believe that this time he knows better.”

She called for an end to absolute immunity for prosecutors, saying district attorneys like Lindsey need to be held accountable for their actions that harm innocent people.

In an email, Lindsey told The Gazette he was not the assigned prosecutor on the Gurule case, though he oversaw it just as he would any other case.

He reiterated that he had had no memory of a 2021 plea deal involving one of the co-defendants, Anthony Fogle. The deal, said to be so highly unusual during testimony by a legal expert that it would be hard to forget, lowered Fogle’s several violent felony-level charges to a careless driving infraction. Lindsey’s signature was on it.

Fogle was released from prison, made a confidential informant (CI) for the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office and was later connected to the double homicide and kidnapping, which happened before his release, Lindsey said. Gurule’s defense learned that neither Lindsey nor a detective with the Sheriff’s Office filed the proper CI paperwork with the Department of Corrections; guidelines would prohibit Fogle from acting as one while on parole.

During testimony, Lindsey offered no explanation and claimed he had no memory of the plea deal.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated that the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel said it is not pursuing any disciplinary action against Lindsey at this time.