A Colorado judge this week stopped public livestreaming of court proceedings in the high-profile murder case against Barry Morphew after at least two YouTube accounts violated state law that prohibits the recording and rebroadcasting of the court’s videos.
In a Monday order, 12th Judicial District Chief Judge Amanda Hopkins shut off virtual public access to the proceedings on the grounds that doing so was necessary to preserve Morphew’s rights amid “an unbelievable amount of local, state, national and international attention.”
Morphew, 58, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Suzanne Morphew, 49, who disappeared from the family’s Chaffee County home in 2020 and was found buried in a shallow grave near Moffat in 2023. Morphew initially was charged in 2021 with his wife’s death, but the case was dropped in 2022 after extensive misconduct by prosecutors that resulted in 11th Judicial District Attorney Linda Stanley being disbarred.
Morphew was arrested and charged for a second time in June and has maintained his innocence since his wife’s disappearance.
Hopkins found that a YouTube channel called JLR Investigates posted a recording of the court’s livestream of a September hearing in the Morphew case in violation of judicial rules. The recording that was posted to YouTube included an admonition that no recording was allowed, the judge wrote in the 10-page order.
JLR Investigates has about 450,000 subscribers on YouTube. This particular Morphew video was viewed about 17,000 times, with commenters discussing “conspiracy theories” about the case and threatening violence against the judge, attorneys and victims, Hopkins wrote in her order.
She noted that other YouTube accounts also reposted the court’s livestreams, but did not name them.
“If I do not pause the unfettered livestreaming of hearings in this case, at best, the unlawful recordings and ‘venomous’ commentary may affect both or either party’s right to a fair trial by tainting the small jury pool through the prevalence of factual inaccuracies and the court of public opinion,” Hopkins wrote. “While the impact of outside commentary is not an uncommon concern in a high-profile case, what is occurring because of the behavior of the (YouTubers) rises to a level of seriousness beyond that which something like a change of venue could resolve. At worst, the calls for and acts of violence against the parties and legal professionals will lead to someone being physically hurt.”
Colorado courts are required by state law to livestream most criminal proceedings, but judges are allowed to turn off that virtual public access if they find the livestream compromises anyone’s safety, the defendant’s right to a fair trial or victims’ rights, as long as the judge finds there is no “less restrictive alternative” to allow the public continue to watch remotely while preserving those rights.
“Any less restrictive remedies would prove fruitless,” Hopkins wrote. “The Colorado Judicial Department has posted, in several places, admonitions against precisely the type of behavior which has occurred — recording livestreaming. Those warnings were ignored and even included in the unlawfully reproduced material.”
People who violate state law around recording the court’s livestream can be subject to contempt of court, which can carry a fine, jail time or both — though Hopkins noted in her order that it would be impractical to pursue contempt of court against all of the offending YouTube and true crime social accounts in Morphew’s case.
Hopkins will allow credentialed members of the media to watch the Morphew case virtually on a separate online platform that gives court staff control over who can and can’t observe. Members of the media will be required to identify themselves and meet other conditions in order to remain on the platform.
Members of the public can still attend the court hearings in person at the courthouse in Alamosa in southern Colorado.
Hopkins said she might restore the livestream in the future for particular hearings or proceedings as circumstances allow.
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