FREMONT COUNTY, Colo. — A district attorney in Colorado is being compared to the criminals she prosecutes. Linda Stanley is already under investigation by the Colorado Supreme Court, as one of the sheriffs in her district urged her to resign.
"I think one of the things that fascinates me about this line of work is that I’ve always tried to figure out, 'why do people do the things they do?'" said Fremont County Sheriff Allen Cooper. "I see a lot of Ms. Stanley in people I’ve arrested and put behind bars. It’s the same thought process that it’s everybody’s fault but mine."
Stanley, who is district attorney for the 11th Judicial District, is under investigation by the Colorado Supreme Court for withholding information from defense counsels, launching a secret investigation into a judge, and a long list of alleged violations.
"I’ve worked with six or seven district attorneys in my career. Some have been very good. Some have been average. And one has been really bad," Cooper told 9NEWS in an interview on Monday.
"Do you trust Linda Stanley to do large investigations?" 9NEWS reporter Marc Sallinger asked Cooper.
"No," he said.
"You don’t trust her with anything?" Sallinger asked.
"No," Cooper said.
Cooper is a Republican, just like Stanley. Yet he wants to see her out of office, even if it means Democratic Gov. Jared Polis would likely replace her with a Democrat.
"Everybody makes mistakes," Cooper said. "But in my mind, there are two types of mistakes. There’s a mistake in judgment, which you can generally learn from. I like to turn those into life lessons. But then there’s a mistake in character. A mistake in character is part of who you are. And that I can’t fix. That’s what I told the Republican Central Committee, I can’t fix Linda."
Cooper said he’s filed multiple complaints with the Attorney Regulation Counsel against lawyers in the DA’s office led by Stanley. He said his office has presented cases to the district attorney that were turned down for no reason.
"I know what makes a good case, and I know what makes a prosecutable case. And I’ve seen those dismissed. Dismissed out of hand," Cooper said.
"Even though they should’ve been prosecuted?" Sallinger asked.
"They should have been prosecuted," Cooper said.
Last week, 9NEWS heard from former Judge Ramsey Lama who accused Stanley of launching a secret investigation into his family to get retribution for rulings he made. Stanley could end up losing her law license in the Supreme Court investigation.
As the number of elected officials and people in power speaking out against her grows, the one person we’ve never heard from is Stanley herself. 9NEWS reached out to Stanley again on Monday but never heard back.
Cooper says the people who lose the most are the victims who don’t see justice. Stanley was censured in 2019 by the state for abandoning a client in a case. Charges in cases she’s tried recently have been dismissed or lessened in-part because of court violations by the DA’s office.
"The reason that I do this is for the victims out there. Somebody has got to fight for them," said Cooper.
"And it’s not Linda Stanley?" Sallinger asked.
" No," Cooper replied.
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