Private eye says Trailhead hired him to gather data

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By Karen E. Crummy, The Denver Post November 21, 2007

One of the mysteries surrounding the case of a federal agent who accessed confidential information used by Republican Bob Beauprez's 2006 gubernatorial campaign has been solved.

A Texas private eye came forward Tuesday, saying he was hired by a Republican political committee — The Trailhead Group — to track down information about an illegal immigrant featured in a Beauprez campaign ad. The ad criticized Democrat Bill Ritter and plea deals his office made with illegal immigrants while he was Denver district attorney.

State and federal investigative reports cited by the agent's attorneys in court filings last month alleged that the Houston-based private eye, now identified as Kenny Rodgers, had been hired by the Colorado GOP.

The revelation coincided with Tuesday's federal arraignment of the immigration and customs agent, Cory Voorhis, who faces three misdemeanor counts of exceeding his authorized access to a government computer.

Rodgers, head of Gulf Coast AccuSearch, said he asked a friend in the Harris County, Texas, district attorney's office to use a restricted database, the National Crime Information Center, to locate information about the illegal immigrant. Access to the NCIC is restricted to law-enforcement officers, federal workers and, in limited cases, members of Congress.

In addition to Rodgers' friend, the Denver district attorney's office also accessed the NCIC to find information about the illegal immigrant. The information was printed by an employee and given to District Attorney Mitch Morrissey for "informational purposes," according to DA communications director Lynn Kimbrough....

With the Colorado GOP off the hook, its chair, Dick Wadhams, took a swing at Ritter.

"If Cory Voorhis did something wrong, then the Denver district attorney, in conjunction with the Ritter campaign, did something equally wrong," he said. "The same standard should apply."

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