Federal agent apologizes for disrupting Colo. gubernatorial campaign with plea-agreement info

By Associated Press, International Herald-Tribune, April 15, 2008

A federal agent cleared of misusing a restricted criminal database apologized for disrupting Bob Beauprez's gubernatorial campaign and defended his action as public service rather than political activism, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

The information Cory Voorhis accessed later appeared in an political advertisement slamming eventual winner, Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter.

Voorhis said he initiated the contact with the campaign and he felt his apology was appropriate because he had been mistakenly described as a confidential informant for Beauprez.

"My view of the relationship and situation has always been that it was I who utilized the opportunity of your involvement in the public debate about immigration matters to expose what I perceived as a dangerous public policy," Voorhis said in a letter to Beauprez, dated Thursday, a day after his acquittal.

Voorhis also thanked Beauprez for weathering personal attacks when he didn't publicly identify Voorhis as the source, because that would have portrayed Voorhis as "something I never was, a political activist."

Voorhis was found not guilty of exceeding his authorized access to government computers, and prosecutors argued he had acted for political purposes during the 2006 campaign.

In a statement, Beauprez praised Voorhis as a "hero" and said he never spoke to him until after the trial.

The information taken from the criminal database dealt with suspects who accepted plea deals with Ritter when he was Denver district attorney.

One of those suspects, an illegal immigrant facing a heroin charge, was allowed to plead to a less serious charge of agricultural trespassing, which allowed him to avoid deportation.

An ad run by Beauprez, Ritter's opponent in the race, alleged that after getting that plea deal, the suspect was charged with a sex crime in California. Ritter criticized the ads, saying they mischaracterized the case.

Read the complete article.

Fair Use: This site contains copyrighted material, the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of issues related to mass immigration. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information, see: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000107----000-.html.
In order to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.