ICE agent hearing begins

By Sue Burnett, Rocky Mountain News, February 1, 2008

The second-in-command at the Denver District Attorney's office testified today he had an assistant look up information on an illegal immigrant in October 2006 so he could do "due diligence" on the case — not to help the gubernatorial campaign of his former boss, Democrat Bill Ritter.

Assistant District Attorney Charles Lepley said the office needed to confirm for the media whether the immigrant named by Republican Bob Beauprez's campaign in an attack ad against Ritter was the same person who got a plea deal when Ritter was district attorney.

He also wanted to check whether the man was wanted on a warrant for failing to appear in court in Denver, Lepley said.

His testimony came during a hearing in the federal case against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis.

Prosecutors say Voorhis accessed the National Crime Information Center database to obtain information on illegal immigrants who received plea deals from Ritter, then passed the information on to the Beauprez campaign.

By law, the database, known as NCIC, may be accessed for law enforcement purposes only.

Voorhis is charged with one count of exceeding his authorized access, a misdemeanor.

He has been placed on unpaid administrative leave.

His attorneys are arguing today that the case against Voorhis should be dismissed because he is the target of a selective prosecution.

Three employees of the district attorney's office accessed the same information — even using it to answer questions from the Ritter campaign — and were not prosecuted for it, defense attorney William Taylor says.

In addition to Lepley, the others who obtained the information were Brenda Wellington, executive secretary to District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, and Communications Director Lynn Kimbrough.

All three testified today they accessed the information as part of their jobs, not as a special favor to Ritter....

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