Ritter accuses Beauprez campaign of illegal research

Alan Gathright and Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 14, 2006 at midnight

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Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter today asked the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to investigate whether his Republican opponent Bob Beauprez’s campaign broke the law by improperly tapping into a criminal justice database for material for a TV attack ad.

"Your campaign broke the law," an angry Ritter said during a debate taped at Fox 31 News in Denver this afternoon.

Ritter accused Beauprez of getting someone to access the FBI’s National Crime Information Center -- NCIC -- database to obtain ammunition for the ad attacking the former Denver district attorney’s handling of a plea-bargain for an illegal immigrant offender. Ritter has asked the CBI, which guards the security of the highly restricted criminal database used by local law enforcement agencies, to investigate whether the Beauprez campaign violated state and federal laws.

Beauprez denied any wrongdoing and accused Ritter of trying to change the subject away from his record of granting plea bargains that allowed immigrants -- both legal and illegal -- to avoid deportation.

"This is a bait and switch," Beauprez said. "He's trying to divert off the point. He's supposed to preserve the public safety and I don't believe he did."

Beauprez said his campaign has nothing to hide. "We'll go through the file, we'll demonstrate we got our information legally," he said.