Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Beauprez ad sparks CBI probe

Beauprez staff denies info obtained illegally

Alan Gathright and Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 17, 2006 at midnight

Text size  

More Airlines & Aerospace

More stories »

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation notified Bob Beauprez's campaign Monday that agents will soon question his staffers about whether they illegally obtained information from an FBI database and used it to slam opponent Bill Ritter in a TV ad.

Beauprez's campaign manager, John Marshall, said they will cooperate with the CBI probe, which was triggered by a Ritter complaint.

But he refused to identify a mystery "informant" who provided the campaign with federal immigration case numbers that a federal official called confidential.

Marshall, who said he didn't know where the source got the information, insisted it would be "a total ethical breach to obtain information on the condition of anonymity and then to (reveal) that source."

"Look, there is an investigation going on now," Marshall said. "I'm not going to talk to you about any of that. We have done nothing wrong. There's no reason to believe that our source did anything inappropriate."

Marshall said the campaign would " cooperate fully (with CBI)," but wouldn't say whether investigators will interview Beauprez.

On Friday, Beauprez promised: "We'll go through the file. We'll demonstrate we got our information legally."

The furor erupted last week when Beauprez launched an ad blasting Ritter, a former Denver district attorney, for negotiating a plea bargain in 2001 with an illegal immigrant arrested for heroin dealing. The ad claims the man, who eventually was granted probation, was later arrested for lewd conduct with a child in San Francisco.

The Ritter campaign quickly demanded that Beauprez explain how he knew the defendant identified in the ad as "Carlos Estrada Medina" was the same man named "Walter Noel Ramo" in the Denver court case and identified as "Eugene Alfredo Estrada-Acosta" in the San Francisco sex offense.

Marshall said their informant was able to provide federal immigration codes, known as "A" numbers, confirming that all three names were used by the same illegal immigrant from Honduras. He insisted that the immigration codes sometimes can be found in court records.

But U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Carl Rusnok said the immigration code numbers are considered confidential under the federal privacy act.

"We don't provide 'A' numbers to the media or anyone else," he said.

On Monday, Ritter demanded that Beauprez name the source of the information for the ad, which was still airing that day.

"He should immediately disclose to the voters how he obtained confidential criminal justice records," Ritter said in a statement. "The congressman's campaign is based on accountability . . . He needs to be held accountable."

Marshall countered that it's Ritter who is using "this political sideshow three weeks out from an election to try and change the focus" from Ritter's record on prosecuting immigrants.

Evan Dreyer, a spokesman for Ritter, scoffed at Marshall's assertion that the source of the information was "confidential."

"You can't run a statewide election in Colorado based on confidential sources," Dreyer said. "Maybe that's how they do it in Washington - that's not how we do it here."

Top CBI officials said the agency should know by midweek if someone accessed the FBI database or its state counterpart to tap into the file of an illegal immigrant criminal cited in the Beauprez attack ad. So far, no subpoenas have been issued.

CBI Director Bob Cantwell said the FBI is assisting with the investigation. Gov. Bill Owens ordered the CBI to make the probe a priority.

Who is Carlos Estrada Medina?

The subject of an anti-Bill Ritter ad, Medina's rap sheet looks like this:

• Arrested for: Felony heroin distribution in Denver in 2001

• Sentence: He won a plea deal with the district attorney's office, headed by Ritter, and was given 63 days in jail, a two-year suspended prison sentence and two years on probation.

• Other offenses: Also using the name Walter Noel Ramo, Medina may have been arrested later in California for sexual abuse of a minor, under the name Eugene Alfredo Estrada-Acosta.