ICE agent charged with leaking information to Beauprez campaign

Alan Gathright and David Montero, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 26, 2007 at midnight

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Almost a year after Bob Beauprez lost the governor's race, one of the more controversial remnants of his campaign bubbled to the surface Thursday morning.

A federal immigration agent in Denver was charged by the U.S Attorney's office in Wyoming for allegedly leaking information from a national crime database to Beauprez for attack ads against his opponent.

Beauprez, the Republican candidate, ran ads accusing Democrat Bill Ritter of giving plea bargains on drug-dealing charges to illegal immigrants when Ritter was Denver district attorney.

Key information for those ads came from the National Crime Information Center database, which is supposed to be used only for law enforcement purposes.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Cory Voorhis was charged with three counts of exceeding his authorized access to a government computer, according to a statement issued by acting Wyoming U.S. Attorney John Green.

Each count is a Class A misdemeanor. If convicted, Voorhis, 38, faces a maximum punishment of three years in prison and a $300,000 fine.

Ritter reacted angrily

Beauprez said it was "a mystery" that this was coming up now.

"It's been a long time and I honestly thought it was a closed deal. Finished business," he said. "I don't really know what else to say about it."

But Ritter's office did.

Back during the campaign, Ritter angrily responded to the attack ads and the allegations that Voorhis had leaked the information to Beauprez's camp. Beauprez at the time praised the action as that of a heroic whistleblower expressing frustration over the plea bargains.

"For a law enforcement officer to break the law and be congratulated by a congressman is something all Coloradans should be disgusted by," Ritter said at the time.

Thursday, the governor's office issued another statement in light of the charges.

"As a former prosecutor, Governor Ritter always believed this incident involved a very clear violation of law and breech of the public trust," spokesman Evan Dreyer said. "These charges only reinforce that belief, and the legal process must now move ahead."

Voorhis placed on leave

Green's office took over after federal prosecutors in Denver recused themselves because they have worked with Voorhis on several immigration investigations.

Voorhis was placed on administrative leave soon after the controversy became public. He returned to work on Feb. 5. A spokesman for ICE said an officer at Voorhis' pay grade makes $80,355 to $104,464 per year.

Carl Rusnok, spokesman for ICE, issued a brief statement revealing Voorhis was placed back on administrative leave Thursday and that "ICE expects all its employees to uphold the highest standards of ethics."

A call to Voorhis home was answered by a woman who referred calls to his attorney, Bill Taylor, who did not return calls.

'Did the right thing'

At the time of the campaign, Beauprez denied knowing the source of the information was Voorhis, a registered Republican from Morrison.

Beauprez, then a Republican congressman, described his anonymous source as a frustrated law man who'd had a "belly-full" over Ritter granting plea deals to illegal immigrants who committed serious crimes.

The agent "did the right thing," Beauprez said in October 2006 as the November election neared.

"By exposing the truth, he broke the law," Beauprez said of the source of the information at the time. But Beauprez's campaign stressed neither the candidate nor his staff had any idea their source might have obtained the information improperly.

Beauprez maintained that stance on Thursday — pointing out the charges against Voorhis were still allegations and hadn't been proven in court.

"To this day, I've never met the man or talked with him on the phone," Beauprez said.

Correspondent Marilyn Robinson contributed to this report.

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