Texas PI admits role in Beauprez campaign flap

By Lynn Bartels, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 12:07 p.m., November 20, 2007
Updated 12:07 p.m., November 20, 2007

A private investigator from Texas hired last year to dig into Democrat Bill Ritter's background for a Colorado Republican group admitted today that he asked "a buddy" to access an off-limits criminal database.

Kenny Rodgers, 57, said his friend, who worked for the Harris County District Attorney's Office in Houston at the time, looked up information in the National Crime Information Center, known as NCIC.

"My buddy who looked it up is in deep trouble because of me," Rodgers told the Rocky Mountain News.

A Colorado federal agent already has been charged with accessing NCIC — which is to be used for law enforcement purposes only — and providing information to Ritter's 2006 gubernatorial opponent, Republican Bob Beauprez. Beauprez then ran ads critical of Ritter, a former Denver district attorney, for giving plea bargains to illegal immigrants.

Agent Cory Voorhis' attorneys this month filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Denver, contending selective prosecution. The attorneys said officials in Denver and Texas accessed the same database for the same information and were not charged.

Harris County began an investigation after the motion was filed, Rodger said.

Rodgers worked as as subcontractor for a Philadelphia investigative firm that was hired by The Trailhead Group, a political 527 committee founded by prominent Republicans, including former Gov. Bill Owens. The group's aim was to elect Republicans statewide in 2006.

Beauprez lost to Ritter in a landslide.

"I could care less who won that election, to be honest with you," Rodgers said. "I was hired to retrieve public records."

Rodgers said he had his friend check NCIC to find out which county in California had prosecuted an illegal immigrant once given a plea bargain by Ritter's office. Rodgers said he was told the information was to be used in a Beauprez TV ad.

Campaign law prohibits 527 groups from coordinating with campaigns. Trailhead's director, Alan Philp, last year said there were no violations and the information on plea bargaining illegal immigrants was well known among Republicans.

Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, said after the ad aired she fielded questions from reporters and a Ritter campaign staffer. She said they were particularly interested in the case of an illegal immigrant prosecuted by Ritter who later was charged under a different name in California of sexually assaulting a minor.

Reporters were unable to independently verify the details through public records.

Kimbrough said the office searched its computer and hard files, but couldn't confirm that the two names were used by the same defendant.

That's when she enlisted Morrissey's No. 2 man, Assistant District Attorney Chuck Lepley, to help, she said. He had an employee check NCIC.

Kimbrough said the office has accessed the database in other occasions to answer questions from the media.

After confirming that the defendant in California was the same person that Ritter had plea bargained, Kimbrough said she called reporters back. She said she likely called the Ritter campaign back, too.

She said the office never accessed the database to confirm information for the Ritter campaign or to attempt to find out who else might have looked up that information.

Beauprez's campaign manager earlier had said the campaign got the information from a federal database, but then he rescinded that statement.

• November 20, 2007

  1:51 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Spencer writes:

  Will we never get rid of the specter of former Gov Owens? Is he going to haunt our state forever? What will it take to get him to move back to Texas?

• November 20, 2007

  11:15 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  SteveM writes:

  I long for a return to the notion that a campaign can be about the people running and the dirt the people who aren't running can dig up. Who in their right minds wants to run anymore given the climate? I'm not saying criminals should be able to run, I'm just saying that if the only way you can win an election is to dig up dirt on your opponent, you're not worthy of the office yourself. Thank goodness the citizens of Colorado saw through the entire Beauprez campaign.

• November 21, 2007

  6:44 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  AlanR writes:

  If only Estrada Medina what-ever-his-name is had said something bad about Ritter someone would be looking for him and we could get rid of a heroin dealer pedophile. Look at all the time being invested by law enforcement to track down the source of information critical of Bill Ritter. Why isn't anyone looking for the criminal? Estrada Medina is still out there. Doesn't anyone care? Yo! Lynn Bartels . . . ya think there might be a story here? Oh, wait, it doesn't involve a republican