ICE agent cleared in leak case

Voorhis' access of crime database legal, jury says

By Ann Imse, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Chris Schneider / The Rocky

Immigration agent Cory Voorhis enters the federal courthouse in Denver before being acquitted of illegally obtaining information used by Bob Beauprez's 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

Immigration agent Cory Voorhis "was basically doing his job" when he provided confidential information on illegal-immigrant plea bargains for a campaign ad against now-Gov. Bill Ritter, said the foreman of the jury that found Voorhis not guilty Wednesday.

Eighteen months after Bob Beauprez's campaign for governor collapsed over charges that Voorhis illegally provided secret government information for the ad, the jury said there was nothing criminal about it.

Voorhis had told the Beauprez campaign that an accused heroin dealer, who was allowed to plead to trespassing on farmland in Denver, was the same man later arrested under a different name on a charge of sexual assault on a child in San Francisco. The sex charge was dropped, but the ad did not say that.

Wednesday, a crowd of 50 supporters erupted in applause and cheers as soon as the judge let them. "Thank God!" one said.

'Restoration of reputation'

Voorhis hugged his wife, Paula, and then one friend after another who had sat through the eight- day trial. Then, the veteran immigration agent collapsed in a courtroom chair, head in hands, alone in the crowd.

His lawyer later spoke for him.

"For Cory Voorhis, this was about telling the truth and about public safety," said Bill Taylor of the legal firm Holland and Hart. "He sees this verdict as restoration of his reputation."

The defense had told the jury that Voorhis' job description as a special agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement included investigations that "led to change in laws."

Jury foreman Craig Disney said the jury decided that is what Voorhis was doing when he told the Beauprez campaign that illegal immigrants were getting plea bargains from Ritter's office when he was Denver district attorney.

Voorhis told the campaign that the immigration agency would not deport the illegals unless the convictions were more serious, the defense said.

As an immigration agent, "he is to change policy and procedures and change court decisions," Disney said. "It was clear as day it was in his job description."

In addition, Voorhis "was supposed to cultivate relationships with politicians and the media," the foreman noted.

The jury also found that Voorhis had nothing to gain personally from his actions, Disney said.

'Travesty of justice'

Beauprez - who was not called to testify and, from testimony, had no direct role in the Voorhis leak - said he was "ecstatic" to hear the verdict.

He called the case "a travesty of justice" and "a witch hunt."

"I thought Cory was a hero 18 months ago, and I'm just delighted a jury agreed with that. I always thought a legitimate injustice had been brought to light," Beauprez said.

The former congressman also told a radio station that he intends to write a large check for Voorhis' legal fees.

Beauprez was trailing Ritter by double digits in the polls in October 2006 when his campaign ran the ad on the heroin dealer. His staff thought it would turn the campaign around.

Instead, Ritter said the Beauprez campaign could not have discovered that the Walter Ramo in Colorado was the same man as the Carlos Estrada Medina in California without illegally accessing a national crime database. Only the FBI had matched fingerprints in the two cases.

Soon, complaints about Ritter's plea bargaining were lost in the allegations that the Beauprez campaign had violated the law and used secret government information for political purposes.

Prosecutors never said it was illegal for Voorhis to tip the Beauprez campaign that Ritter's office had handled a series of plea bargains to trespassing on farmland. Instead, they charged Voorhis with misdemeanors for using his special agent status to access the National Crime Information Center to figure out whether several of those given plea bargains were illegal immigrants.

His agency, ICE, refuses to reveal to the public whether a particular person is in the country illegally. So when the Beauprez campaign tried to confirm Voorhis' tip about Estrada Medina through public records, it failed. Only the NCIC tied the two cases.

"He never should have been prosecuted," said friend Mike Riebau, who led a drive that collected $40,000 toward Voorhis' legal bills, which he said total about $250,000. "It should have been an administrative investigation (at his job) at best."

"This was a case where the criminal justice system was hijacked and used for political retaliation," Riebau said.

The U.S. District Court jury took less than three hours to find Voorhis not guilty.

The immigration agent could have faced a possible penalty of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for each of two counts.

Voorhis remains on unpaid administrative leave and now must try to get his job back, attorney Taylor said.

imsea@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5438

• April 10, 2008

  5:17 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  ColetteDD2 writes:

  I wouldn't hold your breath or bet on this guy getting his job back. Unpaid administrative leave indicates his employer decided his actions were inappropriate. Today's court decision may have labeled them not illegal but no way in hannah were they appropriate. He's about to get schooled on the difference between those two standards.

  Colette, Denver, CO

• April 10, 2008

  6:02 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  HumanBeans writes:

  "Cory was trying to shed light on a practice that jeopardized public safety."

  Ritter needs to be put on trial, giving a scumbag criminal illegal alien heroin dealer an AG tresspass plea bargain. WTF?

  Cory, you are a true American hero!!!!!

• April 10, 2008

  6:06 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  HumanBeans writes:

  As an immigration agent, "he is to change policy and procedures and change court decisions," Disney said. "It was clear as day it was in his job description."

  HAHA all you "put him in jail" fools, Ritter needs to be behind bars with all his criminal illegal alien heroin drug dealin buddies!!!!!!!!

• April 10, 2008

  6:09 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  HumanBeans writes:

  Soon, complaints about Ritter's plea bargaining were lost in the allegations!

  Ritter go to H_E_L_L!

• April 10, 2008

  6:18 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  HumanBeans writes:

  The sex charge was dropped, but the ad did not say that.

  The pro illegal RockyMountainNews did not mention that the parents of the child that got molested by the criminal illegal alien heroin dealer that Ritter let go, were also illegal and fled. Tell the whole story, how pathetic!!!!!!!

• April 10, 2008

  6:31 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  TW writes:

  I'm glad that Cory was spared from this star chamber prosecution orchestrated by Ritter and his lackeys.

  Ritter's record as a DA is a disgrace; his use of 'agricultural trespass' to ensure that illegal alien drug dealers would be able to remain in the US is a slap in the face to every citizen. Cory Voorhis did nothing more than shine the light on the rats hiding in the corner.

• April 10, 2008

  7:11 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Froward69 writes:

  'Travesty of justice' Gopray gets it wrong again the jury found him NOT GUILTY! I support our legal system and I respect a Jury's verdict. like I respect the jury's verdict in the Exxon valdies case also... Including the punitive damages.

  Now if GOpray had won the election Voorhis would have a nice cushy job, and we never would have heard about this. Justice has been served!

• April 10, 2008

  7:15 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  HumanBeans writes:

  lcdrjjxant
  We'll git him yet.

  Cory did nothing wrong, what are you "git him" for?
  Go kiss Ritters butt!!!!!!!

• April 10, 2008

  7:17 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  polyglot writes:

  Gee of all the posts which one is a bureaucrat? Voorhis is a whistle blower in the classic sense not one who had to tell the IG or some other bureaucrat before doing the right thing.

  If you are going to "get" Cory does that mean you will also "get" Ritter's buddies at the DA's office who truly were accessing the database for political gain.

• April 10, 2008

  7:19 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  OperationChaos writes:

  Where was the ACLU on this one? Were they defending the illegal alien's right to do a job (drug dealing) that Americans won't do?

• April 10, 2008

  7:20 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  hdfresh writes:

  Yeah I don't think he will be getting his job back. He will probably lose his security clearance and lose any possibility of working for the government again, unfortunately.

• April 10, 2008

  7:37 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  BikerChick writes:

  ..
  While Ritter is sometimes a nice guy, he is corrupted by power... which he used to carry out the wishes of his Bishop to provide untoward and illegal assistance to criminal aliens. His unconscionable behaviors and processes are carefully disguised.

  Ritters key staff, to include Evan Dreyer, Stephanie Villafuerte and Trey Rogers... stood with their boss in their public declarations that Voorhis was guilty. This is gross and indecent malfeasance.

  Illegal alien criminals have no Constitutionally protected rights in the USA... but most local District Attorneys fail to recognize that. Illegal aliens have displaced tens of millions of U S citizens in the workplace, which is causative in the ongoing recession. Ritter and the Catholic Church see it another way. In a strange way, the 'immigrants' have saved the U S Catholic Church - so we have a weird dichotomy here.

  The same bishops who looked aside while their priests decimated young church members in their predatory sexual misbehaviors are ecstatic that the illegals and their dollars have come to town. Hence, they once again turn a blind eye to support the unlawful behaviors of the employers and the illegal aliens.

  Until We-the-People demand that Ritter aggressively enforce existing state and federal laws, which is his sworn duty, the root-cause of illegal immigration will continue unchecked. Rather than covet the Hispanic vote, Ritter and his peers must awaken to a higher calling - to do the bidding of the majority of We-the-People. It is the flagrant, unconscionable and illegal enticement and hiring of illegal aliens that must be stopped.

  To turn that tide, according to the 100th-monkey theorem, 99 Colorrado employers must go to jail. When Ritter decides to enforce the laws appropriately, that will happen. The Colorado General Assembly can force his hand.

  Rather than pretend that Colorado is harsh on employers, we must emulate Arizona and Oklahoma and walk the talk.

  ..

• April 10, 2008

  7:45 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  hoppman writes:

  This guy was wasting tax payer money. If any of the anti-Ritter crowd can show me where it is in this guys job description to turn this kind of information over to the Republican party, then I want to see it. "he is to change policy and procedures and change court decisions," that doesn't say cater to the whims of the Republican party. There is a correct way and a wrong way to go about it and he went about it the wrong way. This guy was playing partisan politics on company time and he should be fired. This is no different than the contractors that were illegally accessing passport records of presidential candidates, other than they haven't used that information for political means that we know of. Voorhis was playing politics on the job, plain and simple. FIRE HIM!!!!

• April 10, 2008

  8:53 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  JSeifert writes:

  Again a Democrat brakes the law and a person who outs him goes on trial. If you look at every case when someone outed a Democrat they were put on trial so the media would leave the Democrat alone. Can not wait for Osama, Obama and her mamma to get in office.

• April 10, 2008

  8:55 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  mojambo writes:

  Evan Dreyer should be fired from Ritter's staff for describing Voorhis as a "despicable criminal," then Voorhis should sue his a$$ for libel.

• April 10, 2008

  9:11 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  mojambo writes:

  Scratch that - sue him for slander and defamation

• April 10, 2008

  9:49 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Froward69 writes:

  mojambo, aren't republicans adverse to sue happy society? or is it just Democrats who sue that are clogging the system?

• April 10, 2008

  10:02 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  RickyLee writes:

  hoppman

  The jury(the people)have spoken. We American citizens are fed up with ILLEGAL ALIENS, and the jury represented the people beautifully. It's hard not to notice that any allies you may have in defending the worthless guv Critter won't even speak up about this. FINALLY, the citizens come out on top of some scumbag like the ILLEGAL ALIEN HEROIN DEALER RAPIST that Critter cares about
  over American citizens.

  Time for a citizen measure to IMPRISON anyone who employs ILLEGALS.

  And it's past time to RECALL RITTER.

• April 10, 2008

  10:11 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  ilovegambling writes:

  I'm no fan of Ritters (his record on prosecuting cops for abuse of power was atrocious), but I still don't see how Voorhis actions were justified. If he truly wanted to blow the whistle on Ritter and the Ag trespass deals then why didn't he notify the press? Why did he feel that running to the Beauprez campaign was the best course of action? It smacks of playing politics. I also don't like Federal Agents abusing NCIC database privileges for political gain. I hope he gets his career back. As to "prosecute Ritter", people need to realize that plea bargains are so much more commonplace than we know...that's how they keep the courts moving along. If you don't like it, use the ballot box, and vote your DA out when the opportunity arises.

• April 10, 2008

  10:15 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  mojambo writes:

  What's your point?

• April 10, 2008

  10:59 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  ezekiel777 writes:

  yeah!

• April 10, 2008

  11:06 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  LoFat writes:

  I see the liberals are once again trying to shift the blame from the guilty to the innocent. Ritter's campaign broke the law and Voorhis gets punished. Ritter has already done unspeakable damage to the State of Colorado and its citizens. Changing tax codes in an attempt to raise taxes, mandatory health insurance, allowing the tree huggers and nimbys to set drilling policies for the oil companies, and trying multiple end runs around the Bruce Amendment.

  But, I guess it all depends on how you define "is".

• April 10, 2008

  11:46 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Truthsayer writes:

  Gee, Beaubrez's own campaign manager (Marshall) testifies in court that Voorhis was his informant for the information used in the ad (and that he provided Marshall with information on several occasions to be used for political purposes), but somehow the jury doesn't think that Voorhis had any political motivations. What a bunch of bunk. I smell several rats on this one.....and both Ritter and Voorhis are in that ratpack.....along with Beauprez.

• April 10, 2008

  12:50 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  redwhiteandBLUE writes:

  Cory can't go back to work at the ICE office that back-stabbed him, and sent walking papers with co-workers to the parking lot.

  I wish him and his family well. Hope he can get employment somewhere else where he will be appreciated.

  First, he needs to be compensated for 18mo. of grief.

• April 10, 2008

  2:17 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Mtn__Gator writes:

  Ritter is a joke, one term Gov. There have been may statements made about how the Dems didn't really want him. He's weak, as proven by his DA record. Plea bargins just make his life easy, very little work, just like what we are getting from him now!

• April 10, 2008

  2:18 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  happymike44 writes:

  First of all our border patrol agent are under the gun.The drug cartels want them dead and shoot at the patrols all the time.We are under seige by dope dealers and illegal immigrants who want to take over our country and destroy the american way of life.These guys are working to protect us and he should never have lost his job,if he spoke the truth.I have worked for people who direct you to handle a situation and then report you and terminate you for following their instructions.Hope he gets a big settlement,from his former employer.

• April 10, 2008

  3:54 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  RickyLee writes:

  RECALL RITTER.....then.....put a citizen intiative on the ballot that will force the "justice" system to JAIL ANYONE WHO EMPLOYS
  ILLEGAL ALIENS. A similar law is enjoying tremendous success
  in Oklahoma. We badly need one here in Colorado.

• April 10, 2008

  5:38 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Campbell writes:

  Misuse of Power

  Bill Ritter has a history. He has a history of violating the trust of the people.

  Bill Ritter obstructed justice as District Attorney.

  He has used state resources and his power as governor to attack an innocent man and his family. He has openly used his powers as governor for political vengeance to take down a seasoned law officer, a senior special agent and Gulf War veteran. Bill Ritter has abused his powers given to him by the people of the state of Colorado.

  Bill Ritter should be called upon to resign as governor of the state of Colorado.

• April 10, 2008

  7:18 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  outrider writes:

  Good prevails Ritter, Hickenlooper, and Beauprez show again how power based they are. It has nothing to do with whats good for the State it's what appeals to these appalling Politicians.

  Time for some vengeance of our own.

• April 11, 2008

  6:22 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Alive writes:

  I submit that Governor Ritter puts other interests ahead of the interests of Colorado residents who also happen to be United States citizens. He chose to go real easy on some bad characters while he was DA. He will protect himself and his cronies above all else.

  We MUST hold a recall on this less than honest man.

• April 11, 2008

  12:22 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Truthsayer writes:

  I still don't understand how anyone can call Voorhis a "great man" for using his own power to influence an election? He was clearly giving the Beaubrez camp the info to be used for political purposes in my opinion, and that is at the least unethical, at the most illegal. How is someone "great" when they break the very laws they are hired to enforce?

• April 13, 2008

  3:21 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  rickg19611 writes:

  ROFLAMO..... Democrats get burned AGAIN!!!!

  Between deranged morons like Seamanjjxant and blobuffs, the only people looking dumber is the idiot prosecutor that got smoked by a jury.