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Still plenty fishy in Voorhis prosecution

This Web only Speakout has not been edited.

Mike Hazzard

Published April 22, 2008 at 6 a.m.

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Here we go again. As everyone by now knows, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent Cory Voorhis has been acquitted of illegally accessing immigration information and funneling it to the Bob Beauprez gubernatorial campaign in 2006. I couldn’t be happier. But what of those who knew or should have known that Agent Voorhis didn’t deserve to be put through hell like this, and who may have secretly enjoyed seeing him go through it?

A little background information: Since Bill Ritter, Congressman Beauprez’s opponent in the gubernatorial race and current Colorado Governor, had no record in Washington to analyze, the Beauprez campaign began analyzing Governor Ritter’s record as a prosecutor here in Colorado. Analyzing the record of one’s opponent in a political race, in this case for Colorado Governor, is seemingly as old as time itself. However, the Beauprez campaign was accused by Ritter and his campaign of illegally accessing a criminal database regarding Ritter’s plea bargaining of the case of an illegal alien accused of heroin trafficking. (All the more hypocritical, since it appears several allies of Ritter did exactly the same thing!) This man is believed to have then gone on to commit a sex crime in another state. Not surprisingly, instead of dealing with the issue of the plea bargain, or any wrong doing on the part of his own campaign, Governor Ritter and his campaign attempted to shift everyone’s focus to the question of how the Beauprez campaign got the information in the first place.

While there is much, much more detail I could go into, I understand fully why DAs plea-bargain. However, we’re not talking about a traffic ticket here, rather, heroin trafficking. Not that I really expect frank answers, but I’d like to ask Governor Ritter why he pleaded this case down. Was he overloaded? Did he not feel there was sufficient evidence? How many other such cases did he treat in a similar manner? Was he making some kind of political statement regarding illegal aliens? Was he nearly so concerned in this instance with doing what’s right or with destroying a political opponent? Did he not feel it was worth his effort because ICE wouldn’t deal with it to his liking? (Governor Ritter claimed in a debate on the Mike Rosen show, which can be heard in its entirety on Mike’s web site at www.850koa.com, that ICE wouldn’t deport illegal aliens he prosecuted so why bother?, or words to that effect. As far as the illegal immigration database and the flap surrounding it are concerned, a wonderful editorial, “The real scandal in latest ‘leakgate’,” can be found in the Saturday, 10-21-2006 edition of the Rocky Mountain News.) And, finally, did Governor Ritter secretly relish the prosecution of Agent Voorhis because he wanted to put the fear of God into anyone who might cross him in the future?

I suspect the Governor would deny all of these things, but, as Mr. Rosen has rightly said in many instances, “Color me skeptical!” Instead of answering these and other questions which we citizens have every right to ask, Governor Ritter has instead endeavored to distract us by any means whatsoever, including ridiculing Congressman Beauprez’s assertion that he hadn’t known about the existence of the database to begin with, let alone that it might be illegal for certain persons to access it. (Bob has offered a perfectly reasonable explanation in that the database was buried in hundreds or thousands of pages of legislation which no one man could reasonably be expected to fully know.) It all comes down to this: I think we have a right to expect our DAs, and our governors, for that matter, to act in a certain way whether anyone else does or not. Two or three wrongs do not a right make. Governor Ritter should do what is right whether Bob Beauprez or ICE do or not, and let me hasten to add that there is no evidence Bob or his campaign did anything wrong (the database leak investigation focused on Agent Voorhis, the man who provided the information in question to the Beauprez campaign and who supposedly obtained and shared it illegally). Even if there were, the underlying question of Governor Ritter’s behavior, and that of his allies, would still exist. Governor Ritter and those siding with him say Bob should come clean regarding the database leak investigation. And that, within the limits of exercising and protecting his own legal rights and defending those he feels should be defended, which is exactly what Governor Ritter would do if the tables were turned, is precisely what Bob has done. The fact that Governor Ritter and others don’t like some of Bob’s answers doesn’t make them wrong. Congressman Beauprez has said he wants us to hold him accountable and he means it. Perhaps Bill Ritter should take the same pledge and practice what he preaches, instead of contributing, at the very least by his inaction, to the needless prosecution and financial and professional ruin of an innocent ICE agent.

Hmmm, I think I’ll send a check to Cory Voorhis’s legal defense fund (http://corylegaldefense.com/)! And I know good and well who I’m NOT voting for in the next Colorado gubernatorial election!

Mike Hazzard is a resident of Englewood.

Comments

  • April 22, 2008

    10:17 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    jillreed2008 writes:

    Good fo you Mike! 2 years later and I am STILL waiting for Bill Ritter to answe for his actions!!!

  • April 22, 2008

    1:07 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Jimminy writes:

    Jill-I'm sorry to tell you that holding your breath is contraindicated as an effective strategy for helping the Guv come clean.As I mentioned elsewhere,Bill Ritter as Denver DA gave his blessing 37 times to killer cops,so a bogus prosecution is kinda ho-hum in his playbook.Cory Voorhis is lucky not to have had an "accident" while in custody....Voorhis should keep looking over his shoulder.So should Douglas Bruce.

  • April 22, 2008

    10:50 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    redwhiteandBLUE writes:

    Yes, Good for you Mike!

  • April 23, 2008

    5:01 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    alan writes:

    When DA Ritter was just building his resume. A plea bargin is considered a conviction and he wanted a high conviction rate to pad his resume...looks good on paper for those that do not know better.

    Alan

  • April 24, 2008

    10:33 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    Sprite writes:

    Good letter, Mike. The thing that puzzles me the most is why didn't Ritter drop the offensive once he was elected? I'm sure he'd say that he didn't have the power to do that, but we know that's hogwash. I've been over it a thousand times, and all I come up with is: petty revenge. I think that's all it amounted to. This case will blow back on Ritter at the next election. If he had any sense he'd apologize to Cory for letting Evan Dreyer call him a "desparate criminal." Too bad Ritter's friend, the CBI director had to take a sudden retirement. But when a case is lost, particularly as badly as this one, someone's head has to roll. When you play with scorpians, don't be surprised when you're stung. That's just their nature.

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