After Political Prosecution, Cory Voorhis Still Able to Say "God Bless America"

In his latest Human Events column, Colorado's own Ross Kaminsky highlights the amazing character of Cory Voorhis, the politically-targeted federal immigration agent who last week was exonerated in a case that stems back to the 2006 election:

Cory Voorhis looked me in the eye and said “God Bless America”. It was a remarkable statement from a man whose life has been turned upside down by a justice system which was hijacked by politicians and turned loose on this unsung American hero. When I said to Voorhis that it was remarkable he still felt that way, he pointed to his American flag lapel pin and said, still choked up from the news five minutes earlier, “This is what I stand for.”

Five minutes earlier, at about 1:45 PM on Wednesday, a 13-member jury unanimously returned two “not guilty” verdicts on the charges filed against Cory Voorhis by the US Attorney for the District of Wyoming. It was a case which the US Attorney’s office should never have accepted, but did so, in the view of many observers, because of political pressure trickling down from the office of Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, Jr.

After a trial that included shoddy lawyering by the prosecution and a government investigation obviously tainted by politics, Cory Voorhis is today a free and vindicated man. But it is a bittersweet victory indeed, as Voorhis has been nearly bankrupted by the government’s outrageous abuse of power, selective prosecution, and intentionally incomplete investigation.

It was a bad week for Gov. Bill Ritter, but certainly a relief for a duty-bound civil servant who despite the financial and mental anguish can still proclaim "God bless America."

Read the entire article, including Ross's exclusive interview with Cory Voorhis. I was left with a newfound admiration for him, and if you are able and so inclined, Ross reminds us:

For those interested in helping Cory Voorhis pay off some of his $250,000 debt for legal bills, please visit http://www.corylegaldefense.com and make a contribution. My money is where my mouth is.

Cross posted at Mount Virtus

Cory Voorhis Going to Trial

There is an exceedingly interesting but very long set of comments at the bottom of a Denver Post article on the outcome of the Voorhis pre-trial hearing. The quotes are more informative than the article. We bring part of them here in the hope that others will read all of them:

I'm not classifying Bill Ritter as the "victim". The CBI did that on their own. He is officially listed in their investigative reports as the victim.

I'm not Cory's father, brother, son, or any other relative. I realize that these defenses will be used at trial. And the reality is that it is my opinion, and my opinion only, that it will be difficult, if not impossible for the US Attorney to obtain a conviction.

FACT: There have been in excess of 5,000 pages of discovery turned over to the defense. Do you have any idea of how much investigative effort has been put forth to generate that much paper? And at what cost to the taxpayer? This is a MISDEMEANOR charge and not a felony. It could have easily been handled by ICE administratively as a disciplinary action or adverse action. But instead, it's been made into a, pardon the pun. "Federal Case".

FACT: Judge Kane stated from the bench that he believed Voorhis did not access NCIC or CCIC for an authorized purpose. I didn't make this up. The judge said it in open court. That is tantamount to the judge saying that Cory Voorhis is guilty before he's had a trial and before the jury of his peers has gotten to make that determination on their own. The Constitution guarantees a presumption of innocence. For a District Court Judge to pronounce prior to the commencement of a trial that he believes that the defendant who stands before him is guilty runs contrary to that presumption

Revelations in Voorhis Case Suggest Possible Double Standard at Work

While immigration agent Cory Voorhis awaits trial for accessing a federal criminal database for campaign-related purposes, the Denver Post reports that Gov. Bill Ritter's 2006 campaign may have encouraged the exact same activity:

Denver DA officials have previously acknowledged that they too accessed the National Crime Information Computer to check on [Denver heroin dealer Carlos] Estrada-Medina, saying it was done in response to media calls after a Beauprez campaign ad featuring Estrada-Medina began running on Oct. 10, 2006. But the records of cellphone calls and call logs released by the DA's office in response to a request from The Denver Post show no such media deluge. Instead, they indicate that the DA office's work on Estrada-Medina also had its roots in a campaign.

A call log maintained by DA spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough shows that on Oct. 10, "Steph" called and asked about "Carlos Estrada-Medina." Dick Reeve, a lawyer for the DA's office, confirmed that Steph was Stephanie Villafuerte, former chief deputy DA who was working for the Ritter campaign..

Reeve, the attorney for [Chuck] Lepley, [Lynn] Kimbrough and other DA employees, said that they were never asked by Villafuerte or anyone else at the Ritter campaign to access the NCIC, but when asked if information that the DA's office retrieved from the NCIC was provided to Villafuerte or others from the Ritter campaign, Reeve declined comment.

"That's a specific question that is best left to the testimony on Friday," Reeve said.

Villafuerte did not respond to a phone message left on her cellphone Wednesday. Ritter's spokesman, Evan Dreyer, said the campaign never asked anyone at the DA's office to access the NCIC and that everyone there would have been unaware that the DA's office had accessed the NCIC.

Until the investigation digs deeper, there will be no convincing answer to explain away what appears to be a clear double standard:

"The DA's office ran an NCIC check and called a campaign, and they say that doesn't break the law. So, why did Cory break the law for doing the same thing?" said Mike Riebau, a former immigration special agent who heads up a legal defense fund for Voorhis.

Ritter has to be wishing for this story to disappear. Just as long as it doesn't mean putting Voorhis away while letting his friends off the hook.

Good For The Goose? Good For The Gander!

The Cory Voorhis political revenge trial continues.

The Rocky Mountain News reports Voorhis has been granted access to the Denver DA's records about their access to the data base.

Voorhis' attorneys have argued that the prosecutors' office legally used the databases to publicly disclose information about an illegal immigrant. If it was lawful for the DA to disclose the information, the attorneys say, it shouldn't have been illegal for Voorhis to do the same.

Of course, the other side of this coin is that if it was illegal for Voorhis to reveal data base, it was also illegal for the Denver DA's office to do so as well. Does this mean that Bill Ritter's mean spirited and vengeful actions against Voorhis might end up putting Ritter in the Federal slammer? Time will tell, but what is good for the goose is good for the gander.

If Ritter goes to jail, or even comes under investigation, Voorhis' ICE agent boss, Jeff Copp, needs a serious look for criminal activity as well. Based on published reports, his testimony that he didn't believe Voorhis had done anything wrong before he started to question him doesn't appear to have matched his actions.

Perjury: A Cancer on Ritter

There were 11 prosecutions for perjury in Colorado over the last two years. Gross failure to investigate and prosecute perjury is a cancer on the state. The dirty little secret of perjury is that it is as often used to convict the innocent as it is used to interfere with the prosecution of the guilty.

Don't believe it? Ask any cop but a rookie cop if he has ever been asked by a prosecutor to withhold an inconvenient truth while on the witness stand.

Based on newspaper reports, it appears that one of the witnesses against ICE agent is withholding an inconvenient truth:

In court today, Jeff Copp, the special agent in charge of the Denver ICE office, testified that he received a call from the director of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation that month, asking him to question Voorhis about why he accessed the database.

Copp said he didn't believe Voorhis had done anything wrong. He was surprised when the agent came into his office and said he had retained a lawyer, who had advised him not to answer questions.

Jeff Copp is a federal law enforcement officer with enough experience that he supervises other law enforcement officers. He was conducting an investigation at the request of the Director of the CBI. The CBI suspected that Cory Voorhis was the leaker.

If Copp actually believed that Voorhis had done nothing wrong, he had an obligation to tell the CBI that and to refuse to participate. Federal agents can tell state officials to go pound sand, and routinely do so.

The fact that Copp was voluntarily participating in the investigation strongly suggests that Copp considered Voorhis a prime subject.

Correct procedure would have been for Copp to call Voorhis in and read him his rights before beginning his questioning. Miranda requires that. Copp, like every other police and military officer in the nation doubtless carries his own personal laminated copy of the Miranda warning in his back pocket.

The penalty for ignoring Miranda is suppression of the evidence collected. Care to bet that this prosecution cannot go forward if this evidence is suppressed. That is why Copp is trying to be clever with his testimony.

There is supposed to be a penalty for any lawyer, including a prosecutor, who knowingly allows a witness to put forward false testimony, but that part of the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct is routinely ignored.

Copp's statement that he didn't believe that Voorhis had done anything wrong is not supported in any way by his actions. It has the foul stench of perjury. He ought to be both prosecuted and fired.

It seems that Bill Ritter is vicious enough that he is willing to promote both selective prosecution and the perjury necessary to make the prosecution stick.

It Was the Best of Times...

Charles Dickens got paid by the word for his prose.

Colorado Media Matters is one of the best barometers of potential political trouble for Democrats. When they go into defensive spin mode every fact is a lie and every lie is a fact to hear them tell it. The only important information one can get from their defensive pieces is that they think that the politician they are defending has problems with the issue they are writing about.

It is conventional wisdom that Bill Ritter will be in political trouble for his insistence that Cory Voorhis be prosecuted for a crime that few others have been prosecuted for. When you think about Ritter's attitude toward prosecutions, it is the ultimate double standard. He is willing to plea bargain illegal alien felonies into something that will keep them in the country but viciously goes after someone who tries to illuminate what he is doing.

CMM has a piece today that might have been written by Charles Dickens, not because it is a literary masterpiece, but because it is so wordy. Length is an important CMM barometer, too. They obviously think this could be serious.

More on Voorhis

Bill Ritter's reputation as a vengeful politico who uses the machinery of government to grind people under his heel is reinforced by this article on Cory Vorrhis:

"This is nothing more than political revenge by Gov. Ritter," former ICE senior special agent Mike Riebau told WND in a telephone interview.

"The Colorado Bureau of Investigation has become nothing more than Gov. Ritter's personal police force and Ritter is now set on doing whatever it takes to get even with Voorhis," Riebau charged.

Make No Mistake, Bill Ritter Uses His Power Viciously

Setting the infectious grin aside, Bill Ritter may be one of the most vicious politicians in the history of Colorado politics. If he can use his office and its police powers to harass his political opponents into bankruptcy and prison, he will do so.

Human Events has the story of an ICE Agent who tried to prevent this vicious politician from taking office, not because he was political, but because he thought he was doing what would best protect the public:

Although Voorhis was not political and not particularly interested in the outcome of the gubernatorial election, he believed that Ritter’s behavior as DA posed a “significant threat to public safety”.

And:

Now the counterattack apparently orchestrated by Ritter and his allies is on the verge of bankrupting [ Cory ] Voorhis, ruining his career, and possibly allowing Pedro Castorena to walk away a free man.

After you read this, the next time you see Bill Ritter flash his teeth in what others might think as a harmless smile, you will see what it is intended to camouflage: the snarl of a relentlessly vicious, remorseless, vengeful politician who has gained and is willing to use government power to destroy his enemies.

Unfortunately, his enemies do not include people like the illegal immigrants who commit real crimes:

As a senior ICE agent in Colorado, Voorhis was aware of a persistent pattern by Ritter’s office of allowing illegal aliens who were arrested for drug crimes, aggravated felonies, and other “serious crimes involving moral turpitude” to plead guilty to unrelated lesser charges such as “agricultural trespass”, “possession of diazepam”, and “possession of burglary tools”. These plea bargains allowed criminals go free without the type of conviction that could allow ICE to deport them. The behavior continued even after ICE suggested to the DA’s office that the plea bargains were obstructing justice.