not guilty

[sj5 4]

Source:http://www.denverpost.com/rapids/ci_8865612

Immigration agent Cory Voorhis was found not guilty today of improperly using a restricted federal database to aid the campaign of Bob Beauprez for governor.

After a seven-day trial, a jury of nine men and four women, including an alternate, needed about two hours to reach their decision.

Juror Craig Disney, 44 of Westminster said the jury didn't think Voorhis had 'done anything intentionally wrong' and there were 'some feelings' that Voorhis had been unfairly 'singled out' for prosecution.

'He had a responsibility to do his job,' Disney said about Voorhis looking up possible illegal immigrants in the database.

It was not immediately clear whether Voorhis, who is married with two children, would return to work as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent. He has been on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the trial.

Voorhis, 39, faced two misdemeanors for obtaining information about the identity of an illegal immigrant from the restricted National Crime Information Center database and giving it to Republican Bob Beauprez's 2006 gubernatorial campaign.

The ad claimed that an immigrant charged with heroin possession was allowed to plead guilty to agricultural trespassing. After receiving probation, the man was charged with committing a sex crime on a minor in California (the charges were later dropped, but that was not included in the ad). Because the man used different names in each case, Voorhis connected the two by running the names, and others, through the restricted database.

When the ad ran, Ritter contended that the only way Beauprez's campaign could have obtained that information was through the restricted database, and he declared that Beauprez's campaign had broken the law and demanded an investigation.

But Disney, the only juror willing to speak after the verdict, said the jury believed Voorhis had a responsibility to check the names.

'He had information and he needed to follow up on it,' Disney said.