Babeu's alleged profile — which since has been blocked — listed him as a "good guy looking for another." He called himself "studboi1," described himself as "str8 acting, hard working and loyal," and said he was openly gay, looking for friendship and "1-on-1" sex.
While still in what he thought was a monogamous relationship with Babeu, Orozco says, he had stumbled upon the sheriff's page on adam4adam, which is peppered with pornographic images of men having intercourse. He says he confronted Babeu and that the sheriff told him it was an old profile.
"I told him to delete it because he was the sheriff, and it didn't look right," Orozco tells New Times. "I told him that if you don't want [to be with] me, I'll stop helping you with your websites, and you move on with your life, and I'll move on with mine."
Babeu assured him that he would delete the profile, Orozco says.
When Orozco checked again, he says the account still was there — so he created his own profile under an assumed name.
He says Babeu then sent pictures to Orozco, thinking he was a guy named "Matt." In one photo, Babeu poses grinning in a pair of gray underwear in front of a mirror. In another photo, he poses naked with an erection. His face isn't visible, but the bottom edge of one of Babeu's unmistakable arm tattoos can be seen.
In one of more than 100 explicit text messages Orozco provided between Babeu and "Matt," Babeu wrote: "I'm in law enforcement . . . sheriff. Didn't tell you that earlier stud . . . that's why I must be discrete." This exchange occurred while Babeu was attending police-training classes in Denver in June 2010, and he also offered Matt help in becoming a cop.
Like the aforementioned text messages, these apparently came from Babeu's current cell-phone number.
In one exchange Orozco shared, Babeu texted: "I will suck you off as much as needed."
After another exchange, Orozco (as Matt) asked if Babeu was masturbating, and Babeu wrote: "I'm just leaving mtg and headed home . . . still in uniform."
Babeu added: "Dude, I can't send naked pics over e-mail . . . just can't for my job . . . you can have me in person and what ever else you want."
The following morning, Orozco says, the sheriff sent explicit pictures.
At that time, Orozco says, Babeu bragged in a text that he was the sheriff who had appeared in the aforementioned TV ad on border security with McCain.
The two planned to meet at San Tan Flat, a steak house in Queen Creek, in mid-June 2010, and Babeu texted Matt to bring an overnight bag.
Babeu was standing in the restaurant's parking lot when he drove up, Orozco says. For about two minutes, Orozco says, Babeu said nothing.
"He [finally] said he couldn't believe [Matt was really me]," Orozco says. Babeu had worried that "maybe it was a reporter trying to catch him," Orozco recalls.
The two wound up having dinner and going back to Babeu's place, Orozco says.
Orozco says he and Babeu first met in October 2006, after he got a message on his account from the then-Chandler police officer. That night, the two agreed to meet in downtown Chandler.
"We were supposed to go to a bar, but we decided not to go," Orozco says. "We went to a hotel in downtown Chandler instead."
The two met several times for dinner and movies from November 2006 to January 2007, and they usually ended up going back to a hotel, according to Orozco. With the exception of a couple of phone calls, Orozco says, they lost touch until September 2007.
"We ran into each other at a bar, but he was with someone else," Orozco says. "I was surprised. I didn't expect to see him. We started talking again, texting a few times. He was telling me he was going to run for sheriff."
The conversations turned to Orozco's potentially helping with Babeu's political websites, which he soon did. Babeu was elected sheriff in November 2008.
Orozco's suspicions that Babeu was cheating heightened when the newly elected sheriff asked him to make changes to a campaign website to prevent e-mails sent there from going to his political staff.
His suspicions were confirmed, he says, when he discovered that an enraged spurned lover of the sheriff's was sending e-mails through the site.
A native of North Adams, Massachusetts, Paul Babeu's first foray into politics was his election to the North Adams City Council at just 18 years old. He later served a term as a county commissioner in Berkshire County, Massachusetts.
In 1992, Babeu lost a state senate bid in Massachusetts, and he made two failed runs for North Adams mayor in 1997 and 2001. He was headmaster of the DeSisto School in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, a controversial boarding school for troubled teens, from 1999 to 2001.
Babeu arrived in Arizona in 2002 and worked as a Chandler cop until he ran for Pinal County Sheriff in 2008 against then-Sheriff Chris Vasquez on an anti-corruption platform.
When Babeu's deputy, Louie Puroll, claimed in April 2010 that he was ambushed in the desert by Mexican drug runners, it fueled anti-immigration sentiment in Arizona and nationally.
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