See also: Paul Babeu's Mexican Ex-Lover Says Sheriff's Attorney Threatened Him With Deportation
See also: Demands Grow for Full Investigation into Allegations Against Sheriff Paul Babeu
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne's office announced today that it won't file charges against Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu or his ex-lover, Jose Orozco, related to the pair's messy break-up.As a bombshell Phoenix New Times article by Monica Alonzo revealed last year, Orozco -- who'd been employed by Babeu to help run his campaign's Web and Twitter sites -- accused the sheriff of threatening him with deportation. Babeu, in turn, claimed his former boyfriend had stolen his online identity and hacked into his Web sites without authorization.
Solicitor General Dave Cole, who oversaw the seven-month investigation into the allegations after Horne (a Republican, like Babeu) recused himself from the case, said in a statement that there was no evidence that the sheriff committed a crime. Cole said Oroszo potentially could be charged with harassment, but doing that would be "an inappropriate use of already-limited [prosecutorial] resources."
Orozco had claimed that Babeu threatened to have him deported after their break-up in September 2011 unless Orozco promised to keep their relationship a secret.
Crime or not, the scandal outed the anti-illegal-immigrant sheriff as a homosexual who dated a Mexican immigrant, damaging his reputation among fellow right-wingers. Babeu dropped his bid for Congress three months after the New Times story broke and focused on winning re-election as sheriff.
Babeu won the Republican primary election last week against three competitors and will face a Democrat and an Independent in the general election.
We'll have further coverage on Babeu's so-called "exoneration" later today. Meantime, below are the three reports on the case released by the AG's office:
Turndown sheet
