Columnist Green repeated Voorhis case falsehoods in Pueblo, Aurora newspapers

Summary: Commenting on the case of immigration agent Cory Voorhis, Aurora Sentinel and Pueblo Chieftain columnist Chuck Green echoed false and misleading claims regarding the case, in which Voorhis was acquitted on April 9. Green asserted that the office of current Gov. Bill Ritter when he was Denver district attorney offered illegal aliens "a good deal" by offering plea deals to a "mild accusation" of agricultural trespassing, when in fact the charge is a felony, and suggested that Ritter "pursued a vendetta against Voorhis" when the investigation and prosecution took place outside of Ritter's authority.

In a column appearing in the April 13 online editions of The Pueblo Chieftain and the Aurora Sentinel, Chuck Green repeated several falsehoods and misleading claims regarding the case of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Cory Voorhis, who was charged in October 2007 with misusing his access to the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, and was acquitted by a jury on April 9.

Besides misleadingly claiming that now-Gov. Bill Ritter's (D) policy when he was Denver DA was "to give a good deal" to "illegal aliens," bargaining charges for "serious crimes" to "a mild accusation of 'agricultural trespassing,' " Green made the dubious assertion -- included in the Sentinel, but not in the Chieftain -- that "[n]o DA before Ritter, and no DA after Ritter, has had that policy." In fact, as Colorado Media Matters has noted, the charge of agricultural trespassing offered by Ritter's DA office is a Class 5 felony; further, Ritter did not offer the plea exclusively to illegal immigrants, as Green suggested, but to legal immigrants as well. Moreover, as the Rocky Mountain News reported on October 12, 2006, from 1998 to 2006 in Colorado, "483 cases were sentenced under the charge [of felony agricultural trespassing] in 38 judicial jurisdictions," including Arapahoe and Jefferson counties. The News further noted that Ritter's successor, Mitch Morrissey, also used the plea.

In addition, Green suggested that Ritter "pursued a vendetta against Voorhis" for passing along information from the NCIC database to Ritter's 2006 opponent, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez, whose campaign later used the information in an ad against Ritter. Green further claimed that "[a]t any time, Ritter could have called off the dogs, including the Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents pursuing his complaint," and characterized Ritter's purported involvement in the case as "despicable political persecution." However, as Colorado Media Matters has pointed out, the investigation and prosecution of Voorhis took place outside of Ritter's authority.

Green further claimed in his column that Voorhis "knew that it was Ritter's policy to go easy on illegal immigrants," and asserted, "He was familiar with the DA's policy to give a good deal -- a really, really good deal -- to illegals who had been charged with narcotic trafficking, assault, car theft and other serious crimes. In cases that would land American citizens with serious fines and jail time, Ritter's policy was to ... bargain[] the charges to a mild accusation of 'agricultural trespassing.' "

Contrary to Green's characterization of agricultural trespassing as "a mild accusation," according to Colorado Revised Statute 18-4-504 (C.R.S. § 18-4-504), the trespass on agricultural land charge is a Class 5 felony, as Colorado Media Matters has noted. An October 1, 2006, Denver Post article reported in a section titled "Taking the felony hit" that Denver immigration attorney Jeff Joseph described the plea as "the felony agricultural trespass charge." The News' October 12, 2006, article similarly described the charge as "felony farm trespassing," and on September 30, 2006, the News quoted Ritter defending the plea bargains:

"We would do things to ensure they had a felony conviction even when there were serious evidentiary problems," Ritter said. "They were still pleading to felonies -- they're not misdemeanors."

In addition, while Green asserted that Ritter's policy as DA was to use the plea bargains to give "illegal aliens" what Green termed a "really good deal," as the News reported after the release of Beauprez's first ad citing the plea bargains, "Four of the five felons were here legally." The News also quoted Ritter as saying that Beauprez was "being terribly irresponsible in lumping legal immigrants with illegal immigrants" in his attack ads. According to the News:

Four of the five cases highlighted by the Beauprez campaign involved legal immigrants from Latin America. Previously, Beauprez has chosen to focus on illegal immigration as an issue, and this marks the first time he has singled out legal immigrants as "alien felons."

In the Sentinel's version of the column, Green asserted, "No DA before Ritter, and no DA after Ritter, has had that policy, which was part of a larger environment of 'amnesty' for illegal aliens that exists in Denver and Colorado." The assertion did not appear in the Chieftain version of Green's column. As the News reported in its October 12, 2006, article, the newspaper's "review of cases involving pleas to felony farm trespassing also found that the charge is used by other Front Range district attorneys, with the volume of cases this year, two years after Ritter left office, on pace to reach a record high." The article further noted:

The News also reviewed the use of the trespassing charge statewide from 1998 to 2006. In all, 483 cases were sentenced under the charge in 38 judicial jurisdictions.

So far, 83 people have been sentenced under the charge this year, including 31 by Ritter's successor, Mitch Morrissey. That is on pace to reach 99 cases in 2006, more than the record 97 cases in 2004, state records show.

In addition, the article noted that "[t]he News reviewed online summaries of 151 cases in which the defendants pleaded guilty to farm trespassing during Ritter's tenure. None of the summaries included whether the defendants were citizens or immigrants in the U.S. either legally or illegally. Court files generally don't contain that information, the News found."

Green went on to claim that "[a]fter Ritter was elected governor, he apparently was bitter about the stinging TV ads. He pursued a vendetta against Voorhis and eventually was named as the 'victim' when federal charges were filed against the ICE agent for misusing a federal database." Green further asserted:

At any moment during the 18 months, Voorhis' supervisors could have chosen to discipline him with an administrative action -- a few days suspension, at most -- if they truly thought he had misused the federal database. At any time, Ritter could have called off the dogs, including the Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents pursuing his complaint.

However, as Colorado Media Matters has noted, an October 15, 2006, Post article (accessed through Nexis) stated that "Ritter's campaign called on the CBI to investigate" how Beauprez's campaign obtained specific information about a particular case in which Ritter's office offered the agricultural trespassing plea bargain to an illegal immigrant accused of heroin trafficking. It also noted that "CBI director Robert Cantwell said Republican Gov. Bill Owens asked him to move as quickly as possible on the investigation into whether Beauprez's campaign illegally accessed the highly restricted National Crime Information Center database." Additionally, an Associated Press article published October 25, 2007, on KCNC CBS4's website noted that "[t]he investigation was conducted by the FBI, the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. The probe was placed under the control of John Green, the acting U.S. attorney for Wyoming, to avoid any conflicts of interest involving Voorhis and federal prosecutors in Denver."

Similarly, on October 28, 2006, the News (accessed through Nexis) reported, "The legal oversight of the case was moved from Colorado's U.S. Attorney's Office to its counterpart in Wyoming, because the investigation has focused on a federal immigration agent who worked on cases handled by federal prosecutors in Denver, according to sources familiar with the transfer."

—C.H.