In the past 16 months, several people have accessed a highly restricted criminal database to check the background of an accused heroin user who had become a controversial figure in the 2006 gubernatorial campaign.
And while all of the queries, it seems to us, are questionable, only one person is being criminally charged with breaking laws protecting the information.
Authorities should investigate all of them with the same vigor.
We’re talking, of course, about the federal prosecution of Cory Voorhis, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
Voorhis thrust himself into the campaign limelight when he allegedly used his access as an agent to ferret out information about several people that then-gubernatorial candidate Bill Ritter had prosecuted as Denver’s district attorney.
Some of that information, including the criminal history of Carlos Estrada-Medina, turned up in an attack ad by Ritter’s rival, Bob Beauprez.
While much of the information about Estrada-Medina is available publicly, you had to have accessed the National Crime Information Center database to cut through aliases and figure out that the illegal immigrant who got a lenient plea bargain in Denver was the same guy charged with a sex offense in California.
Ritter’s campaign demanded a criminal investigation. Last October, Voorhis was charged with three counts of exceeding his authorized access to a government computer.
In federal court Friday, there was testimony from others involved in accessing the database or investigating those who queried the NCIC. Denver DA officials testified their access was primarily a response to media and campaign inquiries.
At issue was whether Estrada- Medina was the same man Denver prosecuted. The DA’s office says this was an appropriate reason to access the database. Phone records don’t show a crush of media calls. But they do show phone calls between the DA’s office and a member of the Ritter campaign.
Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the DA’s office, said she could not recall speaking with Stephanie Villafuerte, an employee of the DA’s office who had taken a leave of absence to work on Ritter’s campaign. Her hand-written call log indicated she received a call from Villafuerte about Estrada-Medina.
Testimony also revealed a Texas investigator got a friend to access the database to look up Estrada-Medina. The client was Trailhead (a Republican political group) or the Colorado GOP or both. Questions about these other accesses don’t appear to have been as detailed or vigorous as those surrounding Voorhis’ actions.
The FBI, which maintains the NCIC, says the database’s purpose is to assist authorized agencies in “criminal justice and related law enforcement objectives,” including chasing down fugitives, finding missing people, and locating stolen property.
Nowhere does it say that the database can be used as a tool to create political attack ads or put up defenses to them. The laws and rules governing access to this database should be fairly applied.
