Paul Babeu

Babeu's Office Investigated Over Missing Records In Ex-Boyfriend Scandal

Nick R. Martin | March 30, 2012, 3:29PM

Pinal County, Ariz. Sheriff and congressional candidate Paul Babeu

Investigators in Arizona are looking into whether embattled Sheriff Paul Babeu's office destroyed records that may have shed light on whether he threatened to deport his immigrant ex-boyfriend after their breakup.

A report published Friday morning in the Arizona Republic said the inquiry is focusing on roughly 6,200 files that seem to have disappeared after state investigators requested they be preserved.

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Paul Babeu

Small Payment Could Be Big Problem For Babeu And His Immigrant Ex-Boyfriend

Nick R. Martin | February 23, 2012, 11:03PM

As he deals with fallout from a scandal involving a campaign volunteer who turned out to be his secret boyfriend, conservative Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu has insisted time and again that whatever work the man did for his campaign was strictly unpaid.

While Babeu's campaign finance reports initially appear to back up his claims, TPM has uncovered an unusual entry on a 2010 disclosure that deserves more explanation but which so far the sheriff has declined to discuss.

The entry is bound to raise eyebrows in light of revelations that Babeu's own brother, who is also a politician in Arizona, paid the man with campaign funds from his own account during the same time frame in early 2010.

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Paul Babeu

Babeu Could Face Trouble Over Ex-Lover's Uncertain Legal Status

Nick R. Martin | February 22, 2012, 3:47PM

In an unusual letter to two of his fellow local law enforcers this week, conservative Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu laid out a list of crimes alleged to have been committed by him or his former lover in the wake of their romance that soured last year.

The list was seven items long: "human rights violations, threatening and intimidating, misuse of public resources, theft of property, theft of identity, fraud and impersonation."

But now one prominent attorney tells TPM that the sheriff, who has made a name for himself as one of the nation's top hawks in the border debate, should be worried about one more: harboring an illegal immigrant.

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Paul Babeu

Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu Wants His Ex-Boyfriend Investigated

Nick R. Martin | February 21, 2012, 6:54PM

Pinal County, Ariz. Sheriff and congressional candidate Paul Babeu

Days after being outed as gay and accused of threatening his former boyfriend, conservative Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu on Tuesday called for independent investigators to look into claims that the man stole from and impersonated him.

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Paul Babeu

Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu Angrily Denies Ex-Boyfriend's Accusations

Nick R. Martin | February 18, 2012, 3:54PM

Pinal County, Ariz. Sheriff and congressional candidate Paul Babeu

Updated: February 18, 2012, 5:01 PM

While saying for the first time publicly that he is gay, rising Republican star Sheriff Paul Babeu used a dramatic news conference on Saturday in Arizona to angrily deny allegations that had been leveled against him by an ex-boyfriend in a newspaper report a day earlier.

"I'm here to say that all these allegations that were in one of these newspapers are absolutely, completely false," the sheriff said while while surrounded by a number of his deputies and fellow elected officials. "Except for the issues that refer to me as being gay. Because that's the truth. I am gay."

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Paul Babeu

Arizona Sheriff Rocked By Accusations Of Alleged Immigrant Ex-Boyfriend

Nick R. Martin | February 18, 2012, 12:00PM

Updated: February 18, 2012, 2:09 PM

Rising Republican star and well-known border hawk Sheriff Paul Babeu, who's now running for Congress in Arizona, was hit Friday night with bombshell accusations from a Mexican immigrant who said he dated the sheriff for years and was threatened with deportation if he ever told anyone about their romance.

The Phoenix New Times newspaper broke the story on its website in a piece written by veteran journalist Monica Alonzo. The accusations came complete with text messages said to be between the two men as well as compromising photos purportedly of Babeu that are reminiscent of recent sex scandals that ended the careers of Congressmen Anthony Weiner and Chris Lee.

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Arizona

Neo-Nazi Who Advocated Border Landmines Launches Run For Sheriff in Arizona

Nick R. Martin | January 24, 2012, 7:13AM

JT Ready

Two years ago, he was calling for landmines to be used to stop immigrants from illegally crossing into the US from Mexico. Now, a well known Arizona neo-Nazi wants to be in charge of law enforcement in a vast swath of desert south of Phoenix.

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Paul Babeu

Pinal County, Arizona's Paul Babeu Named Sheriff Of The Year

Eric Lach | January 31, 2011, 12:05PM

Sheriff Paul Babeu

The Arizona sheriff who has claimed "our own government has become our enemy" and starred in a campaign ad for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been awarded the 2011 Ferris E. Lucas Award for Sheriff of the Year by the National Sheriffs' Association. The group, which calls itself the largest association of law enforcement professionals in the U.S., credits Sheriff Paul Babeu, of Pinal County, Arizona with becoming "one of the most progressive Sheriffs in the country."

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Paul Babeu

Arizona Sheriff Fires Deputy Who Said He Was Shot By Smugglers

Eric Lach | January 5, 2011, 3:49PM

Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy Louie Puroll

The Arizona Sheriff's Deputy who was shot in the desert last April by men he claimed were drug smugglers has been fired by Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

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Louie Puroll

AZ Sheriff Suspends Deputy Who Said He Was Shot By Smugglers

Eric Lach | December 3, 2010, 3:20PM

Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy Louie Puroll

The Arizona deputy involved in a disputed high-profile shooting incident last spring has been put on paid administrative leave by Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, after making a number of loaded statements to a reporter.

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Paul Babeu

Test Of AZ Deputy's Shirt Comes Back Negative For Gunpowder: 'I Did Not Shoot Myself'

Eric Lach | October 8, 2010, 12:46PM

Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy Louie Puroll

An analysis of the shirt worn by Pinal County Arizona Sheriff Deputy Louie Puroll on the day he says he was shot by drug smugglers has come back negative for gunpowder, suggesting the shot was not fired from close range, as some experts who had examined photos of Puroll had suggested to a Phoenix New Times reporter. The test lends support to Puroll's account of the incident, which was questioned by the pathologists and other experts contacted by the New Times. Sheriff Paul Babeu told reporters yesterday that the matter is now closed.

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Pinal County

How Sheriff Paul Babeu Inflated The Story Of His Wounded Deputy

Eric Lach | September 30, 2010, 8:38AM

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu

Experts are now seriously questioning Pinal County Sheriff's Deputy Louie Puroll's much-hyped tale of being shot by drug smugglers in a remote part of the Arizona desert. But even if every detail of Puroll's story is true, it still does not square with many of the claims the Sheriff's office has peddled about the case.

The department says the original criminal investigation "had concluded and the facts of the case confirmed the accounts of the event as Deputy Puroll described." And though the case has now been reopened, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu told local news this week that he "absolutely" still believes his deputy. Beside Puroll and his alleged attackers, who were never found, there were no other witnesses to the event.

But in the immediate aftermath of the April incident, and to this day, Babeu and the department have made statements about the event that clash with the recorded account that Puroll gave to detectives on May 6, and which was released to the public in early July (audio here). These statements have included exaggerations and unverified information, and have been repeated often by Babeu as his national profile has grown as a voice on border security. Some of the claims have been walked back. Others have not.

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Paul Babeu

The Suspicious Tale Of The Arizona Deputy Shot By Drug Smugglers

Eric Lach | September 29, 2010, 9:28AM

The much-hyped account of an Arizona sheriff's deputy attacked by border-crossing drug smugglers is being questioned, months after the fact.

On April 30, one week after Gov. Jan Brewer (R) signed her state's controversial new immigration bill into law, a gun battle reportedly took place in a remote western part of Pinal County, Arizona, between a lone sheriff's deputy and a well-armed group of suspected drug smugglers. The deputy, Louie Puroll, was shot just above his left kidney, but survived, and his assailants were not found, despite an extensive search. The story spread quickly, was reported by major media outlets and was held up by border hawks as proof that Mexican drug violence was spilling into the country.

[TPM SLIDESHOW: Arizona Immigration Law Sparks Protests]

But an exhaustive article published in the Phoenix New Times last week challenges the official story of what happened in the desert that day, and the Sheriff's office -- led by Paul Babeu, who has ridden this story and his appearance in John McCain's "danged fence" campaign ad to national prominence -- has now reopened its investigation of the case.

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Arizona

AZ Sheriff's Dept Reopens Case Of Deputy Allegedly Shot By Drug Smugglers

Eric Lach | September 27, 2010, 3:35PM

Sheriff Paul Babeu

The Pinal County, Arizona Sheriff's Office has announced that it is reopening the case of a sheriff's deputy who was shot on April 30, after an article last week raised questions about the deputy's story that he'd been involved in a shoot-out with drug smugglers -- and just hours after telling TPM that the department stood by the original investigation.

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Arizona

'Danged Fence' Sheriff: When I Said Cartels Control Parts Of Arizona, I Meant They Control Movement

Eric Lach | September 22, 2010, 8:38AM

Sheriff Paul Babeu

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu raised our eyebrows a few weeks ago by claiming that Mexican drug cartels control areas of Arizona. In a recent interview with TPM, he tempered his comments somewhat. But that didn't stop him from suggesting that the federal government is basically surrendering territory to drug smugglers.

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Arizona

McCain's 'Danged Fence' Sheriff Claims Mexican Drug Cartels Control U.S. Territory

Eric Lach | September 6, 2010, 8:49AM

Sheriff Paul Babeau and Senator John McCain (R-AZ)

First, right-wingers reported Mexican drug cartels had invaded Laredo, Texas -- nevermind that law enforcement says it never happened. Now, Arizona Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu is lending the stamp of authority to the idea that the cartels are conquering parts of the red, white and blue -- nevermind that other law enforcement says that's not true.

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