The federal grand jury also asked for documents involving funds that were provided to the Arizona Public Safety Foundation, a non-profit agency that received hundreds of thousands of dollars in Pinal County RICO funds. Now, with the public's memory of the scandal fading. Auditors said Babeu and Voyles also sent$683,406 to a nonprofit called the Arizona Public Safety Foundationmanaged by members of the sheriff's staff, a potential violation ofconflict-of-interest laws. Gov. 6:00AM. Building off his social media popularity he has more than 300,000 Facebook followers, high for a sheriff and his desire to elevate law enforcement, this past May he announced the launch of the American Sheriff Network, which for $4.99 month allows viewers to watch 10- to 20-minute segments showing sheriffs and their deputies as they respond to calls for service a mix of sheriff propaganda and reality television. I dont think that Black Lives Matter is productive for the Blacks, Lamb also told me. On his person, Lamb has a 9mm Glock pistol, plus a long knife, a taser, handcuffs and extra ammunition, including a magazine with a Punisher skull on it. A spokesperson for the NSA told me that, while the code of ethics is the basis of an organizational creed, sheriffs generally rely on their state laws for legal guidance. Im already hurt me . Orozco claimed that Babeu had known that he was an illegal alien while they were lovers, at odds with Babeu's views on immigration policy. "It is truly puzzling why Captain Karns overreacted to an organizational change that has yet to take place, and I can only surmise that some other issue is in play that made him lash out," Gaffney says in his statement. Its not clear if the FBI has opened an official case. No, no. But Jose Orozco refused. 6:31PM. Today, our Chief Deputy directly contacted a top level supervisor within the Federal Bureau of Investigations who confirmed their office does not have any open investigation on our office but rather there is an open investigation against another Sheriffs Office in Arizona, Gaffney wrote. [5], At age 17, while still in high school, Babeu campaigned against a proposed raise for North Adams, Massachusetts, City Council members. One day, in the mid-2000s, he went on a ride-along with a neighbor who worked in law enforcement and, armed with courage and a flashlight, Lamb says, he found a suspect they were after hiding in a trailer. Doug Barrett for POLITICO. Join the New Times community and help support A September 4, 2011, text from the sheriff reads: "You can never have business after this and you will harm me and many others in the process. Records showBabeu spent more than $53,000 to send 25 people to a weeklong conference in St. Louisat which he received a national award. [20], In 2011 and 2012, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office collected $7 million worth of surplus military equipment. Both could face federal criminal charges. He graduated from the Arizona Law Enforcement Academy as the #1 overall police recruit and was voted by his fellow officers as the class exemplary officer. Doug Barrett for POLITICO, Lamb went through a variety of jobs, including running a paintball business in Utah that ultimately failed. [11][12], Babeu joined the Massachusetts National Guard as a 21-year-old. It was the month after the insurrection, with Joe Biden in the White House and Democrats in the majority in Congress, that Lamb announced the launch of Protect America Now, his new coalition of currently serving sheriffs Lamb calls them patriots with a stated mission of educating Americans about how our Sheriffs and the law enforcement community are standing for our Constitution and law and order. Its mostly a messaging operation: The group runs ads and has written letters to the Biden administration. Lamb loves it. Fight Night: How Phoenix Became a Hotbed for Mixed Martial Arts Champions, Super Fans, Mascot Mania, and All-Stars: Suns and Nuggets Get Ready to Rumble, Katie Hobbs Gets Singed After Unwrapping Tamale-tastrophe, New Attainable Not Necessarily Affordable Housing Coming to Downtown Phoenix, I Love the Rivalry: Fans Soak Up U.S.-Mexico Soccer Showdown in the Valley. PCSO mouthpiece Tim Gaffney, in a statement posted online by the Arizona Daily Star, dismissed Karns e-mail by citing that no decision yet has been made by the Board of Supervisors, that this was merely an "organizational change to improve operations.". Join the New Times community and help support . Initially, Lamb worked in pest control, with a focus on pigeons. Outside his day job in Pinal County, Lamb, shown here at a cafe in Florence, Ariz., is involved with a new nonprofit coalition of sheriffs and a streaming network highlighting the work sheriffs do as they respond to calls for service. Fight Night: How Phoenix Became a Hotbed for Mixed Martial Arts Champions, Super Fans, Mascot Mania, and All-Stars: Suns and Nuggets Get Ready to Rumble, Katie Hobbs Gets Singed After Unwrapping Tamale-tastrophe, New Attainable Not Necessarily Affordable Housing Coming to Downtown Phoenix, I Love the Rivalry: Fans Soak Up U.S.-Mexico Soccer Showdown in the Valley. They are watching a movie . But Orozco suspected Babeu was lying. The sheriff didn't dispute the authenticity of any text messages or photos appearing with this article.). Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu's campaign launched a counterattack late Monday on a key source for a story broadcast Sunday by a Phoenix TV station. The Arizona Attorney General's Office said Wednesday it would not prosecute former Sheriff Paul Babeu and former County Attorney Lando Voyles for what it described as "eyebrow-raising" expenditures. He sarcastically thanks Babeu for "notifying me that you were involuntarily forcing an 'at-will' position on mepunitively reducing my pay by approximately $15,000 [and] handing me as good a 'Constructive Termination' cause of action as I have ever seen.". ", A couple of minutes later, Babeu followed with: "And you say you have loved me? In a written statement, he wrote "The investigation determined that Babeu did not commit any criminal violations and further concluded that, although Orozco conducted himself in a manner that may constitute a violation of the law, there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction on anything more than a misdemeanor charge. They exchanged more texts on September 6. ", Orozco responded: "Good threats. Questions about the foundation also were raised in a 2015 federal lawsuitby attorneys from Perkins Coie and the American Civil Liberties Union. local news and culture. The Arizona Republic investigated his charity, which aims to bridge the gap between law enforcement and communities, and found the group had misreported $18,000 in spending in fact, the charity didnt report any spending in 2018. Of the total amount awarded to the foundation over the three years, $230,000 was initiated by Babeu or one of his employees, the audit found. He lost in the general election to Democrat Andrea F. Nuciforo, Jr. See also: Babeu's Mexican Ex-Lover Says Sheriff's Attorney Threatened Him With Deportation Paul Babeu was the tenth of eleven children born into the family. E.g. The Phoenix New Times is reporting that Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who has become one of the faces of the anti-illegal immigration fight in Arizona and nationwide, threatened a 34-year-old man identified only as Jose with deportation if he disclosed details of their years-long affair. Babeu made that announcement after reports surfaced that he had tried to have a former boyfriend deported. Karns tells Babeu that his proposal ensures that if command staff doesn't "bow and accede" to his "every wish and desire, they face termination." You brother will also be contacted. If approved, the change effectively would strip those affected PCSO employees, primarily PCSO lieutenants, of their ability to appeal to a review board any decision Babeu made to discipline or terminate them. The relationship soured, and Orozco believes that Babeu sent DeRose after him. For questions about programming, membership or anything else about KJZZ, please visit kjzz.org/contact. Babeu's and Voyles use of RICO funds has been questioned for years in lawsuits and investigations. Lamb, who oversees a medium-sized sheriffs office with 650 employees and a $39 million annual budget, sums up his core beliefs, on everything from immigration to policing to guns, as supporting the rule of law. He repeated the phrase often during our conversations. 2023 www.azcentral.com. Out of five Pinal County supervisors, only one, Serdy, a Republican, would comment on the record about Lamb, telling me over the phone, As long as the job is being done, then we support [his other work]. Lamb argues his outside activities help him bring in new recruits. For example, Lamb, an ardent defender of the Second Amendment, has spoken in support of the formation of private militias well within the Constitution, he told a group of supporters in March and emphasized the power of sheriffs in Arizona, an open-carry state, to call local civilians into service to suppress all affrays, insurrections and riots that comes to the attention of the sheriff. Last year, as Black Lives Matter protests swept across the country, he formed a local civilian posse to assist his office with law enforcement, even though there were no such protests in Pinal County. The district's incumbent representative, Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, did not seek re-election as she instead ran for the U.S. The latest of the alleged threats were made through Babeu's personal attorney, who's also running the sheriff's campaign for Congress in District 4, the ex-lover says. Compared with climbing on roofs all day to pick up bird poop, he says, law enforcement seemed safer. In an email, he wrote that Lamb is a Constitutional Sheriff and is one of the best sheriffs in America. Lamb, for his part, says he respects Mack and has a good relationship with CSPOA. But he emphasized to me that Protect America Now and CSPOA are different groups, and said he also does not support any form of white supremacy. Babeu first mentioned the alleged crimes on Saturday, when he held a press conference to discuss Jose's allegations. Doug Barrett for POLITICO. He said his own review of RICO funds indicated past requests were made in round numbers and did not require itemization. private school led by Babeu", "Massachusetts Office of Child Care Services vs DeSisto School Inc and A. Michael Desisto", "Documents: Babeu ran private boarding school with history of physical abuse", "Pinal County 2008 General Election Results", "Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu Elected to Second Term as President of Arizona Sheriff's Association", "Paul Babeu named 2011 Sheriff of the Year", "Senators McCain and Kyl Announce Border Security Plan", "Joe Arpaio aide investigation finished by Babeu", "Pinal Sheriff's Office stockpiles, prepares to sell military equipment", "Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission", "Paul Babeu's Mexican Ex-Lover Says Sheriff's Attorney Threatened Him With Deportation (, "Babeu bombshell: Gay relationship & deportation threats, report says", "Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu Angrily Denies Ex-Boyfriend's Accusations", "Will recent allegations damage Babeu's political future? Babeu is vice president of the Arizona Sheriffs' Association[15] and was named the National Sheriff of the Year in 2011 by the National Sheriffs' Association. Pinal CountySheriff Mark Lamb said Wednesday that RICO funds no longer serve as a slush fund. Robert Tsai, a constitutional law professor at Boston University, told me he sees Protect America Now as political in nature an effort to leverage sheriffs in mainstream Republican politics, while also branding [sheriffs] for future political careers. Lamb says Protect America Now is not a political organization, but that its efforts are viewed as political sometimes. Yet Protect America Now, a 501(c)4, was founded in June 2020 by a group that includes Nathan Sproul, an Arizona-based Republican strategist. Auditors said sheriff's employees traditionally were involved in the foundation's business, including serving on boards and handling accounting functions. The Anti-Defamation League recently released a report calling CSPOA an anti-government extremist group and citing public appearances Mack has made with white supremacist individuals or groups. PHOENIX - Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu comes out and admits he's gay on Saturday a day after he's accused of a major scandal. this is no good. Become a member to support the independent voice of Phoenix They contended the foundation operated as a pass-through for funds for Babeu and Voyles. Wont work. The following February, Jose Orozco, who was an undocumented immigrant, claimed that Babeu and Orozco had been lovers since meeting in 2006 on an online dating site. From November 8 onward, Babeu was like a man racing against the hourglass, appearing numerous times on Fox Business, Fox News and Fox 10 Phoenix, attired in his tan uniform. By 2016, he had moved to Pinal County and decided to seek the sheriffs job, running as a Republican and, in his words, a constitutional conservative; he made a point of opposing abortion rights in his campaign, but he ran without the same cowboy image he has today. "[18] He reported, "Pinal County contains an estimated 75-100 drug cartel cells and listening posts/observation posts, used to facilitate the illegal transportation of people and narcotics into the United States. Lamb won office the same year Sheriff Arpaio was defeated in Maricopa. Of 43 groups that did provide one, documentation was incomplete, the audit found. Instead, his pro-sheriff messaging with media savvy and Trump-y politics thrown in the mix seems designed for a wider audience. Phoenix's independent source of The state ethics committee investigated Lamb for intervening to stop the seizure of a Republican lobbyists land, for which the lobbyist was behind on paying property taxes, but the investigation was dropped after accusations of impartiality. He was Pinal County's first Republican sheriff. [13] He was the first Republican sheriff elected in the history of the county (founded in 1875). Babeu heads a department of 700 and has worked to cut the budget, reorganize leadership, and reduce the response time from his department. He said requests did not appear to be made for specific dollar amounts and no system appeared to be in place to review where the money went. Orozco says he created and maintained Babeu's campaign websites, his Facebook page, and his Twitter account. Sheriffs good with me, Lamb said, looking abashed, like any good politician should. The audit said those expenditures effectively bypassed the county's purchasing procedures, which require various levels of approval. The Goldwater Institute, a conservative watchdog group, raised concerns about the foundation last year and sought records to determine if Babeu was using it to bypass campaign-finance laws and promote his 2016 congressional campaign. Another patron of the diner walked by. Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu denied claims he tried to threaten the man, a Mexican immigrant and a former campaign volunteer, with deportation if their past relationship was made public. Were going to find out who is willing to die for freedom. He also makes direct appeals to citizens, an effort that looks more dangerous after former President Donald Trump riled up supporters on Jan. 6. See additional photos from text-messages between Sheriff Babeu and his ex-lover. February 2, 2017 Paul: No. In cases where money is distributed in advance, recipients must show it was used for the specific request. In fact, Lambs constituents seem to love him: He was unopposed when he ran for reelection last fall and won another four-year term with 97 percent of the vote. Days after stepping down from a position with Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu sat down with CNN's Wolf Blitzer to talk about recent allegations that he. Since taking office in 2017, Lamb has become the face of a new online streaming service called the American Sheriff Network and of a nonprofit coalition of sheriffs called Protect America Now; he also founded a charity, the American Sheriff Foundation. Ultimately, many residents of Pinal County, which voted 58 percent for Trump in 2020, align politically with Lamb. The FBI is asking new questions about Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu and his offices use of seized criminal money. Agents also approached the County Attorney's Office about financial records kept by Voyles, who oversaw and approved expenditures of the funds. In the weeks following the videos release, it was discovered Babeu also filed to run in the wrong congressional district and his financial disclosure forms were late. Lamb often invokes the importance of the rule of law but says of the Jan. 6 rioters, I guarantee you those people are very loving, Christian people. All but a fraction of the foundation's money came from Pinal County's RICO fund, and the money was used to buy items such as automatic weapons for deputies, supplies, police dogs, horses and feed, according to the lawsuit. He won the Republican nomination against Peter Abair. . He insists he doesnt have political ambitions beyond the sheriffs office, though. [1] Babeu has spoken of being molested for several years as a child by at least two Catholic priests, including Richard R. The school closed in 2004, following the death of its founder Michael DeSisto. independent local journalism in Phoenix. | Doug Barrett for POLITICO. Lavigne. But now Reveles is among those Pinal County residents who say Lambs involvement in politics and entertainment has gone too far, distracting him from the job he was elected to do and perhaps even influencing how he does it. Ive never had a desire to run for Senate or Congress, Lamb told me at the caf in Florence, before adding, Im a patriot at heart. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. It could be his demeanor, at once confident and aw-shucks. [9] The school was in a long legal fight with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts over licensing, allegations of child abuse, a Commonwealth-imposed enrollment freeze, and accusations of failing to create a safe environment for its students. Paul Babeu says "drugs and stuff like that." Note: The following comments begin 1:00 into the clip. It would be an inappropriate use of already-limited resources to prosecute Orozco for a misdemeanor. Through Protect America Now, which was founded by a Republican strategist and two businesspeople working with Lamb and counterparts nationwide, he is marshalling dozens of other elected sheriffs and citizen supporters around these ideas building an army as the group puts it. [6], In 2002, he moved to Arizona to pursue a law enforcement career as a police officer for the city of Chandler, Arizona. But on Nov. 12, he appeared on One American News Network and said the enthusiasm he saw for Trump in Arizona does not compute with the election results. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. A group of kids gathered around Lambs truck for sheriff-branded stickers. We dont go to a shooting range as much as an open, sandy field that Lamb says belongs to a friend of his. Lamb fires his service pistol, a Glock 34. ", DeRose wrote: "If you are serious about an amicable resolution to this, it is critical that no further offensive actions against my client be taken in the meantime. This month, he also was a featured speaker alongside Clarke, the former Milwaukee sheriff, and others at the American Priority Conference, a far-right convening held at Trumps resort in Miami. He was defeated in the general election by Democrat Tom O'Halleran. That morning I came home, and I told my wife I was gonna be a cop, he concluded. As KJZZ's Dennis Lambert reports from Phoenix, Babeu will run for re-election as sheriff instead. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our, Babeu's Mexican Ex-Lover Says Sheriff's Attorney Threatened Him With Deportation, Babeu's Suspicious Past as School's Headmaster, Babeu Turns Distortion of Truth Into an Art Form, Babeu Sticks It to Taxpayers and a Volunteer Rescue Team. Lamb has appeared multiple times with Trump at the White House and other political events. Because sheriffs are not usually term-limited, Lamb can stay in office as long as he gets reelected, or until he decides to run for another office, as many other sheriffs have though Lamb says he is happy where he is. ", The following day, on September 7, De-Rose sent an e-mail directly to Orozco ordering him to "cease and desist. There was an older Latino man named Randy wearing a snap-pocket shirt who had recently retired from a wild horse-and-burro program at the nearby prison and asked Lamb if he knew any cowboys. The man's allegations were first published Friday in the Phoenix New Times, an alternative weekly magazine. Sproul, who has a long history in GOP political consulting, was accused of voter fraud between 2004 and 2012, allegations he denied and for which he was not charged. Better get an attorney. | When their relationship soured, Orozco claimed Babeu had threatened to have him deported unless he signed a contract swearing him to secrecy. independent local journalism in Phoenix. (Many job-safety rankings consider being a roofer more dangerous than being a police officer.). The status of both federal investigations was unknown. After filing for bankruptcy in 2003, Lamb decided to start again in Arizona, he writes in his book, where he moved with his five kids and his wife, Janel who today has her own book, The Sheriffs Wife, and often appears with her husband at public events. Phoenix's independent source of When I asked Vale whether Lamb made a salary from the American Sheriff Network, he said Lamb was a partner of a Virginia LLC that produces the content but declined to give any other details. best snorkeling near tampa, vernee watson husband van johnson,
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