Feds agree to open fired ICE agent's hearing
Homeland Security bends in database-access case.
By Karen E. Crummy

Posted: 11/27/2009 01:00:00 AM MST
Updated: 11/27/2009 02:17:32 AM MST


The Department of Homeland Security has backed off its recommendation to effectively bar the public from attending a former immigration agent's administrative hearing in Denver.

"The agency wholeheartedly believes that this matter should be open to the public," wrote the agency's attorney Robert Erbe in papers filed with the administrative court Tuesday.

The move comes after the agency argued that Cory Voorhis, who is appealing his termination by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was not legally entitled to a public hearing and cited "security concerns" as a reason to hold the proceeding in a small conference room with no public access.

U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman on Monday called on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to intercede in the matter, calling it "bureaucratic stonewalling." Although the congressman offered to assist the agency with finding a more suitable hearing location, his offer was rebuffed.

Tom Muther, the attorney for Voorhis, said he spoke to the administrative judge Tuesday and was given two options: a video-teleconference hearing with the judge that will be open to the public Dec. 9-10 or an in-person hearing open to the public in January.

Muther said he and Voorhis are requesting the latter.

Voorhis was charged in 2007 with accessing a restricted database to check the alias of Walter Ramo, an illegal immigrant and suspected heroin dealer who received a plea deal while Ritter was Denver's district attorney. Ramo was later arrested under the name Carlos Estrada-Medina for committing a sex crime in San Francisco.

Voorhis was accused of providing the results of the search to Ritter rival Bob Beauprez's campaign, which used the information in a television ad criticizing Ritter.

Voorhis, who maintained that he accessed the database with his supervisor's permission, was acquitted by a federal jury but lost his job. He is now appealing that decision.

The supervisor, Tony Rouco, is expected to be the key witness at the hearing. He has denied giving his permission to run a search on Ramo. The Denver Post reported last month that an internal ICE investigation found Rouco "willfully gave false testimony under oath" at Voorhis' trial last year. He also made false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility, according to an April 2009 ICE internal investigation report.

He is still on the job, and there is no public indication that he was disciplined for his conduct


http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_13875265