Did the Beauprez campaign break the law in misusing crime databases to attack Bill Ritter? Will Beauprez or Trailhead operatives be on their way to jail?
The Ritter campaign has asked the CBI to investigate. The letter is at Cherry Creek News.
Update/Edit - pacified
Um, guys. This could be huge
In one of Beaurpez's attack ads, he claims Ritter plea bargained Carlos Medina to a crime that didn't lead to deportation, and that later Medina was convicted for sexual assault in California under the name Walter Ramo. Beauprez says it's the same person. But how could he know such things?
The letter from Ritter's lawyer shows us:
There can be little doubt that the "federal criminal database" to which Marshall referred, and about which Chochan speculated, is the NCIC database. The NCIC database contains FBI numbers and A numbers and it is highly unlikely that the Beauprez campaign could have obtained Medina's or Ramo's FBI numbers or A numbers from any other source. In addition, because California's criminal record information is not publicly available, the Beauprez Campaign's information must have come from NCIC or some other non-public source. According to Schrager, Marshall claims to have received this information through a Freedom of Information Act request. As you are aware, a person may obtain only his own NCIC database information via FOIA.
If, as it appears, the Beauprez campaign has obtained information about Medina and Ramo through the NCIC database, then it and its agents may have violated a number of state and federal laws. [...] As you know, access to the NCIC database is restricted to law enforcement officials and may be used only for law enforcement purposes. By obtaining and using NCIC data for political purposes, the Beauprez Campaign and whoever provided it with the data may have violated 18 U.S.C. 371 (conspiracy to commit offense to defraud the United States), 18 U.S.C 1030(a)(2) (fraud and related activity in connection with computers), 18 U.S.C 2 and 641 (knowingly and without authority conveying/receiving a thing of value of the United States). [...] In addition, any misuse of the NCIC database may have violated one or more of Colorado statues, included C.R.S 18-8-404 (first degree official misconduct), C.R.S. 18-8-405 (second degree official misconduct), and C.R.S. 18-8-407 (embezzlement of public property).
Exacerbating the seriousness of the potential violation by the Beauprez Campaign is the fact that they have used information that may have been illegally obtained for political purposes, to attack Bill Ritter. In the process, they have broadcast protected information to millions of people through their television ad buy.
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