Jose and Paul Babeu
Uh, wow:
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu — who became the face of Arizona border security nationally after he started stridently opposing illegal immigration — threatened his Mexican ex-lover with deportation when the man refused to promise never to disclose their years-long relationship, the former boyfriend and his lawyer tell New Times.
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.
He says lawyer Chris DeRose demanded he sign an agreement that he would never breathe a word about the affair. But Jose (New Times is withholding his last name because Babeu and his attorney have challenged his legal status) refused.
The 34-year-old from central Mexico charges that the sheriff's lawyer warned against mentioning the affair with Babeu. DeRose said gossip about Babeu would focus attention on Jose, attention that could result in his deportation, Jose says.
There's more — much, much more — at the link. The smoke from this story isn't just confined to one local alt-weekly — mainstream sources are running with it, too, including the
local Fox News affiliate, which squeezed out the following from Babeu's camp:
The New Times article also contains pictures from a gay dating website, where Babeu allegedly posted photos of himself. Sheriff Babeu's attorney issued a statement saying: "We strongly deny the sensationalist headline published by the Phoenix New Times."
We asked if Babeu had any statement about the dating profile pictures posted on the New Times Website. Babeu's attorney said: "No. He believes he'll be judged by his record as a 20-year veteran of the United States Armed Forces, police officer who has saved two lives in the line of duty and responded to thousands of emergencies, and Iraq war veteran."
Rather remarkably, a reporter from
The Arizona Republic was interviewing Babeu and his attorney while the New Times' story appeared online, and it's pretty safe to say that this story is nowhere close to being contained. In fact, as I'm writing this, Babeu decided to
address the issue publicly:
In a hastily called press conference on Saturday afternoon Pinal County Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu said of the allegations against him:
"All these allegations that were in one of these newspapers are absolutely completely false, except for the issues that refer to me as being gay. Because that's the truth. I am gay."
It doesn't seem that Babeu is dropping out of his congressional bid for Arizona's heavily Republican 4th District, where he's facing 1st District Rep. Paul Gosar and state Sen. Ron Gould in the Republican primary, but it may just be a matter of time. One shoe has already dropped: Babeu has
stepped down as a state co-chair of Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.