Paul Babeu, Outed Arizona Sheriff, Hit With $1 Million Claim By Ex-Boyfriend Jose Orozco

PHOENIX -- A Mexican immigrant who had a romantic relationship with an Arizona sheriff has filed a $1 million notice of claim against the sheriff and the county.

Pinal County Sheriff's officials say the precursor to a lawsuit was received by their office Monday, but they declined further comment.

Last month, Sheriff Paul Babeu (BAB'-yoo) announced that he's gay and once had a relationship with Jose Orozco while the immigrant was a campaign volunteer.

Orozco has accused Babeu of threatening to deport him if he revealed their relationship. Babeu has denied any wrongdoing and has asked for an independent investigation into the matter.

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Comments

[Warren P]

12:19 AM on 04/12/2012

As with the spotlight cast on the misogyny championed by Bill Maher and Keith Olbermann, equal opportunity accountability with respect to homphobia and intellectual fascism is needed now more than ever. So much of the ostensibly open-minded liberal reaction to the Babeu "controversies" simply illustrates how deeply the fissures created by progressivism's identity politics extend. The Democratic party's core constituencies practice a cycle of metaphorical domestic violence, and opportunistically prey upon those very constituencies when they do not conform to the proscribed draconian Democratic ethos: http://thecenterstandard.blogspot.com/

[crosshatchaz]

02:33 AM on 03/09/2012

Isn't this ....this... person of lesser intelligence and scruples... gone yet?

[kanemakua]

02:25 PM on 03/08/2012

The irony is that Republicans have to support Babeu since they built him up following the "border fence" photo op with McCain. Republicans and conservatives' views on homosexuals conflicts with the image of Babeu being the capable all-American sheriff. Basically they see homosexuals as deviants.

[Razpooten]

01:55 AM on 03/08/2012

Flagged, racist.

[NovemberScorp]

08:49 AM on 03/07/2012

What is the basis of the claim?

[ActaNonVerbaNow]

03:53 AM on 03/07/2012

Babeu is one low class human being. He'll support any hate mongers or throw anyone under the bus in the interest of his ruthless ambition. He's got sociopathic qualities like Gingrich.

[ActaNonVerbaNow]

09:56 PM on 03/07/2012

That's not exactly a major triumph for Mr. Babeu.

[Razpooten]

02:23 AM on 03/08/2012

Flagged, crass.

[Razpooten]

01:56 AM on 03/08/2012

Well, he's a republican.

[cuteliberalchick]

12:57 AM on 03/07/2012

Big deal a sheriff having a lover

[Andre Fabre]

08:49 AM on 03/07/2012

It's the abuse of power what's the issue here. As a law enforcement officer, you don't use the power of your office to make threats to others...

[inthedesert]

09:30 PM on 03/07/2012

How silly.

[Razpooten]

01:57 AM on 03/08/2012

Yeah, but he aligned withe the party that is agains immigrants and gays.

[cuteliberalchick]

11:24 PM on 03/08/2012

I know this.It is hypocricity

[racmd]

08:31 PM on 03/06/2012

Jose....good deal...that is about $12,400,000 pesos at the current international exchange. Dude you learned the American way pretty fast...go get 'em tiger.

[pataconpuntokam]

06:56 PM on 03/06/2012

A gay Sheriff from Arizona has an affair with an illegal immigrant. If I didn't read it here I'd say it was taken out from South Park

[metogamekun]

08:36 PM on 03/06/2012

Or The Onion.

[Razpooten]

01:58 AM on 03/08/2012

Not an illegal tho.

[memito]

10:50 AM on 03/07/2012

He's not an illegal immigrant Bozo.

[pataconpuntokam]

11:49 AM on 03/07/2012

Was the insult necessary? thanks for the correction, though

[Missy Miyashiro]

05:32 PM on 03/06/2012

I'm not commenting to the story at hand, i'm just saying this is another case of personal politics entering national politics, like what the Republicans did to Clinton. It didn't matter what he did for the country, they focused on what he did in the bedroom. That wasn't right so in a small way it's pay back that a Republican is now on the other end.

[ta2t2o]

09:55 PM on 03/06/2012

It was the direction of this Sherif's politics. If Clinton was campaigning on family values there woudl be a correlation.

[Razpooten]

01:59 AM on 03/08/2012

Xactly.

[Aldebaran]

04:38 PM on 03/06/2012

I think Sheriff Babeu is getting a raw deal. The Mexican lover is exacting revenge cause Babeu cheated on him. I've been following this case and from what I gather Jose Orozco was threatening to go public because he was angry. The only evidence that's been produced are a couple of innocuous text messages. Terms are being throw around like abuse of power, etc. all at the word of a scorned ex-lover a man's career has been ruined. As a liberal I'm very ashamed to see that instead of this playing out in court, it's being played out in the media, with everyone assuming the Sheriff's guilt because he's Republican and takes a hard stand against illegal immigration, and he's called a hypocrite. News flash, gays and other minorities aren't de facto Democrats, people can align themselves with whatever party that speaks to issues most important to them. Also you can be tough on illegal immigration and like Mexicans. One doesn't cancel out the other.

[James Markham]

06:48 PM on 03/06/2012

"News flash, gays and other minorities aren't de facto Democrats......."

How right you are! I've caught a lot of flack from 'my team' for expressing the same sentiments.
I don't have a problem with any gay being a fiscally-responsive Republican. But the more serious issue is abuse of power, and allegations of cruel punishment. unlicensed facilities, and an inappropriate hook-up with a 17yr.old in one's care.

[JohnJames]

09:03 PM on 03/06/2012

I've gotten the same flack too as a gay liberal - being gay is a sexual orientation and it ought to be politically and in every other way irrelevant beyond standing up for one's own dignity and equality. But how about you refraining from judging this man before any of these allegations have been put before a jury, if it ever gets that far. Oh, and needless to say, allegations of sexual impropriety with a minor are pretty standard whenever anyone wants to take a gay man down for whatever reasons.

[Fran Jaime]

07:14 PM on 03/06/2012

yes, but when you are tough on undocumented immigrants and have a secret lover who happens to BE undocumented and you know it, that stinks of hipocrisy.

[Cameron Huff]

08:55 PM on 03/06/2012

Yea, I had a co-worker who used to say demeaning and unprintable things about Black people. Then I saw him drunk in a bar slobering over a hot black guy. Self loathing is ugly whether it's gay or straight.

[Razpooten]

02:03 AM on 03/08/2012

There seems to be a lot of people with reading comprehension problems here. Where did you read "illegal Immigrant,"? @Fran Jaime

[cornerofthemoon]

04:33 PM on 03/06/2012

Funny, I thought the Sheriff liked going down south of the border.

[inthedesert]

09:33 PM on 03/07/2012

Is that like "going downtown"?

[cornerofthemoon]

04:31 PM on 03/06/2012

The sheriff is a come from behind kind of guy.

[Cameron Huff]

08:56 PM on 03/06/2012

Yea, I understand he was a former Marine, and his motto was "Leave no man's behind".

[ta2t2o]

10:00 PM on 03/06/2012

It's actually - "Never leave your buddy's behind"

[yankeedem]

05:39 PM on 03/07/2012

How do the Marines separate the men from the boys?" "With a crowbar."

[inthedesert]

09:33 PM on 03/07/2012

God..you are making me hot and wet. STOP IT.

[byronic]

04:29 PM on 03/06/2012

Presumably a financial settlement with his lover was what he was trying to avoid...

[judesuper]

04:22 PM on 03/06/2012

This show gets better and better.

Again, that makes me smile.