GOP lawyer refuses to deny private eye visits (updated): Two in ACORN controversy say investigator's visits were intimidating
By Gwyneth Doland 10/23/08 7:45 PM <http://newmexicoindependent.com/6457/nm-gop-accused-of-voter-intimidation>http://newmexicoindependent.com/6457/nm-gop-accused-of-voter-intimidation ALBUQUERQUE - Republican Party attorney Pat Rogers refused to say Thursday if a private detective who visited the addresses of two of the 10 Albuquerque voters cited at a news conference last week about voter fraud was working for the GOP. Project Vote, a nonprofit that works with the community-organizing group ACORN, charged yesterday that the 10 voters are eligible voters and that the visits constitute voter intimidation. The group called on U.S. Attorney Gregory J. Fouratt to investigate. When asked by the New Mexico Independent if the private investigator worked for Rogers' law firm, Rogers said, "I have no interest in responding to ACORN's accusation." Reminded that the accusations came from the voters themselves, Rogers said, "You need not to accept what ACORN says." When asked the question again, Rogers said, "I am not responding to any questions. I am not being quoted. This is off the record." The investigator's visits were confirmed by the Independent after ACORN provided names and contact information for the women. Guadalupe Bojorquez said a man who identified himself as a private investigator by the name of Al Romero visited the home of her 67-year-old mother on Wednesday. "She calls me and she's panicked because there is this man outside and he's telling her he's an investigator and he wants to come in to the house," Bojorquez told NMI. She said her mother then put the man on the phone. "I asked him, but he wouldn't tell me who he worked for. He just said he wanted to verify that she was a legitimate voter and he wanted to see her documents. I told him 'No,' and we argued for a little bit. "He said 'You have to realize we're just trying to protect the people, we just want to make sure that she's a legitimate voter and if she votes and she's not supposed to, then it's illegal.' "He was pressuring me so much that I told him that she's not going to do anything until she speaks to her attorney." Bojorquez said she asked the man several times whom he worked for. Eventually, she said, "He told me he worked for Pat Rogers." N.M. GOP lawyer Pat Rogers GOP lawyer Pat Rogers Rogers is the Republican attorney who also made claims of voter fraud in 2004 and 2006. He was cited in the federal Department of Justice report about the firing of U.S. attorneys as one of the New Mexico GOP activists who complained to the Department of Justice about then-U.S. Attorney David Iglesias. By law, private investigators are licensed by the state Regulation and Licensing Department. According to the department's Web site, there is an Alfredo Romero who has a current private investigator license. In addition, three men named Albert or Alberto Romero have current security guard licenses. Jenais Griego told NMI that she too had been visited by a private investigator on Wednesday. Her grandmother, Emily Garcia, was one of the people whom Republicans described last week as an ineligible voter. "I asked him if he had a badge and he pulled out a white and blue laminate card with his name on it," Griego. "It wasn't even a badge, but it said 'Al Romero, private investigator.' He came in and he started asking me about my grandmother and I was trying to tell him that she didn't live here. He's like 'OK, so let me just write some stuff down.'" Griego said that Romero asked her questions about her grandmother's voter registration card; her grandmother lives in a trailer down the street, but receives her mail at the house, she said. "It freaked me out when he got upset, when I did tell him that, regardless of what happens, my grandmother is voting and it's OK for her to vote." "He tried to tell me to tell her to be careful when she's voting. He was trying to tell me stuff to scare her from voting." Bojorquez also said her mother felt wary about the visit. "My mom is confused because she doesn't understand why she's being put through this because she voted. She doesn't trust anybody anymore," Bojorquez said, requesting that her mother's name not be published again. In its letter to U.S. Attorney Fouratt, Project Vote said the private investigator's visits constitute a form of "intimidation and suppression" that violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965. "We request that you conduct an immediate investigation into the attempts by the Republican Party of New Mexico to intimidate minority, first-time voters into not exercising their right to vote," the letter said. NMI reporter Trip Jennings contributed to this story. UPDATE: Last week, Rogers told the Associated Press that the Party had hired a private investigator: Rogers said a private investigator hired by the state Republican Party found Rivera and others like her have Social Security numbers on their voter registration forms that are being used by other people. They may be legitimate voters and could be victims of identity theft. <http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/pis_actions_may_have_violated.php>http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/pis_actions_may_have_violated.php PI's Actions May Have Violated Federal Voting Laws, Say Experts By Zachary Roth - October 24, 2008, 1:49PM Four separate experts on voting rights have confirmed to TPMmuckraker that the behavior of a private investigator apparently hired by a New Mexico Republican party lawyer, that we reported this morning, potentially violates federal voting laws. Gerry Hebert, a former acting head of the voting rights section of the Department of Justice, told TPMmuckraker that the P.I.'s actions appear to violate the criminal section of the federal Voting Rights Act, which makes it a crime to willfully injure, intimidate, or interfere with a person attempting to vote. Hebert added that a separate statute makes it a crime to conspire to intimidate someone in exercising their right to vote -- a provision that could apply to GOP lawyer Pat Rogers or others in the state party who may have been involved in the scheme. "A matter like that ought to be reported to the DOJ immediately," said Hebert, adding that he planned to do so. Jon Greenbaum of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights agreed, and added that the activities detailed in TPMmuckraker's report could violate both criminal and civil voting rights statutes. Greenbaum pointed to a civil provision of the Voting Rights Act which says that it violates the law to intimidate, threaten or coerce someone from voting or not voting. Greenbaum too said he planned to pass on to the Department of Justice the claims made in our report. Rick Hasen, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and a noted expert on election law, also said that the behavior potentially violated the Voting Rights Act or other federal civil-rights statutes. And Wendy Weiser, a voting-rights expert at the Brennan Center for Justice, further confirmed that take. An Albuquerque woman told TPMmuckraker yesterday that a man identifying himself as a private investigator hired by Rogers came to her mother's house Wednesday asking her mother for personal information and warning her not to vote if she wasn't properly registered. A second woman in the same city provided a simlar report to TPMmuckraker. The voters' names had been publicly released last week by Rogers and others affiliated with the state party, who claimed that 28 mostly Hispanic people had voted fraudulently in June. It was later determined that many of the people whose names had been released were valid voters. The New Mexico Independent first reported the news of the intimidating visits last night. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Mark Crispin Miller's "News From Underground" newsgroup. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
