For eighteen months a good and decent career public servant, Cory Voorhis, has been put through a personal agony by the government he had taken and oath to serve. He was charged as a criminal, removed from his job without pay, suffered character attacks, and a personal agony that no one can possibly understand. On April 9, 2008 a jury of his peers found Cory Voorhis not guilty of the charges brought against him.
Throughout the ordeal, numerous false statements were made in the media about Mr. Voorhis, members of my staff, and others related to this case. When criminal charges were alleged against Mr. Voorhis in October of 2006, I made a vow to give him every benefit of fair and impartial due process under the law to ultimately clear his good name. It was tortuous to remain silent as careers were damaged and reputations destroyed before ultimate vindication. I believed “trying the case in the media” could prejudice his case. Thankfully, it proved to be the best service I could have provided.
The attacks against Mr. Voorhis even came from the spokesman for the Governor, Evan Dreyer. Disregarding the doctrine of "presumption of innocence" and displaying a blatant abuse of power from the office of the Governor in order to prejudice the outcome of the trial, Dreyer referred to Voorhis as "a desperate criminal."
Silence amid such outrageous attacks against a good, innocent man was very hard to endure, but it ultimately led to the truth.
In October of 2006, I referred to Mr. Voorhis as a “hero”. His courage in exposing a travesty of justice, and the personal pain he and his family have endured prove him to be worthy of that praise. Faced with the knowledge of a terrible abuse of justice, Mr. Voorhis courageously exposed the dirty secrets hidden behind the plea bargain curtain in the Denver District Attorney’s office. Rather than explain the let’s-make-a-deal policy, the Ritter campaign set out to destroy a good man.
I’m pleased they failed.
Many of us would like to think our lives somehow make America a better place. But, rarely do circumstances present themselves for any one to act courageously for the greater good without consideration for their own well being. Cory Voorhis saw a terrible wrong, and he wanted to make it right. He could have kept silent – he could have just closed his eyes. But, Cory Voorhis did not blink.
Mr. Voorhis and I never spoke until late on the afternoon of April 9, just a few hours after his acquittal was announced. We hope to meet very soon face-to-face. He volunteered to publicly release the following letter.
-Bob Beauprez
April 14, 2008