Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Arizona Central reports:
Congressional candidate Paul Babeu tried to clarify Monday his role at a private Massachusetts school for emotionally troubled youths in an effort to redefine a part of his background that has dogged him during his runs for public office.
Pushing back against his Democratic critics, the Pinal County sheriff filed a bar complaint against a member of Congress in his native state, claiming she improperly accused him of obstructing an investigation of the school when he no longer worked there. He also maintained he didn’t oversee discipline or education of the students.
With a 1,600-page report on a table next to him, Babeu told media assembled outside the state Capitol that Massachusetts authorities had vindicated him. “In this investigation, I wasn’t interviewed. I wasn’t deposed. My name’s only referenced once for having a car at the school and two other times copied on letters. That’s it. That’s the extent of this,” he said.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has pilloried Babeu in recent weeks with an alarmist ad using a family videotape of Babeu taken during Christmas 1999 in which he seems to suggest his students were “hopeless.”
Since the tape surfaced earlier this year, the person who headed the DeSisto probe, U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., told KNXV (Channel 15) that Babeu “stonewalled her investigation at every turn.” Clark was special counsel for the Office of Children’s Services for the state of Massachusetts at the time.
On Monday, Babeu said he filed a formal bar complaint against Clark, saying he never met with Clark or was questioned about it. He maintained his role at the school was more of financial manager than disciplinarian.
There’s much more at the link.
PREVIOUSLY ON JMG: Babeu earned his first mention here on JMG years ago when he was outed via his Adam4Adam profile. Earlier this month he was endorsed by gay former GOP US House Rep. Jim Kolbe, who was outed in 1996 after his vote for DOMA, although in 2013 Kolbe was a signatory to an amicus brief in support of the repeal of Prop 8. Babeu has stated that marriage should be left for the states to decide. Earlier this year the Phoenix New Times reported that Babeu is currently living with a 22 year-old whom he met in 2012. In March 2012 the Mexican national ex-boyfriend of Babeu sued him for $1M, alleging that Babeu had threatened to have him deported if the boyfriend were to out him. Babeu’s run for the US House fizzled shortly thereafter, but not before it was revealed that he had spoken at an event staged by a group that wants to end illegal and most legal immigration and wants to end automatic citizenship for children born in the United States. Last year Babeu led a mob of raging teabaggers as they screamed abuse at migrant children being transported on federal buses.