Arizona Sheriff Fires Deputy Who Said He Was Shot By Smugglers

TPM

The Arizona Sheriff's Deputy who was shot in the desert last April by men he claimed were drug smugglers has been fired by Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

Deputy Louie Puroll had been under suspension and the subject of an Internal Affairs investigation for comments he made in November to Phoenix New Times reporter Paul Rubin, the same reporter who in September published a long story in which experts raised questions about the April incident and the truthfulness of Puroll's account.

In interviews for the November follow-up story, Puroll told Rubin that he'd been approached by cartel members in the past who wanted to bribe him, and said that a friend had offered to kill Rubin for the deputy after the New Times published the critical story.

In a news release announcing Puroll's firing, the Sheriff's Office cited 10 department rules and policies violated by the Deputy, among them ones governing competence, ethics and truthfulness.

"I stood by my deputy after he was shot by drug smugglers in April because his statements to both criminal and internal investigators were consistent, supported by physical evidence, radio transmissions, GPS coordinates, other victims/witnesses and later through gunshot residue testing conducted on the shirt he was wearing," Sheriff Babeu said in a statement. "The manner in which Deputy Puroll conducted himself following the shooting investigation when interviewed by Reporter Paul Rubin brought great discredit to himself and the men and women representing our sworn law enforcement profession."...........................