One more reason to remove Sheriff Chris Vasquez from office

Letter to the editor:

In May of this year, I submitted paperwork to start a petition for the recall of Pinal County Sheriff Chris Vasquez. Since that time, I received an anonymous envelope in the mail.

It appears someone came across an email on the sheriff’s office computer system, felt I should see it, printed and mailed it to me. The email was dated June 19, 2008. It was sent from Alan Levine, a newspaper reporter from Pinal County, to Vanessa White, a sheriff’s office spokesperson. The email says, “Vanessa I spoke to Chris yesterday, and he advised me that Ethan Groh has a record. Please consider this an FOI request and forward any material, records, etc. that PCSO might have on Ethan Groh. Alan Levine.” There is no reason that a request would be made pertaining to myself other than someone is looking for things to cover up what is really going on.

I would like to clarify one thing, I have no criminal record. This email angered me. I feel it was an effort to smear my name and to discredit any attempts I have made to recall Sheriff Vasquez. Before I was able to address this issue, I needed to make sure it was a legitimate email. On July 29, I sent a public records request to the sheriff’s office for a copy of it. To this point I have received no reply from them. I understand this to be a violation of state law under A.R.S. (Arizona Revised Statute) Title 39. By not cooperating with my request, the validation of this email has become clear.

Why was this information requested? Was this an attempt at retaliation against me for starting the recall on the sheriff? How many other people within the sheriff’s office have seen this email and now believe I have a criminal record? Has Sheriff Vasquez given other false information about me to Alan Levine or anyone else, and why did the sheriff’s office not respond to my public records request? I know Sheriff Vasquez has a problem with the recall, but nothing I have done has violated state law.

If you would like to see more information as to why I feel Chris Vasquez needs to be removed from the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, please visit a website I started at www.citizenofpinalcounty.com.

Ethan Groh
Casa Grande, AZ 85222

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