The plot is thickening in the scandale surrounding Arizona sheriff—and Mitt Romney’s former state co-chair—Paul Babeu (above), as information surfaces about a threeway with a Democratic politico and his boyfriend (complete with a political payoff) and Babeu turns the tables on his Latin ex, Jose Orozco.
According to the Phoenix New Times, Babeu may have had a sexy sleepover with hunky gay Arizona State Rep. Matt Heinz (right) and Heinz’s boyfriend. (Heinz is planning to run for Gabrielle Giffords’ congressional seat.)
Openly gay Tucson state Representative Matt Heinz was one of two Democratic lawmakers who broke ranks with the party in March 2011 and voted to give Babeu $5 million to combat border violence. Other lawmakers opposed the measure, in part, because Babeu’s county is at least 70 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. The measure finally was pared down to $1.7 million and passed by the Legislature.
About a week after Heinz’s nod to Babeu, the sheriff spent the night at Heinz’s home, text messages that Orozco shared with New Times show.
“I’m at Mat [sic] Heinz and his boyfriend for dinner & ice cream…we are going out to bar and…to their house. [Am] staying over,” Babeu texted to Orozco at 1:04 a.m. last April 2.
Even if Babeu didn’t literally blow his way to a million-dollar payout, his relationship with Heinz doesn’t look good.
Trying to take the initiative, Babeu, the top cop in Arizona’s Pinal County, called yesterday for an investigation into claims made by Orozco, who says Babeu threatened deportation if he didn’t sign a agreement agreeing to never speak about their relationship.
How about we take this to the next level?
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The D.A.’s office has agreed to investigate, reports the Arizona Republic
Pinal County Attorney James P. Walsh said Tuesday that the matter will go before the southern subcommittee of the Public Integrity Task Force, a little-used team formed by the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Advisory Council in 1992 to handle cases when local prosecutors had a conflict or wanted to avoid the perception of one. The chairwoman of the subcommittee has agreed to take the case, though no time frame has been set.
What’s the next chapter in My Big Fat Gay Arizona Affair? We smell a hot desert orgy coming on.
Image via CNN, Sheriff Paul, Arizona State Legislature
Pygar
Actually not surprised that this goes on in state politics. It’s just that this time they got caught, and the metaphors happen to fit literal actions. Dems, Repubs, and Indies. That’s politics!
Brandon H
When is the gay porn parody coming!? I cant wait!
Mark
And why is it everyone assumes they did? Not all gay men have to jump in bed and have a romp – it may’ve been an entirely platonic deal and no one got in anyone’s bits save for the congressman and his own partner. Sorry, but this type of reporting only feeds the straight haters even more fodder to bash us.
William
This is just disgusting.
The fact that Heinz did not come out and deny this days ago when the story broke is even more frightening.
James
Queerty is just playing into the homophobia of the right wing. This material will soon be on their websites. Shame on Queerty!
Matt Heinz
Votes for sex! That’s how I roll!
iDavid
Hey Matt, how was the three way or ……..?
iDavid
Hey Matt, how was the three way or ……..? If everyone was just up front with sex, we’d have a lot more giggles in the world. And everyone likes giggles!
Storm
So, Paul Baby, who swears he didn’t threaten his ex-lover with deportation is now … what, threatening his lover with arrest and deportation? How about an Internal Affairs investigation on Orozco’s original charges: threat, harrassment and intimidation? Or don’t they have AI in these banana county police departments?
corben
They totally fucked.
B
Well, one way of determining if there is a good reason to stay overnight in an extra bedroom is to check the distance from Heinz’s home to Babeu’s home. If it was after
midnight and a 2 to 3 hour drive, spending the night sounds a lot more reasonable
than risking an accident due to being too tired to drive safely.
rowan
Sounds like Jose was pissed off cause Babeu broke up with him. Jose then starts writing rude crap on Babeu social networking account and started threaten to go public with their relationship, Babeu then threatens Jose and that’s all she wrote. Let this be a lesson to you: Latino queens are some of the most vindictive bitches you’ll ever meet.
FunMe
What gay man over 30 stays at someone house if it isn’t for being too drunk … or ready to have sex?
Talk about a gay telenova!
Lazycrockett
Crossing Party Line Sex is dirty, nasty and HOT.
Dale
The text messages reveal that Jim Kolbe had a late night meeting with Babeu too. Jose knows Babeu best and was responding with jealous text messages so he definitely suspected some hanky panky was going on.
Riker
@Dale: Which doesn’t prove anything, nor really even count as evidence. A jealous, paranoid boyfriend? Where have I heard that before?
Oh, that’s right. We’ve all had at least one. Usually after we dump them they start spreading lies about us to our friends. The same melodrama plays out in gay bars across the country so I have no reason to believe a word the boyfriend says.
timncguy
@Riker: You’re not paranoid if it’s true. If you read all the other info about this you will find that the proof of the sheriff’s was provided by Jose. Jose found that his boyfriend sheriff had a profile on Adam 4 Adam. Jose created a fake profile there and “chatted” with the sheriff. The sheriff made a date with the fake profile and told him to “bring an overnight bag to their date”. When the sheriff showed up for the date and found his boyfriend Jose at the restaurant parking lot, the truth became apparent. The sheriff was a player who was cheating on his boyfriend whom he had been in a 5 year relationship with. So, I’m guessing that Jose’s gut feeling about what was going on at the “sleepover” was accurate.
RLS
I know this is wrong…but this story gets hotter with every new development…
Cam
So they were going out and had some drinks and he stayed over rather than driving.
I’m not sure what happened but the automatic assumption that they all slept together seems like typical gay stereotyping.
I’m assuming if the guy was going to cheat on his boyfriend he most likely isn’t going to be texting it off to him.
timncguy
@Cam: It’s not an automatic assumption. It’s what the boyfriend, Jose, has been saying and providing the data to back it up that the sheriff was a “player”.
pedro
Political careers over in 1…2…
Ryan
Gay republican scandals are my favorite.
Cam
@timncguy: said…
“@Cam: It’s not an automatic assumption. It’s what the boyfriend, Jose, has been saying and providing the data to back it up that the sheriff was a “player”.”
__________________
From what I see, the boyfriend provided texts that stated that his boyfriend went out to dinner with them and was staying over. In a state and county like that where everything is far apart I can see the logic in crashing at friends rather than driving 100 miles after being out drinking. AGain, I don’t know what happened, but the automatic assumption is ridiculous. If there is data to “Back it up” then lets see the links. Otherwise I see the assumption that some gay guys can’t be in the same room without fucking each other offensive.
B
No. 23 · Cam wrote, “Otherwise I see the assumption that some gay guys can’t be in the same room without fucking each other offensive.”
In addition, there’s no evidence that Babue even slept in the same room as the others. We don’t even know if their home has a spare bedroom, nor whether it was a house or an apartment.
timncguy
@Cam: I’m not saying the we know what happened in this specific instance for sure. But, we do know that the sheriff (based on my post at #17) is a “player”. And, we know from Jose has said that Jose thinks his “sleepover” was sexual. Jose knows the sheriff better than we do. And, we know that no one involved in the sleepover has denied that it was sexual.
Seriously, why was democratic politician socializing with a far right-wing wacko in the first place?
Jonathon
So… Friend A and Friend B go out and grab a few drinks together. Friend B has a few too many beers, so I take him back to my place so he doesn’t endanger other motorists by getting behind the wheel. He then spends the night and leaves the next morning.
Where out of all of that are you getting the idea of some crazy gay sex romp? Yes, they are buddies. Yes, they are both gay. That doesn’t equate to them being lovers. This entire story reeks of gossip rag trash.
B
No. 25 · timncguy wrote, “@Cam: I’m not saying the we know what happened in this specific instance for sure. But, we do know that the sheriff (based on my post at #17) is a “player”. And, we know from Jose has said that Jose thinks his “sleepover” was sexual. Jose knows the sheriff better than we do.”
Actually, you don’t know if the sheriff is a “player”. Rather, you know that his ex-boyfriend claims he was, but you don’t know how credible that ex-boyfriend is.
ousslander
gay men cannot control themselves and will have sex with each other whenever they are together. Sexual deviants. nothing like perpetuating a stereotype. oops some gay guy just walked in, have to go blow him now.
he also asked them to investigate Jose’s allegations against himself.
Matt Heinz
Well, I am a Democrat so I am supposed to get away with anything. Ha ha!
Thanks for your votes, suckers!
B
No. 25 · timncguy wrote, “And, we know that no one involved in the sleepover has denied that it was sexual.”
Should have commented on that in my previous comment. QUEERTY suggested it might have been sexual, but the Phoenix New Times article QUEERTY cited made no such claims. It just stated that Babeu had spent the night at their home. If he had a couple of drinks, I can see why – even if not legally intoxicated, it would be embarrassing for a “tough” sheriff to be pulled over on suspicion of DUI and for them to find a blood-alcohol level just below the legal limit. Regardless, none of the people involved have any obligation to read QUEERTY articles. Does anyone expect them to deny an accusation that they might never have even heard or seen?
Matt Heinz
@B: You got it. We can trust our friends in media to sweep it under the rug!
timncguy
@B: The Advocate posted the question about the possible sexual nature of the sleepover directly on Matt Heinz’s Facebook page. So, please, let’s not even try to suggest that the participants aren’t aware of the question being asked.
You know, Queerty isn’t the only place this is being reported. If you are going to base your opinion only on what you read here, then you don’t have all the data. In addition to Queerty suggesting the possibility of the three-way, the sheriff’s ex-boyfriend Jose has also suggested it. And, if you read post #17 here you will see that Jose has made the case that the sheriff is a “player”, so a three-way would not be out of character for him.
Paulines Perils
So Babeu was pumping Heinz for information,, to ketchup on?