Pinal County deputy in desert shootout fired over comments
by Dennis Wagner - Jan. 5, 2011 12:20 PM
The Arizona Republic
A Pinal County Sheriff's deputy who purportedly was wounded in a gunbattle with drug smugglers last year has been fired for making false statements to a journalist.
In a news release, the Sheriff's Office said Deputy Louie Puroll was terminated for 10 violations of departmental policy governing ethics violations, incompetence and truthfulness.
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said in the statement that he stood by Puroll's controversial claim of being in an April shootout because the account was supported by evidence. However, Babeu said, comments made by the deputy to a Phoenix New Times reporter "brought discredit to himself and the men and women representing our sworn law enforcement profession."
Puroll suffered a minor flesh wound in a shootout that propelled him and Babeu into the national media spotlight in the heat of public debate over border security and Arizona's tough immigration law known as Senate Bill 1070.
After the incident, numerous law enforcement experts and others contended that Puroll fabricated the entire incident based on physical evidence and inconsistencies in his story. Babeu stood behind the deputy's account, and a Pinal County Sheriff's investigation concluded that the incident was authentic.
Puroll was suspended last year for comments he made to New Times.
In one interview, he told the newspaper that he had been approached by Mexican cartel members and asked to help them. In another, he told reporter Paul Rubin that a friend had offered to murder Rubin in retaliation for critical news stories.
Puroll, a search-and-rescue deputy with 14 years on the force, was placed under investigation because he had never reported those matters to his superiors or to other law enforcement.
Despite Puroll's questionable comments in the media, Babeu has maintained that the deputy's shootout with smugglers was validated by evidence.
Puroll could not be reached for comment.
Babeu throws deputy under bus
Deputy Louie Puroll went from hero to villain in the course of one interview with a reporter from Phoenix New Times.
It was Puroll who supposedly took on drug smugglers in Pinal County during a much investigated incident that left him with a flesh wound. Sheriff Paul Babeu supported Puroll after that, saying the evidence supported his deputy's story.
When New Times reporter Paul Rubin questioned the veracity of Puroll's claims the deputy agreed to meet with Rubin and, according to a press release from Babeu's office, "brought great discredit to himself and the men and women representing our sworn law enforcement profession" during the interview.
The firing notice includes a host of offenses, including "the employee does not demonstrate sufficient competency or efficiency to perform assigned duties and responsibilities."
Which, if true, has to raise continued questions about what actually happened in the desert when Puroll was wounded.
There won't be a lot of details released about the dismissal because Puroll has appealed his termination.
But the question remains, if Babeu can't trust Puroll's "truthfulness," as alleged in the firing notice, how can he believe the story of the shootout? [Duh! That's easy. It makes Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu like like a hero! Sheriff Paul Babeu wouldn't like about that would he? Well OK, he probably would lie about it.]