Paul Babeu
American police officer
Paul Raymond Babeu (pronounced BAB-you; born February 3, 1969) is an American law enforcement officer, politician and member of the Republican Party who was sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona, from January 1, 2009, to January 1, 2017. He was Pinal County's first Republican and first openly gay sheriff.
In 2012, Babeu ran to represent Arizona's 4th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives, challenging incumbent Republican Paul Gosar in the primary, but withdrew after he was accused of being lovers with an illegal immigrant. He later came out as gay, and successfully sought re-election as sheriff instead. In 2016, he was the Republican nominee for Arizona's 1st congressional district, losing to Democrat Tom O'Halleran.
Early life and education
Babeu was born on February 3, 1969, in North Adams, Massachusetts, to Raymond and Helen Babeu. Raymond Babeu was a longtime employee of the area's electric utility who was also active in local politics. Paul Babeu was the tenth of eleven children born into the family. Babeu has spoken of being molested for several years as a child by at least two Catholic priests, including Richard R. Lavigne.
Babeu holds an associate degree in law enforcement from the Arizona Law Enforcement Academy.
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This entry incorporates text from “Paul Babeu” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.