An Arizona father confronted a top county lawyer for allegedly taking a pervy video of his 12-year-old daughter inside a Target — then masturbating to the gross footage in the parking lot, according to a new video.
Paul Correa, formerly a Cochise County chief civil deputy county attorney, was caught on police body cam trying to awkwardly smooth-talk his way out of the depraved situation on Dec. 17 — when the dad called cops to the parking lot of the Sierra Vista store.
Correa, 59, blamed the dad for being “confused,” according to police body camera footage posted to X Tuesday.
“He thinks he saw something. He’s confused, he’s angry … he thinks I was in the store recording his daughter with my phone. That’s not true – that’s absolutely not true,” Correa says in the video.
When the officer asks Correa why the father would think that, the disgraced lawyer responds, “That I had my phone out, maybe? I don’t know what he thinks he saw.”
Correa claimed he was calling his son about dinner plans when the angry father began “banging” on his car door “real hard” – and accusing him of “jacking off” to the recording.
“I don’t know where he gets that,” Correa insists, before noting that he “would have shot the guy” for opening his car door during the confrontation, if he had been carrying a firearm.
“This guy’s got me completely wrong,” he tells the officer.
The girl’s father, however, told investigators that he’d seen Correa watching the clip “with his pants disheveled” and surveillance footage obtained later by police allegedly showed him recording a second young girl during his 40-minute visit to the store, the Herald Review reported.
Cops took Correa’s work and personal phones before letting him leave the Target following his interview but then arrested him the next day. That same day, he was also canned from his lawyer job.
Cochise County Attorney Lori Zucco said part of her decision to terminate Correa came from speaking with the tween victim, according to local outlet 13 News.
“I am so proud of that victim who came forward and advocated for herself,” Zucco told the outlet. “She exposed Mr. Correa for what he was, and this whole community owes a debt to her.”
Correa was indicted on charges of harassment by surveillance, public sexual indecency and felony tampering with physical evidence, and pleaded not guilty during his Jan. 5 arraignment.
He is being held on a $25,000 cash-only bond.
His next court date is Feb. 17. His lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
