Law&Crime Sidebar - Lawyer Busted for Filming Girls in Target: Police

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

Arizona County Attorney Paul Correa has found himself on the wrong side of the law. He’s accused of filming minor girls in a Target and then allegedly watching the video in his car with his "pants disheveled." Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber breaks down the bizarre case, including the explosive bodycam footage of the police confrontation, the shocking witness statements, and the criminal charges.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, Alex Ciccarone, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

He thinks that I was in the store recording his daughter with my phone. That's not true. It's absolutely not true. I was in here buying gifts for a holiday party. What would make him think that you are reporting? Did I have my phone now? An Arizona County attorney has suddenly found himself on the wrong side of the law, accused of filming minor girls in a target, and then, well, doing something in his car afterwards.

We have the body cam, the police report, we have the witness statements, and we got our hands on the prior history of Paul Correa as we break down this new bizarre case out west. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. We got our hands on this body cam footage of the moment that police confronted and now former county deputy attorney out in Arizona on allegations that he was filming a girl in a target store. And then, I don't know the best way to say this. allegedly doing something in his car. So we're talking about former Cochise County Chief Civil Deputy Paul Correa. Now, if you're saying yourself, well, what does this guy do?

This is a guy who, according to what appears to be his LinkedIn, is the General Counsel for Government Operations, deals with regulatory compliance, contract review, AI issues, basically advised the county on legal matters and was its lead litigation attorney. He's a big deal. Now, the video that we're talking about here is from December 17, 2025. It's only a few weeks ago. it's outside of a Sierra Vista target, and this is when police show up after there is a disorderly conduct report. You see, the allegation was that 59-year-old Correa was following a young girl in the

store and recording her, and then allegedly watching that video in the parking lot with, quote, this is from the father in this case, the father of this young girl, that he observed Correa, quote, with his pants dishevelled. I don't think I have to put two and two together about what the allegation here is, but, unfortunately, I'm going to get a little bit more specific. So, according to 13 News, KOLD, an employee of the store called 911, why? Because there was an allegation that there was a car blocking another car in the parking lot. It turns out the father of this young girl allegedly blocked Karea's car, seemingly so he couldn't leave. I want to go to the body cam, okay, because this is going to be a key piece of evidence. Let's go to the body cam, piece by piece, hear of the interaction. And I got to say, the way it starts off, kind of tense. Hi. Hi, how are you doing? All right, how are you?

Take your hand out of your pocket. Something around in your waistband. Come in the front of your car. Sure. What's your name? My name is all right. Okay, have a seat right here. I prefer not to sit.

Okay, well, lean up against your car. Why? Because I'm telling you to. Okay. It's either better, you can go have a seat in the back of my car. So I'm trying to, I don't know what's going on. So lean up against your car with your butt and just kind of sit and relax for a minute. I figure out what's going on.

I watch him. Because I'm the only guy here. I don't know what the hell is going on. All right. Sorry. So what's the issue today? She thinks... So I took forth from now part of you're separated. That you know, he can give you a statement. He thinks he saw something.

He's confused. He's angry. What's he confused or angry? What does he think he saw? He thinks that I was in the in the store recording his daughter with my phone. That's not true. He's absolutely not true. Okay.

Okay. So now the question is, what is going on in this parking lot? How did this transpired now in the parking lot? People are blocking each other. I was sitting here telling my son to say, the pizza place is frozen there, so what he went to eat? Okay. And then all of a sudden, he was banking on the door, telling me, you know, I don't know what he's just banging the door real hard. Okay. What's he saying?

I don't think he was saying anything comprehensively. So it's like, I think you would sell me to come out of a car. It's like, who are you? And he wouldn't say who he was. Was there some kind of altercation in the store? No, absolutely not. So you have a father of this minor girl, arguably trapping Correa in the parking lot. And this is the part where the officer asks him, what were you doing at the target?

And this is, by the way, also where the officer learns who Correa is. Do you have an idea on you? Yeah. Here, here. What's that? I live in Bisby now. In Busby? Is this your car?

Yeah. Okay. What's a good ad is for you in Busby? So you're here shopping? Yeah. Did you buy any of all? Yes. What do you buy? A bunch of chocolate balls and stuff.

It's for an office part. Oh. Where do you work? work? I work at the Turkey's county attorney's office. Oh, okay. What's a good telephone number for you? Are you an attorney? Are you a paralegal? Yeah, I'm the chief civil deputy attorney. Okay. This guy's gotten open to you wrong. I understand. I'd be upset too.

And then as the officer tries to get a better sense of what happened here, Correa says, and this is pretty remarkable, if he had a gun, he would have shot the father. There's no altercation. There's no contact. Not to you guys in the store, but at what point did he tell you or did you hear an allegation that he thought you were filming his daughter? He came bang on my door just now. I've been sitting here for a minute, like, trying to figure out what you got dinner for my kid. He says, I'm in here in my car, and like, I don't know where he gets at. Okay.

All right. As far as you know, did you see him in the store with a daughter? I don't know. You don't know? The first that you hear of anything is right here at the car. He's being on the window. Yes. Okay.

All right. Hank, hang to me to tell him. Officer Thompson, but let me go talk to Hammering at his side of the story. Obviously, until we're done here, you're not free to go. Right, sure. I'm fine. I'm fine. There's no physical altercation between you and hammering in the,

parking on here. It's just he's going on. I tried to close my door and he'd be prevented me to close my door. I told him you were breaking the law. Okay, well, I'll go talk to you. He pulled my door open. He's breaking a lot. If I had a firearm, my firearm would be right now. I would have shot the guy.

And then Correa appears to invoke the castle doctrine, form of self-defense under the law, by the way, which is the idea when you're in your home and potentially even your car, so your property, you don't have to run away, but you can use physical force, maybe even deadly force to protect yourself or someone else from immediate physical harm. The trick of that is it has to be reasonable under the circumstances. And someone opening your car door, that could be a tough one if there's not something else there. But, you know, if a guy blocks you, opens the door, maybe there's an argument that you were in reasonable fear for your life. Maybe there's something there. But that's kind of a side issue. Thankfully, he didn't even get to that.

Here's what happens, though, in this case. After the allegation that he recorded this minor girl in the Target, reportedly, by the way, 12 years old, and then was watching the video with his pants disheveled, reportedly out in the parking lot, he was criminally charged, and he was fired. He was charged with evidence tampering, harassment by surveillance, and public sexual indecency. Why? This is where I have to read you some new details from the responding officer's police incident report, because there's one thing from the body cam, what it shows you.

This is what the officer allegedly observed. Quote, as I contacted Correa, he exited the vehicle and immediately started to manipulate the waistband of his pants. His left hand was not visible behind his person as he appeared to pull up on the back of his pants and his right hand was in his pocket. I directed him to stop digging around in his waistband and pocket and to come to the front of his car. Correa then pulled his shirt down over his pants.

I observed the front zipper of his pants was partially unzipped. and the zipper pull was protruding from the fabric flap area as if his pants had been undone. So if you need me to spell it out here, from here, Correa, as you kind of saw in the body cam, claimed that the father, identified as Jason in the paperwork, had accused him of essentially pleasuring himself to the video. So then the officer speaks to Jason, right? What's his perception on all this? Here's his narrative.

Quote, I contacted Jason who provided the following account. His wife, Stacy, and their daughter were shopping at Target. Jason was not present with them at Target and was at their residence. While at the store, Redacted, so this is the minor girl, Redacted, became upset and called Jason, stating that a man had been following her around the store and recording her with his phone. Jason stated that Redacted told him she attempted to move away from the man, but he continued to follow her. At one point, Redacted reportedly saw the man's phone screen, which she believed was recording her. Jason stated that after being notified of what occurred, he drove to the Target.

parking lot. When he got to Target, he located the man, later identified as Paul Correa, sitting in a vehicle. Jason said he blocked Correa's vehicle with his own to prevent him from leaving and approached Correa's car. Jason stated that he banged on the window and observed Correa looking at his phone. Jason described that he believed Correa was essentially pleasuring himself. Jason visually demonstrated how Correa was sitting, showing that he was holding a phone in one hand and had the other hand under his clothing over his g-h-as-if he was touching his own jason reported that korea appeared startled, put his phone down, and adjusted his pants. Jason stated that he could see korea was holding a phone and observed there was a video of jason's

daughter playing on korea's phone. So at first glance you might be saying, okay, he shows up to the target. It's, you know, secondhand knowledge. He's just hearing from what his daughter said. he didn't see what was happening in the target. This is now a firsthand account of what was allegedly happening in the parking lot. Allegation, but still. So after speaking with the wife here, the mother of this young girl, the officer speaks to her as well, who, by the way, provided kind of a similar account to the daughter. The officer then speaks to Correa, again, to get his side.

Now, he's asked, okay, did you film anyone in the store? And Correa allegedly responded to the officer, quote, of course not. But then he was asked if he was asked if he was. filming a 12-year-old to which Correa allegedly responded, according to the officer, I know I have no awareness of and then didn't finish the sentence. Now again, Correa denied that he was doing anything in his car. He called the accusations from Jason BS. The thing about it is, the officer reportedly asked Correa to look at his phone. And Correa, according to the officer, was not only hesitant, but then stated that there were private things on his phone. Here's the

important point. So this is, you're hearing the account from these different people, right, the witness statements. What about the digital evidence? While all of this is going on, police are apparently looking at surveillance video from inside the store. And according to this report, it says, quote, I was advised that there was surveillance video from at least one of the cosmetic aisles that showed Correa was in fact appearing to video record a female who was shopping. Now, the thing about that, the officer says it wasn't the 12-year-old girl in question that we've been talking about. No, the video allegedly shows Correa filming another girl appearing to be of the same age. Quote, Correa can be seen holding a black phone with an active

video recording in progress depicted by a bright red bar at the top of the screen. This contradicts Correa's statement that he had not filmed anyone in the store. There was additional surveillance video showing Correa in the aisle with redacted just as described, both holding his phone to his chest, down at his side, pointing back toward redacted. And more specifically, they have descriptions of the actual surveillance videos, and there's one that says, Correa is seen near the skincare lotion items. There is a female appearing to be a juvenile at the end of the aisle in a squatting position, looking at merchandise at a low display. Correa walks by her once out of the aisle, Correa is holding the red hand basket in one hand, and in his right hand, it's not visible on the video.

Correa then re-enters the aisle several seconds later and is seen holding a phone in his right hand with his arm extended straight down against his right leg, with the back camera of the phone appearing to be pointing out. Correa walks within several feet of the female, pointing the back camera toward her the entire time. Correa then looks over at her, standing several feet away. the female starts to leave the aisle and Correa walks closer to her, still pointing the back camera of the phone towards her. And then there are descriptions of just specific videos again, what he was allegedly doing. I got to mention video 12. Video 12 is what he was allegedly doing

in the parking lot. Okay, so there's one thing from what the father claims happened. This is what officers say the video shows. Quote, Correa appears to be the only person in the vehicle. You can see into the vehicle as there's no tint on the windows. The detail is hard to make out in the video, but there appears to be sustained movement that occurs in the driver's seat. So what happens next? Well, Correa is informed that Target is issuing him a trespass notice, meaning he can't come back there for a year. And he's also told by police that his phone is being seized as evidence in an investigation

into public sexual indecency. They actually find out he's got two phones and both are taken. You go to the next day, December 18th, and according to law enforcement, there was probable cause to arrest Correa as a stalking suspect now. They find Correa's car traveling coming off the interstate and going onto a highway. But then, according to police, Correa allegedly spots the police and immediately goes back onto the interstate. Now, they eventually are able to track him down.

They perform a high-risk traffic stop. He's put in handcuffs. He's arrested. He's ultimately charged with the following. So you have sexually motivated harassment. It's a misdemeanor. One count of public sexual indecency, another misdemeanor. And then tampering with evidence.

That's a class six felony. it's the least serious felony, but could, you know, maybe get one year in prison. But that's for, according to the filings here, allegedly trying to get rid of or getting rid of photos and videos in this case. Now, I will say, the surveillance footage coupled with the eyewitness accounts, arguably at first glance, devastating evidence, compelling evidence also his allegedly odd and maybe arguably suspicious behavior with police, that's not going to help his case. Oh, I said he was fired, right?

So this is a statement from the Cochee's County Attorney's Office. It says, Cochee's County Attorney Lori Zucco today announced the immediate termination of Paul Correa, chief civil deputy county attorney following an investigation by the Sierra Vista Police Department. After being informed of the nature of the allegations in meeting with Sierra Vista Police Department this morning, Zucco made the decision to terminate Correa's employment immediately. She also met with the victims, Sierra Vista Police Department command staff and sheriff Mark Daniels this afternoon prior to Correa's termination. The allegations in this case are deeply disturbing. particularly for an officer of the court and public employee entrusted with the public's confidence.

Zucco said, as a career prosecutor for more than 20 years, I have zero tolerance for alleged conduct that so fundamentally violates the standards of this office. Well, Mr. Correa is entitled to due process in the criminal justice system, he can no longer serve in any capacity in my office. Zuko, who was elected by Cochee's County voters in November of 2024, emphasized that the termination reflects the seriousness of the allegations and the obligation. of her office to maintain the highest professional and ethical standards. And by the way, due to a conflict of interest, clearly the criminal case had to be sent over to a different prosecutor. It's now being handled by the La Paz County Attorney's Office. But Zucco also told 13 news that she talked to all of Correa's staff, saying, and you know, we asked them like, was there any indication of something like this? And to a person, women who have worked with

him for years, just said, no, absolutely not, which makes the allegations. just even more bizarre and chilling to say the least. But that is not the end of this story. Why? Because we have learned a little bit more about Paul Correa and Paul Correa's history. So according to reporting from 13 News and Sierra Vista Herald, Correa was cited for allegedly driving around a police barricade. And when you read the report, I got to say the level of perceived arrogance, entitlement, something. So this is just months before. This is back, March 2025, this interaction with Bisbee, Arizona Police, quote, on March 16th, 2025, at approximately 1727 hours, a black and color Volkswagen Jetta entered a DUI accident scene.

The area was blocked off using a fully marked CCSO patrol vehicle with red and blue lights, along with an ADOT volunteer and cones blocking the roadway, basically saying it was very clear what was going on here, was very clear they were blocking it off. Quote, officers to include Cochise County deputies approached the vehicle and got the driver's license of the driver Paul Correa. When the deputy began telling Correa he could not drive through the road closure, Correa began arguing with the deputy and stated he worked for the Cochise County Attorney's Office and he was one of us and, quote, we did not want to do this. Sergeant Moreno and I advise the deputy we would handle the citation. When Sergeant Moreno stated this, Correa said, quote, don't do. do this. As we walked to my patrol vehicle, Correa stated, Poppy will drop it. When I was finished

writing Correa's citation, I began to try and explain the citation. Correa then took the citation out of my hand and stated, I will have Poppy dismiss it and signed it without allowing me to finish my explanation. Now, I looked it up and there is a judge, the Honorable Janice Poppy, or Janice Poppy, of Bisbee Justice Court. Maybe that's who he's talking about. I think that's a fair argument? Don't know for sure. But it continues. Quote, he tore off the wrong copy of the citation. I took the citation out of his hand and gave him his correct copy along with his driver's license. Correa was then safely turned around and advised to go another route. Correa returned and began arguing with the A dot volunteer. Correa told him it was his fault and he allowed him to go.

The A dot volunteer stated the road was clearly blocked off and all other vehicles knew to turn around. the volunteer also stated he accelerated past them. Correa stated, quote, it was my fault and proceeded to drive away. And I got to note this too. There's one other thing we found. So back in 2023, a judge awarded a man nearly $2,000 in sanctions. You know, it's a form of punishment against the Cochee's County Attorney's Office. Why?

The sanction had stemmed from Correa, again, acting as Deputy County Attorney at the time, apparently giving legal advice that led to the county treasurer to arguably ignore a court order to issue a deed to this man in a foreclosure case. I'm not going to go back and forth. It's kind of technical, but essentially, Correa admitted that his advice had caused the treasure to miss the deadline that he needed to make in order to issue the necessary deed. So seemingly, disregarding the court's time limit, not great. Now, Correa, we'll see what happens. He's due back in court next month in the target case, but my gosh, what a situation. It's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please

subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can follow me on X or Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.