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PHOENIX (AP) - Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu's director of communications will not be charged in a public-records tampering case.

The Arizona Republic reports that a three-month investigation by the Pima County Attorney's Office concluded that although Tim Gaffney deleted thousands of e-mails that were sought as public records by The Arizona Republic and law-enforcement agencies, his intentions were unclear.

Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall said in a July 10 letter to Pinal County's top prosecutor that there was "conflicting evidence" as to whether Gaffney knew that the county's information-technology department had "duplicate backup" copies of his e-mails when he deleted them.

LaWall said that insufficient evidence exists to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Gaffney intended to defraud or deceive.