Sharon Sullivan, Colorado Newsline

Former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison on Thursday for her role in a 2021 security breach in the elections office she was supposed to oversee.

Peters will spend the next six weeks to six months in the Mesa County Detention Facility before being transferred to the Colorado Department of Corrections, where she will serve her nine-year prison sentence.

21st Judicial District Judge Matthew Barrett opted for a prison sentence, rather than probation, citing the “immeasurable damage” that Peters had done to local elections and trust in the electoral process, her lack of remorse and other factors. Twice during Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Barrett called Peters a “charlatan” who peddled snake oil that has been disproven again and again.

“I’m convinced you’d do it all over again if you could,” Barrett said. “You are a privileged person. You are as privileged as they come. You used that for power and fame.”

Peters is a prominent far-right conspiracy theorist who was accused of breaching Mesa County’s elections systems during a 2021 security update in an attempt to prove debunked claims of election fraud. She served one term as clerk between 2019 and 2023, and mounted an unsuccessful campaign for Colorado secretary of state in 2022, placing second in the Republican primary.

On August 12, a Mesa County jury found her guilty of three felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one felony count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, one misdemeanor count of official misconduct, one misdemeanor count of violation of duty in elections, and one misdemeanor count of failure to comply with the secretary of state. She was acquitted on two felony counts of criminal impersonation and one count of identity theft.

In a rambling address to the court that lasted more than 40 minutes, Peters had asked the judge for probation, citing her wish to be close to her mother, who lives in Virginia.

“People today are asking for harsh sentences. I feel bad for them,” she said. “God doesn’t like messing with his kids. I’m a child of God.”

She mentioned health problems that can’t be accommodated in prison — such as her need for a magnetic mattress due to past injuries. She said she had lung cancer in 2016, and had surgery to remove half of a lung, and as a result experiences some shortness of breath.

“I am remorseful. I’m asking for leniency,” she said.

Barrett wasn’t buying it, however.

He called Peters’ lies well-documented, and explained that he considers deterrence when deciding a sentence. Noting that she had never completed the certification required of a county clerk, he said she had failed to take her job seriously, had shown no respect for law enforcement and poses a danger to the community.

“You are a charlatan,” Barrett said. “You betrayed your oath.”

In a statement, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said Peters had been held accountable for “her dangerous attempts to break into her own election equipment to prove (former President Donald) Trump’s ‘Big Lie.’”

“Colorado’s elections are the nation’s gold standard,” Griswold said. “I am proud of how we have responded to the first insider elections breach in the nation, and look forward to another secure and successful election in November.”

‘A laughingstock’

Prior to Barrett announcing his sentence, five people spoke on behalf of Peters, asking for leniency, while another five spoke in favor of the maximum penalty.

A man who introduced himself as Dave Bryan, pastor of the Church of Glad Tidings in California, suggested that the court release Peters into his custody, or the case “will become even a bigger hairball for the state of Colorado.”

“We offer a solution to you and the State of Colorado to remand her to our custody in California,” Bryan said. “It serves no purpose for Tina Peters to spend a single day in custody.”

Bryan called his proposal a “calm the storm” solution and said that “the storm is just getting started with this sentencing.”

Those speaking against leniency included Gerald Wood, a key witness in the case and the person whose identity Peters used to allow an unauthorized person to enter Mesa County’s secure elections area before and during a computer software update in May 2021. The imposter, Conan Hayes, created images of software hard drives and posted the images to a conspiracy theory website — which prompted an investigation by the Colorado secretary of state.

Wood said Peters put his family in jeopardy when she used his identity, and that he appears to still be under investigation by the FBI. Computer equipment worth $12,000 to $15,000 was seized from the Woods’ home and has not been returned, he said. And, as an independent worker in the software industry, he said it has been difficult to find work due to his name in the national media.

In an emotional address to the court, Wood’s wife, Wendi Wood, said Peters slandered her husband and continued to be “unrepentant” and “callous” toward anyone in authority.

“I’m sickened by the death threats that have been leveled at people (sitting) in this courtroom today,” Wendi Wood said.

Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis, a Republican, spoke next, telling the court that Peters’ actions cost Mesa County $1.4 million. After the investigation was launched Peters continued to receive her salary while she traveled the country, Davis said. She also cost the county by creating distrust in the electoral system — causing the county to conduct a time-consuming and costly hand count of ballots in 2022, which found no material difference between the machine and hand counts, Davis said. The county had to hire a designated election official while Peters was “gallivanting around the country,” Davis said. And extra law enforcement was assigned to the Mesa County Justice Center during Peters’ trial and sentencing, diverting those resources from elsewhere, he added.

As a Grand Valley native, Davis said he was most disturbed that Mesa County’s reputation has taken a hit from being associated with Peters’ actions.

“She’s made a laughingstock of this community,” he said.

Support from election deniers

Speaking up for Peters was national election denier Douglas Frank, who conducted an “elections symposium” in Grand Junction leading up to the security breach in 2021. He said state officials are trying to make an example out of Peters.

“I am uniquely qualified to judge Tina Peters’ state of mind,” Frank said. “It boggles my mind that a Gold Star mother is subjected to this tyranny. I implore you to restore Tina Peters God-given liberty.”

Former Elbert County Clerk and Recorder Dallas Schroeder also spoke in Peters’ defense. Schroeder has faced his own scrutiny from the Colorado secretary of state’s office for collaborating with unauthorized people in 2021 to create copies of voting machine hard drives. He said he voluntarily turned over images to the secretary of state — images he said were taken to prove or disprove problems with Dominion Voting Systems machines.

Claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent or compromised have been debunked by elections officials, experts, media investigations, law enforcement and the courts.

Matt Crane, executive director of the County Clerks Association, spoke of death threats made to election officials and their families as a result of Peters’ actions. He said his own wife and children have been threatened, and the threats and intimidation fueled by Peters’ conspiracy theories have driven thousands of election workers to retire.

“She does not understand the job. She did not attempt to master it. She did not complete the work to be a certified election official,” Crane said. “She deserves the harshest penalty this court can deliver. The only fraudulent activity was orchestrated by Tina Peters.”

Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, who prosecuted the case, told the court that Peters “has not demonstrated any respect for the law.”

“This case is by far is the most aggravated attempt to influence a public servant I ever saw in my career,” Rubinstein said. “It should yield the most aggravated sentence.”

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser in a statement thanked Rubinstein for his “commitment to justice and his collaboration with my office to hold Tina Peters accountable.”

“We place a sacred trust in our elections officials to conduct safe, honest, and fair elections,” Weiser said. “Tina Peters violated her duty as an election official and seriously compromised trust with her fellow Coloradans. Today, the court handed down a fair and just sentence for her criminal acts, which put the safety of our elections — and the freedom and safety of others — at risk.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 8:16 p.m., Oct. 3, 2024 to include additional details of Thursday’s sentencing hearing.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and X.

A Mesa County jury found Tina Peters guilty Monday on 7 of 10 criminal charges related to a security breach that occurred in the spring of 2021 in the elections office she oversaw as the Mesa County clerk and recorder.

The jury returned the verdict just hours after closing arguments.

Peters was found guilty on three felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one felony count of criminal impersonation, one misdemeanor count of official misconduct, one misdemeanor count of violation of duty in elections, and one misdemeanor count of failure to comply with the secretary of state. She was acquitted on two felony counts of criminal impersonation and one felony count of identity theft.

“Tina Peters willfully compromised her own election equipment trying to prove Trump’s Big Lie,” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in a statement after the verdict was announced in the Mesa County District Court of Judge Matthew Barrett. “She has been found guilty by a jury of her peers and will now face the consequences of her actions. Today’s verdict sends a clear message: we will not tolerate any effort to threaten the security of our gold standard elections. I am proud that justice for Colorado voters has been served today.”

Griswold’s office opened an investigation into Peters in August 2021 after it learned sensitive Mesa County election system data had been posted online. In 2022, a Mesa County grand jury charged Peters for her role in a scheme to allow an unauthorized person to enter Mesa County’s elections department to make copies of election system software and capture images of passwords and other sensitive data in May 2021, during the time of an election equipment software update, also known as a trusted build.

The scheme represented an instance in which election deniers aligned with former President Donald Trump found a willing county clerk in Colorado to deceive other public servants in an attempt to prove election equipment in Mesa County was somehow corruptible.

Peters declined to comment after the verdict and told reporters she would do so at a later time.

In his closing statements following the eight-day trial, the prosecution’s Robert Shapiro, first assistant Colorado attorney general for special prosecutions, said Peters opened up her office and herself to outside people to allow a security breach of Mesa County’s election equipment.

The case involves “layers upon layers of deceit,” with a lot of people working with Peters to accomplish the fraud, Shapiro said.

One of those people was Kurt Olsen, an associate of MyPillow CEO and prominent Trump ally Mike Lindell, an election denier. Shapiro reminded jurors that Peters told Olsen that she was “at his disposal” and was there to help in their endeavors.

Others, according to prosecutors, included Ohio mathematician Douglas Frank, an election conspiracy theorist on Lindell’s payroll; Conan Hayes, a former professional surfer-turned conspiracy theorist from California; and Sherronna Bishop, a friend of Peters who did not reside in or work for Mesa County yet had an integral role in orchestrating a scheme to allow Hayes into the secure elections area where the breach occurred.

Shapiro said Peters duped a Dominion Voting Systems employee and secretary of state staff members when she allowed an unauthorized person — Hayes — to be part of the trusted build on May 25 and 26, 2021, under the pretense that he was a Mesa County employee.

According to prosecutors, Hayes entered the elections room on May 23, when offices were closed and cameras had been turned off, to make a copy of the software of the elections system hard drive. On May 25, he returned to the room for the trusted build attended by Peters, plus representatives from the secretary of state and Dominion Voting Systems.

Surveillance cameras had previously been shut off on May 17, despite a longtime policy in Mesa County to leave cameras on 24/7.

Contradicting testimonies

Shapiro described how Peters hired Gerald Wood, a Fruita resident, for the purpose of using his identity to obtain security clearance for Hayes so he could enter secure election areas posing as Wood. Wood went through a background check and received a security access badge only to be asked by one of Peters’ staff members to give it back a few days later.

During the trial and closing statements, defense attorneys tried to paint Wood as a willing participant in the scheme.

Shapiro said the only witness who testified that Wood was in on the plan was Bishop, who according to prosecutors helped orchestrate the breach. Bishop is considered by prosecutors an unindicted co-conspirator.

Bishop’s testimony contradicted Wood’s sworn statements that he knew nothing of the plan and that he did not grant permission to give his identity to a third party. Shapiro said Bishop was not a credible witness.

“No other witness supported Sherronna Bishop’s account,” Shapiro said.

Hayes was an outside imposter who used Wood’s identity to copy sensitive data, Shapiro said.

Other evidence offered by the prosecution included Peters telling staff members to purchase disposable phones with cash, and to use the encrypted texting platform Signal, as well as a non-county email address.

Shapiro reminded jurors how Bishop, while attending a “cyber security” symposium in South Dakota in August 2021, around the time that Griswold launched her investigation into the elections security breach, called Peters’ then-Chief Deputy Belinda Knisley in Grand Junction asking her to go to the elections office and remove the election computer server. Knisley refused.

When Peters learned election system data and passwords had been posted to an online conspiracy site, she repeatedly told Knisley “I’m f***ed, I’m going to jail,” Shapiro said.

“Does that sound like someone who is doing right, doing something noble?” Shapiro said to the jurors.

Questions around Hayes

Defense attorney John Case began his closing statement with an exhibit — a photo of Peters with her son, who died in 2017 as the result of an air show accident while he was serving with the U.S. Navy SEALs.

“When Tina Peters’ son died she was forced to find a purpose in life,” and she ran for Mesa County clerk and recorder, Case said.

Case, as did all the defense attorneys throughout the trial, consistently referred to Peters as “Clerk Peters” — though her tenure ended at the beginning of 2023.

Shapiro objected several times during Case’s closing statements, saying either he was misstating facts or was bringing up topics that had not been admitted as evidence.

Case told jurors that Bishop wanted to conceal Hayes’ identity and that one decision to protect one person led the government to charge Peters with 10 crimes. The defense claimed that Peters believed Hayes was a confidential government agent.

At one point during his statements, Case likened the access badge to a hotel key card that you would share with a husband, wife or friend.

Case said Peters became a target of the government after the video she took during the trusted build appeared on the internet. He said she did not consent to its release online and that it’s not a crime to post videos on the internet.

“We still value free speech, unless you’re a target of the government,” Case said. “Then your speech has no value.”

Case questioned why Hayes was not asked to testify.

“He’s key to the whole case,” he said. “They didn’t have the guts to call him as a witness.”

In her rebuttal to Case’s closing arguments, Deputy Attorney General Janet Drake explained why they hadn’t heard from Hayes.

“It’s Tina Peters’ trial,” she said. “We’re here because she deceived a public servant to sneak a person into the office.”

Drake told jurors there is a lot of evidence that Peters had criminal intent in her actions, starting with an April 23, 2021, meeting with out-of-state co-conspirators, surveillance cameras being turned off on May 17 of that year, the use of disposable phones, and the use of the encrypted Signal platform and non-county emails. Drake also reiterated how after learning an investigation had been launched, Peters “dropped the F-bomb,” and said many times that she was “going to jail.”

The defense argued Peters acted merely to protect election records, but Drake said her actions were a “deep dive” into disclosing publicly confidential information. It was all “so she could be the hero, to be on a stage at the symposium and get famous because of this breach,” Drake said.

“(Tina Peters) was in charge of protecting election integrity and she didn’t do it,” Drake said.

Peters was the “fox guarding the henhouse,” she said.

Attorney general: ‘A warning’

Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said in a statement, “Clerks across the state are pleased to see justice done today. We take seriously our role as guardians of the best election process in the nation and are grateful to see the justice system hold those who would harm our elections accountable.”

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser also weighed in on Monday’s verdict: “I want to thank the prosecutors from my team who worked side-by-side with Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein to bring justice in this case. They have worked for several years under difficult circumstances — including abhorrent threats. I am grateful for their commitment to the rule of law and sense of duty.”

Weiser continued, “Today’s verdict is a warning to others that they will face serious consequences if they attempt to illegally tamper with our voting processes or election systems. I want to be clear — our elections are safe and fair. In fact, Colorado’s election system is the gold standard of the nation. And make no mistake: my office will continue to protect it.”

Sentencing for Peters has been set for Oct. 3.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and X.

Former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters declined to testify in her own defense Friday before defense attorneys concluded their case after eight days of testimony from prosecution and defense witnesses.

In 2022, a Mesa County grand jury brought charges against Peters, a Republican, including seven felonies and three misdemeanors for her alleged role in a 2021 security breach of the county’s election department, which she oversaw at the time.

Before the trial kicked off Friday, Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein asked District Court Judge Matthew Barrett to consider a contempt of court charge against the defense for continuously broaching topics previously determined by the court to be inadmissible.

“If the prosecution was doing this there would have been a mistrial days ago,” Rubinstein said.

Barrett expressed frustration that defense lawyers have continuously attempted to bring up topics already decided to be off limits, knowing that the prosecution will object.

Peters’ friend Sherronna Bishop, an unindicted co-conspirator, testified for the defense Thursday and Friday. Bishop is a prominent election denier who believes the 2020 U.S. presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, a conspiracy theory that has repeatedly been debunked.

According to testimony, Bishop figures prominently in a plan involving Peters to allow an unauthorized person to enter Mesa County’s elections department to make copies of election system software and capture images of passwords and other sensitive data in May 2021, during the time of an election equipment software update, also known as a trusted build. Images of sensitive data later turned up on a conspiracy theory website, which prompted local, state and federal investigations in August 2021.

Bishop testified that she invited Ohio mathematician Douglas Frank — who is on the payroll of My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell, a staunch supporter of Donald Trump — to help with the scheme to try and prove that Mesa County’s Dominion Voting Systems equipment is somehow faulty.

Robert Shapiro, first assistant Colorado attorney general for special prosecutions, during cross examination clarified that Bishop lived in Garfield County when this planning around Mesa County’s trusted build was taking place, and had never been an election worker, or an employee of Mesa County. Nor had Bishop ever received elections training from the Colorado secretary of state. She had never been given key card access to Mesa County’s secured elections office.

Shapiro asked Bishop about a call she purportedly made while attending a “cyber security” symposium in August 2021 in South Dakota led by Lindell. Peters’ former chief deputy, Belinda Knisley, testified earlier that Bishop called her from the symposium, asking her to go to the elections office in Grand Junction and remove a computer server. By that point, a secretary of state investigation into the alleged security breach was underway and Bishop and Peters believed the state would seize the equipment. Knisley testified earlier that she refused Bishops’ directive because she didn’t work for Bishop.

“You were not a supervisor of Belinda Knisley,” Shapiro said during his cross examination of Bishop, which Bishop confirmed was correct. She testified she didn’t recall making the phone call to Knisley.

A juror asked a question about why Bishop attended meetings held at the Mesa County elections office when she didn’t work for Mesa County.

Bishop responded that she was very concerned about elections and that she works for campaigns — she was a campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert — and that when the 2020 Presidential election was over “it didn’t seem right.”

Bishop and her family moved to Texas after the Mesa County district attorney’s office executed a search warrant at her Garfield County home in November 2021. She testified that her family now spends time in both Colorado and Texas.

Among the charges Peters faces is one that alleges she stole the identity of Fruita resident Gerald Wood, who she hired as a temporary tech consultant. Wood was required to pass a background check before receiving a security badge to allow access to Mesa County’s election machines. That security clearance was then given to a man named Conan Hayes — a former professional surfer aligned with Donald Trump — who came into the elections’ tabulation room to copy data from equipment before and during the trusted build.

Shapiro stated that by April 30, a plan was in place to bring in Hayes, not Wood, to collect data during the trusted build, to which Bishop responded, “I don’t know.”

Prosecutors established that Frank attended an April 23 planning meeting in Peters office, which was also attended by various election staff. Wood was not present for that meeting. Bishop reached out to Wood after Frank came to Grand Junction.

As a witness for the prosecution, Wood testified earlier in the week that his identity was stolen and that he never gave permission for it to be used by a third party.

Defense attorneys have sought various times to cast doubt on Wood’s account of his role in the elections breach. Defense attorney John Case asked Bishop if Wood was OK with allowing Hayes to use his identity, so that Hayes could remain anonymous — a condition of his involvement.

“We were very much aligned, and he was happy to be a part of it,” Bishop testified, contradicting Wood’s prior testimony.

The trial resumes Monday with closing statements from both sides.

Gerald Wood, a key witness, testified in the Tina Peters trial Friday.

It was day three of the trial in Grand Junction, where two Mesa County election workers, a former human resources director for the county, and the operations manager for Mesa County also testified against Peters.

Peters has been charged with seven felonies and three misdemeanors related to an elections office security breach in May 2021, when she was serving as Mesa County’s clerk and recorder.

Wood is the person whose identity Peters allegedly stole to allow an unauthorized person access to a secure room in Peters’ elections office, where copies of passwords were made and subsequently posted online.

Mesa County Elections Director Brandi Bantz testified that she was uncomfortable while attending a meeting at the elections office on April 23, 2021. The meeting was attended by Bantz, elections administrator Stephanie Wenholz, Peters, backend elections manager Sandra Brown, Peters’ friend and prominent election denier Sherronna Bishop, and Douglas Frank, an Ohio math teacher on the payroll of election denier and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

With jury selection and opening statements, Tina Peters’ criminal trial is underway

Bantz told jurors that those attending the meeting discussed theories such as voter fraud and how they could prove fraud, and voter registration inflation. At one point during the meeting, Peters asked Bantz and Wenholz to leave the meeting while they continued their discussion. They were instructed to attend a mandatory presentation by Frank that evening at the DoubleTree Hotel in Grand Junction.

“It was hard to hear,” Bantz testified. “I didn’t like being there. I had been taught to be nonpartisan. I didn’t want people to think I supported those theories.”

Wood used to be a Peters supporter and is a former member of the far-right group Stand For The Constitution. He offered an alibi when defense attorney John Case insinuated he knew about the scheme to try and prove Mesa County’s Dominion Voting Systems elections machines are somehow corrupt. Case questioned why Wood signed an immunity agreement with the government as a condition for testifying.

Mesa County operations manager Lhana Jordan also testified, as did Brenda Moore, former Mesa County human resources director.

In 2022, a Mesa County grand jury charged Peters, a Republican, with three felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant, three felony counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and one felony count of identity theft. She also faces three misdemeanor charges of official misconduct, elections violations and failure to comply with the Colorado secretary of state’s office — all stemming from her attempt to find irregularities with election equipment in her own elections office.

If convicted on all counts, Peters could face up to 20 years in a state prison and be fined millions of dollars. She pleaded not guilty on all counts, saying the charges are politically motivated.

The trial resumes Monday.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and X.