{"id":34715,"date":"2023-04-10T12:37:53","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T18:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tina-peters-sentenced-to-home-detention-and-fine-for-obstruction\/"},"modified":"2023-04-10T18:37:53","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T18:37:53","slug":"tina-peters-sentenced-to-home-detention-and-fine-for-obstruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/tina-peters-sentenced-to-home-detention-and-fine-for-obstruction\/","title":{"rendered":"Tina Peters sentenced to home detention and fine for obstruction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mesa
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters arrives for her arraignment on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2022, at Mesa County District Court in Grand Junction on seven felony charges \u2013 including attempting to influence a public servant, identity theft, criminal impersonation and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation \u2013 and three misdemeanors.<\/span>Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters avoided a jail sentence Monday, after being found guilty last month on a charge of obstructing government operations<\/a> in a case that stemmed from her allegedly violating court rules by recording a criminal hearing.<\/p>\n

Mesa County District Court Judge Bruce Raaum sentenced Peters to four months of home detention with electronic monitoring, the maximum fine of $750 and 120 hours of community service.<\/p>\n

But that sentence is stayed pending an appeal, which Peters\u2019 attorney said they would file immediately.<\/p>\n

District Attorney Dan Rubinstein had asked for jail time.<\/p>\n

\u201cMrs. Peters, through what happened in this case, has made the community a joke,\u201d Rubinstein said in his arguments for a tougher sentence.<\/p>\n

The prosecution pointed to videos of Peters telling supporters that she would most likely get a fine for the charge and that she considered it a badge of honor.<\/p>\n

This case is separate, but not entirely unrelated to, Peters\u2019 legal troubles for allegedly helping someone breach the security of her office\u2019s election equipment<\/a> and lying about their identity to state officials. She\u2019s been charged with seven felony charges and three misdemeanors<\/a> in that case, with the trial slated to begin in August.<\/p>\n

Monday\u2019s sentencing stemmed from an incident in February 2022, when Peters was caught recording court proceedings involving her former Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisely. Knisley was accused of burglary and cyber crimes <\/a>for returning to the clerk\u2019s office after being ordered to stay away while the election security case was investigated.<\/p>\n

A paralegal noticed that Peters\u2019 appeared to be video recording the hearing on her iPad, in violation of courtroom rules. When asked about it by the judge, Peters denied she\u2019d been recording.<\/p>\n

Shortly afterward, investigators from the District Attorney\u2019s office attempted to seize Peters\u2019 iPad to look for evidence of a recording. Peters, who was at a Grand Junction bagel shop at the time, allegedly refused to turn over the device and resisted police officers<\/a>. The interaction was recorded by other patrons in the restaurant.<\/p>\n

In a split decision, while convicting Peters on obstructing government relations, a jury acquitted Peters of the charge of obstructing a police officer.<\/p>\n

Peters\u2019 attorney, Harvey Steinberg, said the prosecution\u2019s call for jail time was unwarranted given the classification of the crime, a misdemeanor, and Peters\u2019 lack of criminal history.<\/p>\n

\u201cI say to myself, she is akin to \u2013 and I hate to use these terms and I don\u2019t mean to offend anyone \u2013 a political prisoner,\u201d Steinberg said, adding later that \u201cbut for her political views, she wouldn\u2019t be sitting here.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his sentencing, Judge Raaum noted a lack of respect for the criminal justice system shown by Peters, but said he would not pursue a jail sentence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a badge of honor,\u201d Raaum said. \u201cYou\u2019re not walking on a bridge in Selma.\u201d<\/p>\n

For more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org.<\/em> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

attorney says an appeal will be immediately filed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[663,266,28,1304,1509],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-34715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-democratic-party","tag-election","tag-headlines","tag-republican-party","tag-state-elections"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34715"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=34715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}