Sandra Brown, Mesa County\u2019s former elections manager, pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to influence a public servant, a felony, and one misdemeanor count of official misconduct.<\/p>\n
As part of the plea, Brown agreed to cooperate with authorities in their investigation into Peters. If she doesn\u2019t honor the cooperation agreement, the original charges against her \u2013 including conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, a felony \u2013 will be reinstated.<\/p>\n
In exchange, Brown will avoid a prison sentence and can only be ordered jailed for a maximum of 30 days. She will be sentenced at a later date to a two-year deferred judgment, which means that as long as she doesn\u2019t break any laws during that time, she won\u2019t be subject to additional penalties.<\/p>\n
A 15-page arrest warrant for Brown, who was arrested in July, alleged she misrepresented to the Colorado Secretary of State\u2019s Office who would be attending a sensitive election system software update in May 2021. An email included in the document shows Brown messaging state elections officials to let them know that Gerald Wood would be attending the update, when in fact, according to authorities, he was never going to be there.<\/p>\n
Investigators allege that Wood\u2019s identity was stolen by Peters, a Republican, to surreptitiously get another man, Conan Hayes, a former pro surfer and election conspiracy theorist, into the Dominion Voting Systems software update.<\/p>\n
Images of passwords from the update were later posted online. A copy of Mesa County\u2019s election system hard drive was also posted online after the software update.<\/p>\n
Mesa County had to scrap its election equipment and buy replacements because of the breach.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy job was to protect the integrity of the elections,\u201d Brown said in court on Wednesday. \u201cThere were steps that I could have taken that would have done that in a better (way). There were things going on that I should have questioned, and I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brown\u2019s sentencing was scheduled by Mesa County District Judge Matthew Barrett to happen immediately after she testified against Peters.<\/p>\n
Brown, who was fired in November 2021, is the second former key deputy to Peters, an election conspiracy theorist, to plead guilty in the election system breach and agree to testify against the clerk.<\/p>\n
Mesa County Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley, who was also charged in the case, agreed to testify against Peters and cooperate with investigators as she pleaded guilty in August. Knisley was sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation and 150 hours of community service. She was also permanently barred from working in elections.<\/p>\n
Peters, who ran unsuccessfully this year to be Colorado\u2019s secretary of state, is scheduled to face trial in March on charges stemming from Mesa County\u2019s election security breach, which she is alleged to have orchestrated.<\/p>\n
Peters attended a rally in Greenwood Village on Wednesday where she criticized Colorado GOP Chairwoman Kristi Burton Brown and urged a crowd of a few dozen people to support new leadership. (Burton Brown urged Peters to drop out of the secretary of state race after she was indicted.)<\/p>\n
\u201cI would never vote for anyone that doesn\u2019t acknowledge that there is fraud in our elections,\u201d Peters said. \u201cWe are not a blue state, we\u2019re not even a purple state, we are a red state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Told by a Colorado Sun reporter that Brown had pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against her, Peters said \u201cit just shows the amount of pressure that they inflict upon innocent people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t change things,\u201d Peters said. \u201cI\u2019ve always encouraged them to just tell the truth. When you don\u2019t do anything wrong you don\u2019t have anything to be afraid of. If you always tell the truth, you don\u2019t have to worry about what you said.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peters is charged with three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, a Class 4 felony; one count of attempting to influence a public servant, a Class 5 felony; one count of criminal impersonation, a Class 6 felony; one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, a Class 6 felony; one count of identity theft, a Class 4 felony; and one count of first-degree official misconduct, a Class 2 misdemeanor.<\/p>\n
If convicted, Peters could be sentenced to a prison term.<\/p>\n