Mesa Clerk Tina Peters and Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley are accused in a safety breach in Colorado, stemming from an try to seek out proof of a rigged election.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters won’t be allowed to go to work underneath situations set by a decide in a Thursday court docket look, her first since a grand jury indicted her on a number of prices associated to an information breach involving the county’s election tools.
District Court docket Decide Matthew Barrett additionally instructed Peters she is to not have contact with anybody who works on the clerk’s workplace. That features Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley, who additionally made a court docket look Thursday for prices associated to the identical investigation. Knisley, too, can not contact staff of the clerk’s workplace.
Whereas bonds had been set at $500,000 for each the day prior, the decide issued Knisley a $10,000 private recognizance bond at her listening to. The decide gave Peters, who’s working to change into Colorado Secretary of State, a $25,000 cash-only secured bond that should be posted in her identify. As of Thursday evening, the sheriff’s workplace stated each had bonded out of jail.
District Lawyer Dan Rubenstein requested that Peters not be allowed to journey, citing Peters’ exit from the state after particulars of the information breach went public in August of final yr. The decide ordered Peters to show over her passport inside 48 hours and stated she can not go away the state. An exception could possibly be made for Peters to attend the funeral of her father, who died Wednesday evening in North Carolina in response to Peters’ legal professional.
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Peters has been indicted on 10 prices and Knisley on six, all stemming for the breach that resulted in passwords for Mesa County’s Dominion Voting Programs software program ending up on-line.
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In response to the indictment, Peters and Knisley violated state guidelines to get an unknown man into the in-person improve of voting tools in Might 2021.
Secretary of State guidelines specify that solely representatives from that workplace, Dominion Voting specialists and some designated county elections employees could also be current for the improve, which is called a “trusted construct.” No members of the general public are allowed, in response to the indictment.
Peters and Knisley had safety cameras turned off and had county employees create entry for a brief worker to be current on the improve. The entry was designated for Gerald “Jerry” Wooden, whom Peters contacted for potential contract work on the Dominion Voting machines.
Wooden testified that he met as soon as with Peters and Knisley earlier than the improve after which returned an entry badge that was created for him. He by no means labored for Mesa County in any capability and wasn’t current in the course of the “trusted construct,” however an unknown individual used his badge to attend the improve, in response to the indictment.
Peters and Knisley are each scheduled to make their subsequent court docket appearances on Might 24.
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