Tina Peters, former Colorado county clerk, requests release on bond during convictions appeal
Tina Peters, the former Mesa County clerk and recorder, is demanding her release from jail as she challenges her election interference convictions. Amid this new action, she's citing major health concerns as part of her demand for release as she awaits the response to her appeal.
On Feb. 7, court records show Peters, 69, filed her new application with the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. Peters was originally convicted in August 2024 on charges related to election interference crimes in Mesa County while she was clerk during the 2020 general election and sentenced in October.
According to the application, in part, Peters, "is monitored for recurrence of her lung cancer, and suffers from fibromyalgia. Since she has been incarcerated, her health has deteriorated. As her pastor has observed, her physical vigor and cognitive function has declined. She is pale, has lost weight, and has difficulties with memory and word-finding."
Peters was sentenced to a total of 9 years of incarceration between Larimer County Jail and the Colorado Department of Corrections. Peters is currently serving a 6-month sentence at the jail for misdemeanors ahead of the 8.5 years she was sentenced to for the felony convictions she received.
Peters and her legal counsel have already filed an appeal for all her convictions in the Colorado Court of Appeals and are awaiting action.
In the application, Peters and her counsel point blame at the Colorado Secretary of State's Office for actions that led, in part, to her incarceration. Peters accused the Secretary of State's Office of directing the former Mesa County clerk and recorder to essentially erase election records by performing a software upgrade.
Based on claims against the Secretary of State's Office, Peters asserts in the court document, "...her federal duty to preserve these records by making forensic images of the Election Management System (EMS) server hard drive resulted in three detailed reports prepared by cybersecurity experts she submitted to the Board of County Commissioners, district attorney, and county attorney explaining the illegal features of the County's computerized election system."
Despite the claims in the new application, Peters, in reality, cost Mesa County at what was previously estimated at $1.4 million in legal fees and lost employee time, which was shared by officials during her sentencing in October 2024.
Peters' ultimate actions that led to her incarceration, in part, stemmed from an effort to try and prove conspiracy theories about election fraud perpetuated by then incumbent President Donald Trump during the 2020 election. She gained support from election deniers, but she was eventually found guilty of orchestrating the breach of unauthorized areas of Mesa County's elections office. That has included support over the years by 2020 election denier and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell.
Former Mesa County elections employees Sandra Brown and Belinda Kinsley both eventually took plea agreements for their roles in helping Peters illegally copy the hard drive of the county's voting software at the time of the upgrade Peters mentions in her new application. Images from Mesa County's election servers would then be taken and illegally posted publicly on the internet. Kinsley turned herself in and, along with Brown, would ultimately testify against Peters.
Peters was found guilty in August 2024 of three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state.
She was found not guilty of one count of criminal impersonation, a charge of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and an identity theft charge.
As Peters and her counsel await the appeal of her convictions, her key claim and demand in the new application is her release on bond while that process takes place.
According to the court documentation, "This Application for a Writ of Habeas Corpus does not concern the merits of those convictions but challenges the refusal of the Colorado Court of Appeals and the District Court of Mesa County to grant her bail pending appellate review of them."
