Mesa County’s deputy county clerk will testify against her boss Tina Peters, who is criminally charged with tampering with election equipment and misconduct, under a plea deal approved Thursday by a district court judge.
In all, Peters, the Republican county clerk, faces 10 criminal charges, including three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and identity theft — all felonies.
She also is charged with first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state, all misdemeanors.
Deputy Mesa County Clerk Belinda Knisley agreed to testify against Peters in exchange for staying out of jail or prison. She pleaded guilty to trespassing, official misconduct and violation of duty charges, all misdemeanors, for which she’ll spend two years on unsupervised probation.
District Court Judge Matthew Barrett accepted the deal Thursday afternoon.
“You engaged in concrete acts to undermine the integrity of our democratic process under the guise of protecting it,” Barrett told Knisley. “In doing so, you abdicated your role as a clerk, you violated your oath and you betrayed your duty.”
Peters and Knisley were being prosecuted on allegations they allowed a copy of a hard drive to be made during an update of election equipment in May 2021.
Knisley, who previously had denied wrongdoing, said in court Thursday she was a “rule follower” who was acting at the behest of Peters — an assertion that did not sit well with Judge Barrett.
“Every time you acknowledged what you did, you prefaced it with, ‘I was told to do this. I was told to do that,’ as if you did not know exactly what you were doing and as if you did not know the harm you were engaging in,” the judge said.
He added that Knisley’s crimes were “worthy of incarceration,” but he did not want to throw out the plea deal, which did not call for jail time.
“My hands will not be so tied if you find yourself before me again,” Barrett said.
In interviews last spring, Knisley told investigators that “she was aware of and participating in a scheme with Tina Peters and other identified people, to deceive public servants from both the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office and Mesa County,” the plea deal reads.
Peters “significantly directed” the scheme, which allowed an unauthorized man into secure areas inside the clerk and recorder’s office, according to the plea deal, first reported by the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.
Peters is still the Mesa County clerk and recorder, though she is prohibited from contacting employees in her office. She turned herself in to law enforcement in late July after narrowly avoiding arrest a week earlier — both times for reportedly disobeying court orders — and she’s currently out on bail.
Peters also sought the Republican nomination for Colorado secretary of state this summer, coming in a distant second place in the primary election. She forced a recount, with the help of a national fundraising effort, which confirmed the earlier results.
Also facing charges is Sandra Brown, a former elections manager in Peters’ office. Brown was charged in July with attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
