Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters arrested in Grand Junction

Grand Junction police officers arrested Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters on Tuesday morning at Main Street Bagels after she allegedly resisted a search warrant.

Police responded to the shop at about 10:45 a.m. in the 600 block of Main Street where Peters was released at the scene, pending charges, according to the Grand Junction Police Department.

Mesa County spokesperson Stephanie Reecy said the arrest is unrelated to investigations of a possible election security breach in Mesa County.

Mesa County District Attorney’s Office investigators were looking for an iPad that belonged to Peters, according to the search warrant signed Tuesday.

On Feb. 7, Peters allegedly appeared to be using the iPad to record a court hearing in Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley’s criminal case and then told the judge in the case that she was not recording it, the search warrant stated. The judge had told members of the audience that he would take action if he found out someone was recording the hearing.

“If Clerk Peters had in fact made a recording, Judge (Matthew) Barrett’s decisions and actions would have been influenced by deceit,” the warrant stated.

State and local officials launched a grand jury investigation into allegations of election equipment tampering and official misconduct in Mesa County last month after conducting a federal, state and local investigation. Peters is accused of allegedly allowing unauthorized access to elections equipment during a Dominion Voting Systems software update in May as well as allegedly breaching election security protocols after which passwords from the voting equipment were posted online.

A judge barred her from overseeing the 2021 election in Mesa County and the secretary of state’s office has sued to stop her from overseeing the 2022 election after she refused to comply with security protocols. Peters is also facing multiple state ethics and campaign finance complaints.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Source: Read Full Article