The trial of ex-Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters is one for the record books — a legal drama at times so bonkers and exasperating, Hollywood couldn’t script it.
Peters was convicted of seven crimes, including four felonies, in a 2021 election security breach intended to prove a stolen election.
In May 2021, Peters brought in a computer hacker and former 1990s pro-surfer named Conan Hayes, using the badge of an IT contractor named Gerald “Jerry” Wood under false pretenses.
For the first time in ten years, Peters directed surveillance cameras turned off so the imposter could take unauthorized images of the election server hard drive before and after a software update called the “Trusted Build,” later leaking the images online.
Hayes is implicated in similar efforts in Michigan, Arizona and elsewhere.
“The verdict is a win for justice,” Wood told me, although the jury didn’t find Peters guilty of the charges directly related to his identity.
Jurors weighed conflicting evidence, including screenshots the defense presented from an alleged encrypted chat involving Wood — which prosecutors identified as being from a burner phone hidden in Peters’ home.
The chat wasn’t on any other confiscated phone, but it lent reasonable doubt to the felony charges of identity theft, criminal impersonation and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation related to Wood.
The defense argued Wood knew his badge would be misused. He rejects that claim.
“There’s no way I’d risk my family’s future or my personal responsibilities,” Wood said. “I’d never give someone a blank check to misuse my ID, like robbing a bank and saying I’m okay with them pinning it on me. I can’t imagine anybody being okay with that.”
Three of Peters’ four felony convictions stemmed from attempts to influence public servants in her scheme. Mesa County employee David Underwood, along with secretary of state employees Danny Casias and Jessi Romero, were deceived into helping Peters secure credentials for Wood, which Hayes then used.
Peters and then-Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisely, who pled guilty in this case, fabricated various stories to obtain those credentials. Underwood, Casias and Romero all testified they wouldn’t have participated had they known the truth.
Peters was convicted on one felony count of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation related to Hayes.
The defense team argued that records Peters was legally required to keep included computer log files. But this is not in line with state and federal laws, rules and standards, which mandate election records — including paper ballots and election projects — are to be saved for 25 months after an election. Computer log files are not required.
Here’s the thing: Why trust Peters’ account when 60 other clerks confirm the process was legitimate? In fact, former Larimer County Clerk Angela Myers properly backed up the very logs Peters wanted to save — after consulting the secretary of state’s office.
Yet, in interviews following the verdict, Peters claimed the jury was not presented with all the facts in the case. “There’s evidence out there to prove I’m innocent that was not shown to a jury.”
Let’s be clear: Peters’ defense wasn’t about unearthing some hidden truth. It was about distracting the jury with irrelevancies and dubious witnesses.
Defense attorney Dan Hartman led Judge Matthew Barrett on an hour-long detour, spinning election conspiracy theories to justify Peters’ actions as necessary — an “ends justify the means” defense Barrett forbade as “jury nullification.”
Hartman even admitted the records Peters claimed to “save” were all about defending MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell against Dominion Voting Systems in a billion-dollar defamation case.
Barrett’s decisions were consistently about keeping the trial focused and away from confusing side-issues. He cited pretrial orders barring election conspiracies and decades-long Supreme Court precedent requiring lawyers to confine arguments to the evidence permitted for the jury’s consideration.
On Friday, Peters told Barrett she wouldn’t testify because she was “prevented from presenting a defense” — including the gem that Hayes was secretly a government informant.
The defense team wanted Peters to testify about an un-notarized letter from Hayes, claiming he had “government security clearances” and was “authorized to use alternative identities,” with permission “to access voting equipment” for “expert reports” to law enforcement.
It’s hard to believe Hayes was some type of high-level government asset. At first, she’d represented him as an agent involved in human trafficking — then an FBI informant, then “he has a clearance,” and finally, he’s a generic “government informant.”
In the immortal words of Sheriff J.W. Pepper of James Bond fame, “A secret agent? On whose side!?”
Naturally, Peters’ excuse for concealing Hayes’ identity was to “protect” him — except her wannabe spook isn’t an FBI informant, and his “declaration” was void of specifics.
Peters’ vain attempt to label Hayes a government asset is just a convenient way to spin how she used him to gather “evidence,” only to create circular logic — that she hid Hayes’ identity because he was an informant for shady characters like her.
“It’s sad to me that a 68-year-old woman is throwing away what should be her golden years because she would not show one ounce of humility and just say, ‘I was wrong,’” Wood’s wife, Wendi, said.
Let’s be serious: Tina Peters had every chance to mount a real defense. Instead, she let her lawyers turn the trial into a stolen-election fishing expedition.
Luckily, Judge Barrett kept the conspiracism in check and the jury on track — all while ensuring justice was served amid the courtroom chaos.
Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.