In August, Peters’ chief deputy, Belinda Knisley, also pleaded guilty under a deal that required her to testify against Peters. She only pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts and was immediately sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation.
Peters gained national prominence by promoting conspiracy theories about voting machines and lost a bid to become the Republican candidate for Colorado’s secretary of state, who oversees elections, earlier this year. She is charged with three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, one count of identity theft, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failing to comply with the secretary of state.
She has dismissed the allegations, calling them politically motivated, and has pleaded not guilty.
According to Brown’s arrest affidavit, Knisley worked to get a security badge for a man Peters said she was hiring in the clerk’s office. Peters then used it to allow another, unauthorized person inside the room to make a copy of the election equipment hard drive during the May 2021 election equipment update, it said. Brown was present when the copy was made and conspired to misrepresent the identity of the person using the badge, it said.
Brown contacted the secretary of state’s office asking for permission for an administrative assistant to be allowed to attend the update but knew that person was really a computer expert who would not have been allowed to attend, District Attorney Dan Rubinstein told Judge Matthew Barrett during Brown’s plea hearing. The credential for that expert was then used by another person to get in the room and make a copy of the hard drive, he said. That person has not been charged.