Tina Peters declines to testify in her own trial after judge refuses request to tell prosecutors “not to bully me around”

The Mesa County jury is expected to begin deliberations Monday in trial over election system breach

By Nancy Lofholm4:23 AM MDT on Aug 10, 2024

from the Colorado Sun

Photo:Tina Peters of Mesa County speaks during a Republican State central meeting on March 11, 2023, in Loveland. (Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

GRAND JUNCTION — Tina Peters opted Friday not to testify in her defense — but not before expressing dissatisfaction with the fairness of her trial.

“I just feel like I have been prevented from providing a defense for myself,” she told 21st Judicial District Judge Matthew Barrett. “The court has excluded that and therefore I decline.”

On the eighth day of her trial, Peters had dangled the possibility she would testify, but only if the judge agreed to put guardrails on the questions she might be asked.

“I don’t want prosecutors to come in and bully me around like I have seen them do to others,” Peters told Barrett while the jury was out of the courtroom.

Barrett told Peters several times that he could not give legal advice to a defendant about whether she should testify, or not.

She persisted.

“I just ask that you restrain them and rein them in,” she said. “This will affect my decision whether to testify.”

“This is exceedingly unusual,” Barrett said about Peters’ request. He instructed her to consult with her attorneys.

Peters did that over a break and ultimately said she would not testify.

Defense lawyers rested their case after that, putting the trial on track to be wrapped up on Monday on schedule.

Four witnesses were called to defend Peters, but one was not allowed to testify

Peters’ lawyers called four witnesses to defend her actions when she and a cadre of election deniers breached the Mesa County elections system in May 2021.

Several cyber security experts testified briefly about blurred passwords in images released on a QAnon website in August 2021 — ostensibly to show that what Peters took from the elections system was not a thing of value.

The defense called a fellow former Colorado clerk, Dallas Schroeder, to testify. But Schroeder, who is now an Elbert County commissioner, was asked only three brief questions before the defense ended his testimony following a lengthy attorneys conference at the judge’s bench.

Schroeder said outside the courtroom that he had traveled to Colorado from a family vacation in Tennessee to testify.

Earlier, another hoped-for Peters’ witness — an election denier named David Clements — was not allowed to take the stand after more private attorney arguments.

Clements recently made a conspiracy-theory documentary that was shown in a Grand Junction church two weeks before the Peters’ trial began. Speakers at that event threatened violence against those trying to prosecute Peters and others trying to expose voter fraud.

No reason was given in open court for Clements not being allowed to take the stand. But the judge has repeatedly admonished the defense attorneys over the past week that the case before him is not about election fraud.

The defense’s star witness, Sherronna Bishop, a far-right activist and friend of Peters, was on the stand for a second day Friday for cross-examination by the defense.

When asked why she helped organize and took part in Peters’ breach of the election system, she answered “I was there as a voter and a concerned citizen.”

Bishop admitted she organized meetings with national-level election deniers, she set up encrypted chat sessions with those involved in the Mesa County breach, and she communicated regularly with Peters about the details of carrying out the breach. Those communications often occurred in the middle of the night.

Bishop’s memory of the details of the election deniers’ actions three years ago was sharp under defense questioning. She repeatedly answered, “I don’t recall” under questioning from the prosecution.

Once the defense rested its case and the jury was sent home, defense attorney Daniel Hartman asked Judge Barrett to throw out two of the charges against Peters — identity theft and official misconduct. Barrett declined.

Peters is charged with 10 felony and misdemeanor counts, including attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, identity theft, violation of duty and failure to comply with an order from the Colorado Secretary of State.

She faces the possibility of more than 20 years in prison if the jury finds her guilty.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations Monday after closing arguments.