Sandra Brown (nonfiction)
Sandra Brown is a former Mesa County Elections Manager.
Colorado Politics
Former Mesa County elections manager takes deal, will testify against Tina Peters
By MARIANNE GOODLAND marianne.goodland@coloradopolitics.com Nov 30, 2022 Updated Dec 1, 2022
Former Mesa County Elections Manager Sandra Brown pleaded guilty Wednesday to two charges related to an election equipment tampering case in Mesa County and has agreed to testify against her former boss, Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters.
Brown is the second former employee of the Mesa County Clerk and Recorder's office to take a plea deal in exchange for agreeing to testify against Peters. Former Deputy Clerk Brenda Knisley also agreed to a plea deal in August, in which she pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor charges and was sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation and to perform 150 hours of community service. Knisley's plea deal required her to testify against both Peters and Brown, if needed.
However, according to Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, no modification of Knisely's agreement is necessary as she is no longer needed to testify against Brown.
Brown was originally charged with two felony counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation to gain a benefit and attempt to influence a public servant, who was identified as a member of the elections division for the Colorado Secretary of State.
The first charge carried a possible maximum sentence of 18 months in state prison and up to $100,000 in fines; the second could result in a penalty of up to six years in state prison and up to $500,000 in fines. The charges against Brown are similar to some of the charges filed against Peters and Knisley.
Peters has denied all the allegations against her, arguing they were politically motivated.
Brown signed off on a cooperation agreement, dated Nov. 16, with the Mesa County district attorney. The agreement was made after Brown participated in a recorded "proffer interview" with state and federal prosecutors and law enforcement on Sept. 28, 2022.
A proffer interview gives individuals the opportunity to tell the government what they know about a criminal investigation.
In Wednesday's hearing before Judge Matthew Barrett, Brown agreed to plead guilty to attempting to influence a public servant, a felony, and official misconduct, a misdemeanor.
Barrett delayed sentencing to March 14 to allow Brown to testify against Peters in the jury trial. The plea agreement, which Barrett accepted Wednesday, allows for a two-year unsupervised, deferred judgment and sentence on the felony count and probation on the misdemeanor count to run concurrently. The plea agreement also notes a cap on jail time of no more than 30 days. Barrett will decide on the length of probation or any jail time in March.
Brown, in acknowledging her guilty pleas, told the court that the charges stemmed from an email she sent to the Secretary of State's office. At the time she sent the email, she did not know the person she was referring to — a Gerald Wood, to be hired as an administrative assistant — was not an employee.
"I need to take responsibility for my own actions or lack thereof," she told Barrett. "My job was to protect the integrity of the elections."
She said there were four steps she could have taken that would have done a better job. She didn't elaborate on those four steps.
"There were things going on I should have questioned and I didn't," she said.
Rubinstein asked if he could provide to the court information Brown gave during the proffer interview. He said Brown, at Peters' direction, represented to the Secretary of State's office that Wood was currently an administrative assistant with Mesa County. Brown believed Wood was going to be hired by Peters as part of a sham, Rubinstein said.
Rubinstein added that Brown sent the email about Wood to the Secretary of State's office, but, knowing that if the office knew who he really was, he would not have been allowed in the room at the time of a "trusted build," when only county employees were allowed in the room where the elections equipment was kept.
"She knew she was setting up a sham to get someone into the room, knowing the Secretary of State would never allow that to happen," Rubinstein said.
On the official misconduct charge, Rubinstein said Brown was aware that the contract with Dominion, the company that provided the election equipment, prohibited copying of software, and that she participated in allowing the individual identified as Gerald Wood — later revealed to be Conan James Hayes — into the room where the Dominion equipment was kept.
The affidavit for Brown's arrest identified Hayes as a surfer and former clothing company owner and listed in Michigan court filings as an expert on “application security, systems, process, generally accepted programming practices, standards of care, as it relates to application development of sensitive systems.”
According to a July arrest affidavit for Brown, Knisley worked to get a security badge for Wood. Peters then used it to allow another, unauthorized person — Hayes — inside the room to make a copy of the county's Dominion election equipment hard drive. Brown was present when the copy was made and conspired to misrepresent who the person using the badge was, the affidavit said.
The affidavit noted the images of the Dominion hard drive, including its copyrighted software, are now publicly available online.
"National platform media outlets and computer experts suggest that nefarious hackers may study the software files to attempt to find vulnerabilities to harm future elections," the affidavit said.
Dominion has filed multiple lawsuits against claims it was part of a conspiracy to rig election results.
Peters' term as clerk and recorder will end on Jan. 10. She did not run for re-election for a second term, instead choosing to launch a failed bid for the Republican nomination for Secretary of State.
In September, Peters pleaded not guilty to 10 charges in all, seven felonies and three misdemeanors, related to tampering with election equipment in the Mesa County elections office in May, 2021.
A jury trial is set in Mesa County District Court for March 6-14, 2023. Barrett is scheduled to preside over that trial.
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- [ Post] @ Twitter (4 December 2022)