Tina Peters convicted of obstruction charge related to iPad recordings

Former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters was convicted Friday in Grand Junction on a misdemeanor obstruction charge for refusing to turn over a tablet computer authorities allege she used to record a court hearing in defiance of a judge's instructions.

The county jury split its verdict after a two-day trial, acquitting Peters on a related misdemeanor charge of obstruction of a peace officer. Sentencing is scheduled for April 10.

The obstruction charges are separate from criminal charges Peters faces related to allegations she helped breach the county's secure election equipment in 2021 in an attempt to find evidence that Colorado's voting system is rigged.

She has pleaded not guilty to seven felony and four misdemeanor charges in that case, which is scheduled to go to trial in August.

A leading promoter of the baseless theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, Peters is campaigning to run Colorado's Republican Party as its state chair in a March 11 election.

Last summer, Peters lost a GOP primary for secretary of state, the state's top election official. She didn't seek reelection to a second term as county clerk.

Police handcuffed and briefly detained Peters on Feb. 8, 2022, after she tried to kick one of the officers at a Grand Junction bagel shop while local prosecutors attempted to seize an iPad under a search warrant, according to the arrest affidavit.

Authorities said they were seeking to determine if Peters had recorded portions of a court hearing a day earlier involving a former subordinate after the judge had reminded Peters that use of electronic recording devices was prohibited in the courtroom.

That hearing involved Belinda Knisley, a former Mesa County chief deputy clerk, who had been suspended the previous year based on allegations she created a hostile work environment. She was later also charged in the voting system data breach.

Witnesses at Peters' trial this week testified that she repeatedly told investigators that the iPad wasn't hers and belonged to someone named Tammy Bailey, though her lawyer, Harvey Steinberg, said that the name was an alias used by Peters, possibly for security reasons, The Associated Press reported.

Knisley and another former clerk's office employee, Sandra Brown, both pleaded guilty last year and agreed to testify against Peters in the election equipment tampering case.

The Associated Press and 9News contributed to this story.