Key witness takes stand in Tina Peters election security trial

Gerald Wood answers questions from the witness stand during a criminal trial of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, at Mesa County District Court on Aug. 2, 2024. (Screenshot from KREX News 5 livestream, pool/Courtesy KREX News 5)

Gerald Wood, a key witness, testified in the Tina Peters trial Friday.

It was day three of the trial in Grand Junction, where two Mesa County election workers, a former human resources director for the county, and the operations manager for Mesa County also testified against Peters.

Peters, 68, has been charged with seven felonies and three misdemeanors related to an elections security breach in May 2021, when she was serving as Mesa County’s clerk and recorder. An unauthorized person was allowed entry during a “trusted build,” or software update. Surveillance cameras in the elections area, where a longtime policy had been to leave cameras on all the time, had been turned off earlier that month.

Peters is accused of stealing Wood’s identity. According to court testimony, she asked him if he’d be interested in performing IT duties in the elections office, for which he’d need a county access badge to enter secured areas. Wood works for a security company as a software engineer, and he testified he was always open to side work.

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Acquisition of an access badge “was an unusual request,” testified Brenda Moore, who was Mesa County human resources director in 2021. “He was not on the payroll. He was not being paid.”

However, Wood was provided a county access badge in mid-May, and a few days later Peters asked for the badge back. Wood testified that he was never called in for work, and never saw the badge again.

In August 2021, Wood was attending a “cyber symposium” led by MyPillow CEO and prominent conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell in South Dakota. While there he learned he had been named by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold as the suspect who took images of Mesa County election machine passwords and posted them online. His access badge had been used to enter the secure elections area.

With jury selection and opening statements, Tina Peters’ criminal trial is underway

Wood said he initially did not suspect Peters had stolen his identity when he learned he was being accused of the breach. Wood was acquainted with Peters as a member of the right-wing group Stand For The Constitution at the time. He was sympathetic to the idea that there might be irregularities in the voting system and had helped canvas neighborhoods to confirm the accuracy of voter rolls.

He and his wife, Wendi, left Stand For The Constitution in 2022, after he said the group “had been taken over by radical people who did not care about truth,” he said.

“My first impression after Jena Griswold pointed a finger at me, was they were jumping to conclusions, or, it was a government setup,” Wood testified. “When Peters started talking about it as a setup as well, it seemed plausible.”

Prosecutor Robert Shapiro asked Wood if he gave permission at any time for his identity to be used by someone else, Wood responded, “I did not.”

The prosecution entered evidence of photos showing Wood at his son and daughter’s graduation party on the day and time of the alleged security breach.

Shapiro is first assistant Colorado attorney general for special prosecutions. The prosecution team also includes Deputy Attorney General Janet Drake and Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein.

The case is before Judge Matthew Barrett in Mesa County District Court.

During cross examination, defense attorney John Case attempted to cast doubt on Wood’s innocence when he mentioned an immunity agreement with the government that Wood agreed to as a condition for testifying.

When questioning returned to Shapiro, he clarified that Wood had received limited, not full, immunity and that he could still be criminally prosecuted, including if he were to be dishonest under oath, by the district attorney’s office.

Mesa County Elections Director Brandi Bantz testified that, prior to the May 2021 security breach, she was uncomfortable while attending a meeting at the elections office on April 23 of that year. The meeting was attended by Peters, Bantz, elections administrator Stephanie Wenholz, backend elections manager Sandra Brown, and Sherronna Bishop, Peters’ friend and a former campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert. Also in the meeting was election denier Douglas Frank , an Ohio math teacher on the payroll of Lindell.

Bantz told jurors that those attending the meeting discussed various theories such as voter fraud and how they could prove fraud, and voter registration inflation. Wenholz secretly recorded the meeting. An apparently male voice can be heard telling Peters, “ It’s a feather in your cap if you can say you discovered corruption in the county and you cleaned it up.”

At one point during the April 23 meeting, Peters asked Bantz and Wenholz to leave the room while the others continued the discussion. They were told it was mandatory they attend Frank’s presentation on conspiracy theories that evening at the DoubleTree Hotel in Grand Junction.

“It was hard to hear,” Bantz testified. “I didn’t like being there. I had been taught to be nonpartisan. I didn’t want people to think I supported those theories.”

Bantz also testified that while there wasn’t a law at the time that required security surveillance cameras be left on at all times at the elections office, it had been Mesa County’s policy for years to leave the cameras on. Prosecutors noted that Peters asked her deputy clerk, Belinda Knisley, who agreed to testify against Peters in a plea agreement, to turn off the security cameras prior to the software update later that month.

In 2021, secretary of state rules called for cameras to be on 60 days before and 30 days after elections. Many counties have their cameras recording year-round.

Mesa County operations manager Lhana Jordan also testified, as did Brenda Moore, former Mesa County human resources director.

In 2022, a Mesa County grand jury charged Peters, a Republican, with three felony counts of attempting to influence a public servant, three felony counts of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and one felony count of identity theft. She also faces three misdemeanor charges of official misconduct, elections violations and failure to comply with the Colorado secretary of state’s office — all stemming from her attempt to find irregularities with election equipment in her own elections office.

If convicted on all counts, Peters could face up to 20 years in a state prison and be fined millions of dollars. She pleaded not guilty on all counts, saying the charges are politically motivated.

Claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent or compromised have been debunked by elections officials , experts , media investigations , law enforcement , the courts and former President Donald Trump’s own campaign and administration officials .

The trial resumes Monday.

Editor’s note : This story was updated at 2:45 p.m., 2024, to include more information about testimony on Friday.

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