Tina Peters addresses judge ahead of sentencing

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Ms. Peters, you have the right to address me before I impose any sentence upon you. You do not have to address me, ma'am, and in fact, you retain the right to remain silent. And if you choose not to address me, I will not use your decision to not address me in any way against you. But if you do wish to address me, you can tell me as much or as little about you, this case, or anything else you think I need to know in order to impose my sentence properly in your mind. I would just ask that you stand when you address me. [00:00:24] Ms. Peters: Yes, sir. Yes, Your Honor. May I take the podium? [00:00:28] Speaker 1: Yes, the lectern. Yes, you may. [00:00:30] Ms. Peters: Thank you, Your Honor. It's with a heavy heart that I hear the vile accusations and the anger levied against me for what I did to serve the people of Mesa County. You know, maintaining my innocence is not disrespect for the law. I respect the jury verdict based on the evidence that they were allowed to hear. There's much that they were allowed to hear. I never intended a video of the trusted bill to be made public. I did not authorize it to be made public. I did not authorize it to be made public. I asked questions about Dominion violating election laws. Judge, Judge, I'm asking for probation. Since 2022, I've been on restriction. And now I have an ankle bracelet, and now I have an ankle bracelet that I've been compliant with that. [00:01:56] Speaker 1: Oh, are we doing something on the screen? Yes. I didn't know that. Yes, Your Honor. I need to know that. Oh, sorry. [00:02:01] Ms. Peters: Thank you. Judge, I've never lied to you. Can we zoom in on that, please? Yeah. Mr. Rubenstein accused me in court of recording on my iPad. I did not record on my iPad. This was the transcript of that. He says, I've now seen the screen, and indeed, it's recording. Then later, Rubenstein admitted he didn't know if I was recording or not. I have no idea if it was recording or not. In my eyes, Mr. Rubenstein lied to you, Judge, which resulted in me being seized and now wearing an ankle bracelet for contempt and lying to you. [00:03:12] Speaker 1: The ankle bracelet is for your contempt or for your conviction in the obstruction case? [00:03:17] Ms. Peters: Well, all of the -- all of those -- those two cases were a direct result of that day in court, that I would -- that the -- that the DA got up, interrupted a normal proceeding -- I didn't interrupt the proceeding -- to get up and cause a big stir. [00:03:34] Speaker 1: Well, Judge Dunkelman found otherwise, but I guess we can just disagree on that. I understand what you're saying. I understand what you're saying. [00:03:39] Ms. Peters: Go ahead. They kept the iPad for 15 months. They never searched it. And when my attorneys had it transferred to a lab, they said there was no recording ever on it. None of the 66 videos were deleted. You can go back down or go up. No. Go the other way. The report states -- wait, so -- go up a little bit more. Thank you. The 66 recordings were extracted from the iPad. None of the 66 videos were deleted. None of the videos were recorded on February 7th, 2022. There was never any recording made. And my iPad proves it. I want to address -- take a break here and address some of the accusations, the vile accusations that have been levied against me with such anger and vile. As a Christian woman and as a gentle person, basically, that stepped up to run for county clerk and recorder, because we had three-and-a-half-hour wait times from the prior, who is now the present clerk, who was the manager of elections, three-and-a-half-hour wait times. I looked at that judge as a business owner. I could have minded my own business. I could have stayed living a great life, my husband and I. But instead, I stood up and I said, I can fix that. My son said in his SEAL Team 6 paperwork, before he died -- I read it after he died -- he said, describe your mother. He said, she fixes things. And when I see something that needs to be fixed, that's good, I believe that everyone should do that. I ran for clerk and recorder, and I'll get into that part in just a moment, but I'm very taken back by how awful I've been depicted when I was just trying to do my job, the people expected me to do. When I look at the people that have spoken here today and asking for harsh sentences, I'm just appalled. I feel bad for them because I know -- I've often said, God doesn't like people messing with his kids. And I believe I'm a child of God. And I believe that it was important for someone to stand up. And I chose to do that. As far as Gerald Wood and Wendy Wood, I think during the trial, the text messages that were presented, when at first Gerald Wood said -- he said that, yes, I used the name Trebuchet. He said, okay, yes, that's my phone number. His picture was on there. And then when he -- and the date, which was May 14th, I believe. And then when he started reading that it said, I'm your guy, meaning he was the guy that was going to stand in. He had agreed to stand in and use his identity to protect the identity of Conan Hayes, who had just busted, by his efforts for the federal government, a human trafficking organization called Backpage. My son was involved in anti-human trafficking. He worked with -- as a Navy SEAL, he worked with Texas Rangers. And that's what they did that nobody ever knew. And that's what, I believe, caused his death. But when he looked at those -- when he changed his tune after he was shown the proof that he was complicit, that he knew that he was stepping up to conceal the identity of Conan Hayes, to see him deny it now, while we have proof in text from him that he admitted were his, and then all of a sudden had a case of amnesia. Here it is, right here. [00:08:39] Speaker 1: I don't know if I need to turn this on or not, but go ahead and -- Can you make that bigger? Okay. [00:08:43] Ms. Peters: So let's stop right there. Can we stop it? Tina, this is our guy. And he says, "That I am." And then I said, "Hi, guy. Nice to meet you. I'll call tomorrow. Is there a good time early morning or afternoon for you?" I have meetings, and I explain that. Okay, keep going. But this is Sharona Bishop saying, "This is your guy." He gives me his phone number. He says, "Fridays are generally quiet for me, if you can stop here." And that was May 13th. Feel free to call whenever's best for you. Awesome. I'll do. Then he says, "I have my Mesa County employee badge now." Now, this is a man who never filled out an employment application. This is -- stop right there. This is a man who never filled out an employment application, never went through the interview process, but now he has an employee badge. He says, "Don't you think that somebody like that would wonder? No. Okay, we're getting prepared. I think it would be good to bring in Sandy at this point to strategize before our guest comes." Who do you think that refers to? So, right there, you can see, Your Honor, that Gerald Wood knew what his role in this was. As much as he, because of fear or whatever else the prosecution aimed at him to get to testify against me for his freedom and throw me under the bus. He says that the give, sin, go. They talk about that I lied about his involvement. They talk about the give, sin, go that I've profited from this, Judge. That goes to pay my attorneys. I don't have the money of the Colorado Attorney General's office who is represented here, who were sworn in to be prosecutors in this case and who conducted the trial. It takes a lot of money to fight the government. Cody Davis, when he got up. So during this time, when the, when the ankle, when the iPad, when I was accused of recording in your courtroom, just sitting right over there, which I did not do, the next day, I'm at a commissioner's hearing. They see the iPad in my purse. We're sitting there. All of a sudden, 22 minutes, they delayed the commissioner's hearing in order to go get a search warrant for the iPad they saw in my purse. Unwitting, you know, people sitting there with me. We waited. Then we said our grievances or our, our, what we wanted to say to the, to the, the commissioners. And then we left. We were followed one block away to Main Street Bagel, and that's when all hell broke loose. They came in, descended on it like it was a drug bust. Grab the iPad. I don't know what's happening. I grab it back. And then they're, you know, they totally caught me by surprise. And so, yes, I agree, I, I didn't react normally or, because this was not a normal situation. But during that commissioner's hearing, and we've had this enhanced and we can hear it, during the time they took this break, Janet Rowland bends down and covers the microphone like this, and says, she won't want to come back here after this. And Cody Davis, that's sitting right back here, said, and you can hear it if you play back the recording, sacrificial lamb. He called me a sacrificial lamb. Cody Davis said 1.4 million. He talked about the salary for 16 months. I didn't want to be kicked out of my office. I would have gladly, I came in every single day during COVID, every single day. So did my chief deputy. We worked. We didn't stay home like a lot of people did enjoying a vacation. We worked. And I, and I figured out ways to make it so we still provided those services to the citizens of Mesa County. As a matter of fact, when I first took office, they said it couldn't be done, but I couldn't lower those three and a half hour wait times. And I'm the type of person that, while somebody is saying something can't be done, I'm doing it. Like I said, my son says I fix things. Shortly after, I was, I was sworn in. One month later, I opened, started opening the offices in FRUDA for $150 a month. And then the FRUDA office for a third of what had been paid before. I had been negotiating that for 10 months before I even took office, being a former real estate broker and also being in the, in the construction business. And my staff, when I got there, they were making $14.65 an hour, Judge. I don't know how anybody lives off of that these days. And they've been passed over and passed over for promotions. And, you know, so when, when, when Scott McGinnis talks about the, the big turnover, I had people that would cuss customers out when I first got there and they had to go. I gave them a chance and they had to go. One was a veteran and, and so yes, there was some turnover and then there were turnover that left because the prior clerk. But when they say that I cost the county, when, when Cody Davis says I cost the county, no. No, I didn't cost the county. I saved the county money. Scott McGinnis talked a lot about deception and high expectations that the county has for their clerks. Talked about breaking the contract and things like that. Janet Rowland, the commissioner and I had already been talking about that since January, about getting out of the Dominion contract, which only had one more year. She even admitted in an email, and we talked about it, that maybe they could pay off the rest of the contract and go ahead and bring in a clear ballot. I was ready just weeks before all this, all hell broke loose for us to sign a, a contract with a different vendor. But it was interesting that, and Scott McGinnis said that I was not around, that I was AWOL, that I was on the run is how he said it. No. I called in every single day to my managers on FaceTime, on our conference calling, every single day, talking to them about the program for the day, what we were going to do today, asking how their, their subordinates were doing, were there any problems, you know, and solutions to what, whatever was going on. I was present every single day. [00:15:52] Speaker 1: You weren't physically present. [00:15:54] Ms. Peters: I was present, I, where I was, Your Honor, I was, after all this broke, which was by no fault of my own when it broke, you know, because that was not my intent. My intent was just to come out quietly, let's see if there's a there there, if there's a there there, and then we, we do something about it. If there's not, then we keep reassuring the people. I didn't believe there was fraud here. And I, and I took people on, on, on tours of the office to reassure them. [00:16:22] Speaker 1: So you weren't physically present? [00:16:24] Ms. Peters: I had been, so, no, I was. [00:16:26] Speaker 1: And then when did you come back to be physically present to do the job you were elected to do? Let me, let me explain that. No, I just want you to answer the question. Okay. [00:16:33] Ms. Peters: I was flown from, from North Dakota to, or South Dakota to Texas. [00:16:39] Speaker 1: I'm not asking where you went or where you were. You physically weren't present. One, one month. You were gone. [00:16:45] Ms. Peters: Four weeks. Four weeks. [00:16:47] Speaker 1: You were gone for four weeks. [00:16:48] Ms. Peters: But I was on, I was present every day. How did people exist during COVID, Your Honor? They didn't go into the offices every day. I did. They did it by, by video conferencing. That's how I was running my office. And that's perfectly acceptable. So I was flown to Texas for my safety. One week later, my hotel room was physically breached. It was broken into. After that, that time, I had 24/7 armed security. I was in a hotel room. The door across from, from me was propped open. And I had 24/7 armed security until the first report came out. When I brought the first report, September 16th, I believe it was, 16th or 17th. It might have been 17th. Immediately, we took three reports to the commissioners and one report to the DA. They did nothing. They did nothing. And while I was gone, there was people coming in trying to, to present, you know, evidence of what was being found. But all they wanted to know was, where's Tina Peters? All they wanted to know, they didn't want to know anything. And I saw Merrick Garland on, because I was tuned in. I was tuned in on my, my security, my, my security officer's computer. And I could see who was there, CNN. And that was an open, open records violation law. That was the, the Sunshine Law violation. All the public should have been able, able to see that. But that's a whole 'nother story. And I won't, I won't go there. See what? That when, when commissioners are meeting together, it's supposed to be an open meeting. This was, this was a closed meeting, but there were other people there. [00:18:37] Speaker 1: Merrick Garland, was that a commissioners meeting? [00:18:39] Ms. Peters: No, on this, on this Zoom meeting. I know, it's hard to believe that this has gotten the attention across this nation because of what we've discovered. So Scott McGinnis said that they have not seen one fraudulent vote. But I would say, I would argue with that. Because, just because you don't acknowledge and you, and you don't, and you're blind to the truth, it doesn't mean that the truth is not there. Can you hear me with that? [00:19:15] Speaker 1: Do you deny that the hand count? I'll get to that. [00:19:19] Ms. Peters: Yes, sir. [00:19:20] Speaker 1: No, I'm just wondering. [00:19:21] Ms. Peters: No, I'll deny, I'll, I'll get to that. Sure. [00:19:23] Speaker 1: I'm interested to hear. [00:19:24] Ms. Peters: So, so, Your Honor, on September 17th, well, this is dated 15th of September. I took this, one of these copies to every commissioner and to the DA. They did nothing. Did nothing. There is, there is expert reports. There were 29,000 election records that you can see on here in orange that were deleted from the people's Mesa County election system when they compared the first image that was taken and the second image. Gone. Deleted. The only record we have is the record that I have. So you wonder why when Scott McGinnis says that there's never been any fraudulent vote count found. It's because they replaced the machines. They took the evidence out of Mesa County, Dominion voting system, and put new machines. And you know what I told the candidates that year? I said, they were running, a lot of good candidates were running for school board. I said, you don't have to worry about this election. They are not going to cheat during this election. So all of that hand counting, all that stuff, I knew they weren't going to cheat. But we have the evidence that they did. Here's the other thing. February 28th, 2022, brought another report. You know what this report showed? There were 36 wireless devices. So when you hear Dr. Frank talk about wireless devices in these machines, they're there. As a matter of fact, now they admit that there's wireless devices. And Matt Crane with the Colorado County Clerks Association and the Secretary of State just says, well, just turn them off. I was never taught. None of the other clerks, I'm sure Dallas Schroeder can testify, were never told to turn off. Because these machines cannot be certified if they have wireless devices inside or have the capability. And then report number three came out after I was indicted. March 19th. Oh, by the way, back up. November, after I brought this report out, I was rated on November 16th by the FBI. November 17th, an attorney that is well known to the DA went into the nursing home and had my husband, who was a veteran with Parkinson's, sign a divorce decree. Not only did that take my husband, it took all my VA benefits. I found out a month later, one month before we would have been married 35 years, Your Honor. I had taken care of that man for 35 years. And I actually went to save him, which I'll show you in just a moment. So report number three came out. You said you asked if there was -- and probably none of these people have even read these reports that I gave them. So report number three. When that ballot goes in to the tabulation machine, we've already proven it in report number three. There's a second database that's created. So there's an image. So when they say, well, we'll just count the images. Don't worry about the paper ballots. We'll just count the images. After ballots go in, there's a second fraudulent database that's created. And it's all documented in here. There's an image taken of that ballot. Then the ballot is changed. And we know it's been changed because it's lacking the .SHA file. And it goes through adjudication differently. Like it's a completely different ballot. This is what report number three is. So when you ask were there any fraudulent votes, they haven't read it. They don't know. All right. I'm going to move along. Votes, ma'am. [00:23:07] Speaker 1: Sorry? I'm not going to let you go on about things that are completely irrelevant to the Senate side. No, it's not. I've let you go on enough about this. But the votes are the votes. You still didn't answer the question. If this is my ballot and I put it in the machine, whatever it tabulates is whatever it tabulates. No, it doesn't. [00:23:26] Ms. Peters: It changes. [00:23:27] Speaker 1: You're not letting me finish. Okay, please. Whatever it tabulates is whatever it tabulates. My hand vote, my ballot remains the same. They counted those ballots. I understand. Did they not? [00:23:38] Ms. Peters: I understand what you're saying, Your Honor. Did they count the ballots? No. The ballot images were changed and that's what the total shows. Okay, I'll move off of this because I can see that it, you know, I would encourage to read the report number three. [00:23:51] Speaker 1: I've read them, ma'am. [00:23:52] Ms. Peters: You've read all of them? [00:23:53] Speaker 1: I've read those reports. They were given to me at some point, I believe. Good. [00:23:57] Ms. Peters: Good. Well, so you know what I'm saying is true. All right. Let me move on. It's not funny. My life is on the line here, Your Honor. [00:24:05] Speaker 1: No, you're the one who's making this allegation that one, I think it's funny. It's not an allegation. And two, that I know it's true. You're saying that as if I believe you and I did not say that. Okay. That is why I made the sound because it's insulting to me for you to just put that in a record in front of all of these people that I believe something to be true. Okay. [00:24:28] Ms. Peters: And I apologize for that, Your Honor. That wasn't my intent. I do apologize for that. It gets a little fiery when your life is on the line, and I apologize. But I told the candidates they didn't have anything to fear because they had brand new machines that they'd taken out the bad ones, as the clerk alluded to. But the truth does matter, you know. The fact that Gerald Wood lied about his part in this is unforgivable. Cody Davis calling me a sacrificial lamb, and then what happened next. And we'll show that in just a moment. But you know, Matt Crane's wife has worked for the voting system for two decades. Did you know that? Not many people know that she's worked for Dominion for two decades. So when he gets defensive about the voting machines, there's a reason. All right. Let's go on to -- so they kept my iPad. Judge, I'm an honest person. I made a promise to conceal Conan's identity, yes. But I'm an honest person. And I have 50 letters here that prove from people that say -- and we had many more letters. But these are 50 letters here from people that say I'm honest. Plus the five that are in the pre-sentence investigation report. The first letter is from one of my doctors, Scott Rollins. I'm trying to get to -- Can you pull that up? One second. Okay. I'll keep going while he pulls this up. [00:26:09] Speaker 1: And I've read the -- I have read the letter. I've read all of the letters. Okay. But yes, you can certainly reference them if you'd like. [00:26:14] Ms. Peters: Thank you, Your Honor. I appreciate it. And I appreciate you reading the letters. Can we get it? [00:26:21] Speaker 3: Yeah. Okay. [00:26:23] Ms. Peters: Fifty letters here plus the five that are in the pre-sentence investigation report. The first letter is from one of my doctors, Scott Rollins. I have health problems that would not be treatable in the Department of Corrections. First of all, I need a magnetic mattress. I've been on that since 1995. I was in two rear-end collisions in '84 and 2010. It was pretty severe. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. I don't know if you can zoom in a little bit. And chronic fatigue as a result. And I had to stop working for the airlines in 1995. I was up all night because I was in bed all day. I couldn't sleep. I couldn't control these symptoms until I got, believe it or not, a magnetic mattress, of which I still sleep on. I will not have that at the Department of Corrections. And so I had lung cancer and had surgery in 2016, one year before I ran for office and one year before my son died. They took out a third of my right lung. And as a result, I get short of breath. So I can't do a lot of strenuous physical activity. My first attorneys asked me to take a polygraph as to why I created an image of the Mesa County server. And I said it was to preserve election records. And the polygraph showed that's true. Page two. Page two. Please. If you've never been through a polygraph, it's a pretty strenuous test. Keep going. I know it's inadmissible. We're not in court right now. We're at my sentencing. Thank you for that, DA. Were you truthful -- wait, stop. Go down. Were you truthful -- keep going, please. Were you truthful when you told me you had the voting equipment data imaged because of obligation to preserve unaltered data? Answer, yes. Were you truthful when you told me you had voter equipment data imaged solely to uphold your obligation to preserve unaltered data? Yes. It was shown that I told the truth in every question they asked me. The government has -- the government has accused me of profiting by them, prosecuting me, because they said I got free plane rides on Mike Lindell's plane and other bennies. But I reimbursed Mike Lindell for every plane ride I took on Mike Lindell's plane. Here's proof of it. And you can go down, show those. Okay. This right here -- let's go back to when they -- when they came down on me for the iPad in the -- in the -- this is my wrist. Main Street Nagels. Yeah. Yes, Main Street Nagels. This is a picture of my left wrist, which happened when the officer who arrested me on February 8th, 2022, made the handcuffs too tight. And they also accused me of kicking a cop, which I didn't do because when they put the cuffs on too tight, they pulled me sideways on my left wrist and my -- and my right leg came up. And I've done this with numerous people that -- to show them exactly how that's possible. And I'm going to just show you now. Did somebody think that was funny? Did you hear that back there? I didn't. [00:30:17] Speaker 1: Okay. [00:30:18] Speaker ?: But I -- [00:30:18] Ms. Peters: Somebody's back there laughing because I'm -- Okay. I'll take your word for it. [00:30:23] Speaker 1: Thank you. I appreciate that. I will admonish that as I've done it before for everyone. Thank you. I appreciate that. To get through this. So go ahead. In terms of -- This is me -- [00:30:32] Ms. Peters: This is me and my mom two years ago. She's now 95. And lives in Virginia. And she needs me emotionally. And I want to be near her emotionally. And I talk to her and visit her. The last time I saw her was on Mother's Day. I arranged with the court to be able to go there. So that's another reason I would ask for probation so I can be with my mom. She had a heart attack recently and has three aneurysms because -- The doctor says because of all the stress this is causing her. Here's my dad and me. Whoops. Who died the day I was in jail in the Mesa County Jail in the Sheriff's Office here. I found out the next day -- I didn't get to be the one that said goodbye like the other people in my family. I found out the next day before court where the prosecution asked for a half a million dollar cash bond. I don't even know murderers and drug dealers like the one that the DA prosecuted that he gave probation with 26 pounds of fentanyl. And the reason I know that the DA prosecuted a man with 26 pounds of fentanyl? Because my attorney at the time was representing both of us. That man got off on probation. And I have had to pay the price. For what? Influencing a public servant? Is that really that bad that it deserves me to be incarcerated? This is my late son, Remington Jordan Peters, walking off as he graduated as a Navy SEAL. I tragically lost him nine years later at 27 years old while I was running for office of the clerk and recorder, because I wanted to make a difference. I'm what any mother or father never wants to be in that club. That's okay. Just stay on the picture above. A gold star mom. I didn't even know what a gold star mom was until I became one. On November 2nd, 2021, I got an email from Zach Reams. And Mr. Reams explained he was resigning as the lawyer of me and my husband, because the DA was investigating whether I had abused the power of attorney that I had for my husband, Tom. I had not abused that power of attorney. I always only did what my husband asked me to do. I would take my husband-- after, in 2021, that he-- I could no longer lift him and take care of him, because he would fall a lot. He went into the La Villa Grande, and that's where that vile man, attorney, went in and had him sign a divorce decree. Took him to a-- to Wells Fargo and had my husband draw out $4,000 to pay the attorney that he signed something. And he told me the day after I was raided by the FBI, he said, "I think I did something wrong." And I said, "Honey, what do you think you did?" He said, "I don't know, but it was not good." He said-- I said, "What do you want me to do?" And he said, "Call our attorneys." He didn't even know what he signed. The investigation, though, came to nothing. I loved my husband. I was married for 35 years and would never have done any harm to him. However, like I said, a lawyer named Drew Moore, who I understand as a friend of the district attorney, converted our degree of legal separation to a divorce, and my husband had never had any dealings with Drew Moore prior to that. I lost my VA benefits and my husband. After the divorce, my husband's brother, who-- him and his sister had never come to see us-- enticed him to come live in Arkansas. And they got-- as they got a power of attorney in October, and they wouldn't let me see my husband. This is a revocation of the power of attorney that I was able to get. They moved him out of the VA living facility to Arkansas. And then, when he was in Arkansas, he wasn't cared for. And I told him that too much medication he hallucinates, and too little he falls. So then, they put him in a nursing home. Here's a picture of me and Tom when-- three months before I was-- before he was taken away from me. Now, this picture right here is us at the Ale House. I would take him out. We would go have dinner, have a beer. You know, go have ice cream, go visit Christine Chiaveris that you've already heard speak, and other friends. Take him up to the property, wherever. We would have date night, and things like that. This is my husband when I found him. A 280 pound man, barely 90 pounds, at the hands of the people who took him. He was-- wait, hang on, hang on, hang on. He was severely dehydrated. They would put a cup on the thing, but he couldn't reach it. He had no food. [00:36:10] Speaker 3: This is the way I found him. And I just laid my head on his chest, and I saw it. I said, "Honey, I never left you. They took you from me." [00:36:20] Ms. Peters: And I was-- I was busy the next three and a half days feeding him and giving him water. [00:36:31] Speaker 3: And he-- the next picture is after three and a half days of just giving him water and food. And he's holding onto my arm, and there's a little smile there. You can see him. We were reunited again. And the police came once the brother found out that I was there because they believed this stuff that 700 above the full articles that the Daily Sentinel has put out to defame me and lie about me. And I've taken it and taken it. The police were called. They took him out. A month later, he was dead. [00:37:13] Speaker ?: A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. [00:37:27] Speaker 3: A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. A month later, he was dead. [00:37:33] Speaker ?: A month later, he was dead. [00:37:34] Speaker 3: A month later, he was dead. to get him 100% disability, which did pay for the VA's care of him, which I'm very grateful. But I'm not a criminal. And I don't deserve to go into a prison where other people have committed heinous crimes. The only crime that I did-- and some people have said I'm not remorseful. Yes, I'm remorseful. Yes, sir, I really am. I never expected that just doing an image, which was completely legal before and after the trusted bill would have landed me here. [00:38:22] Ms. Peters: I thought it was going to come out quietly. I could look and see, OK, is there any proof? Is there anything here? I could talk to the constituents and say, listen, we've done an investigation. Everything is good. This is the gold standard, which I believed before. I've never done anything with malice to break the law. [00:38:42] Speaker 3: I wanted to serve the people in Mesa County. And I'll just tell you this. When-- with my other attorneys, there [00:38:50] Ms. Peters: was an attorney getting me ready for trial. And he was trying to be the prosecutor, you know, play that role to toughen me up. And he said to me-- he kept trying to provoke me and provoke me and provoke me. And he says, Tina, I can't-- and that's why I should have testified, probably. But I said-- he said, Tina, I can't get to you. And I said, I'll tell you a secret. I'll tell you how you can get to me. [00:39:20] Speaker 3: Talk about the citizens of Mesa County. Talk about the people that you served. I said, that's what'll do it. And as I'm telling him, I'm starting to cry. I really do love these people. And whether they recognize it or not, I did my best to serve this county. And I hope that you'll find it in your heart to not sentence me to-- and I haven't cried in front of these people, because I don't want them to get the impression that they were getting to me. But I don't deserve to be in prison. I can do a lot more good, a lot more good out helping people, which is what I'm good at doing. If you tell me I cannot talk about the elections anymore, I won't talk about the elections anymore. I've done my job here. If you say that if you allow me to go to Yuba City [00:40:22] Ms. Peters: and live quietly, helping with trafficked women and children, I would like to do that. I didn't need to be in the center of attention. And it's interesting. When I took the job as clerk and recorder, the staff would come to me and they'd say, the press is outside. They want to talk to the clerk. And I said, don't we have somebody on staff that can do that kind of thing? And they said, no. They want to talk to the clerk. I had to tape a little piece of paper up on the tripod with bullet points, because I wasn't used to being in front of a camera. I don't like being the center of attention. I never have. [00:40:59] Speaker 3: But this has uprooted my life. And for that, I'm sorry. I really am remorseful that it came out that way. And I ask you for leniency and probation. I check all the boxes on the leniency. Don't have drug problems. [00:41:20] Ms. Peters: Don't have alcohol problems. I don't know if you've ever seen as clean a past as I have or present. But I did not do it, Your Honor, to disrespect the court or the law. [00:41:41] Speaker 1: Thank you, ma'am.