Third arrest made in Mesa County 2020 election fraud case

According to the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office, Brown turned herself in on July 11 and was released from custody the next day on a $15,000 personal recognizance bond.

Her arrest warrant lays out more details about what led up to and occurred during the annual upgrade of the county’s Dominion voting machines last year. And it names Conan Hayes, a former pro surfer who has become a leading figure in the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement, as a key participant in the security breach. 

The affidavit alleges that Brown falsely claimed to state election officials that a man attending the upgrade was named Gerald Wood, and that he worked for the office as an administrative assistant and had gone through a background check as required for anyone attending the software update. 

The affidavit states that Brown also did not correct Clerk Peters when she told an employee with the Colorado Secretary of State’s office that the man who claimed to be Wood was working in the motor vehicle department and would be transferring to the elections team to work under Brown. 

“Brown was close by when this introduction happened, but did not interject if that was true or not regarding Wood’s employment position(s)” wrote the investigator.

Investigators believe the man at the upgrade was actually Hayes. They claim Hayes falsely assumed the identity of Gerald Wood, a Fruita resident who has been cleared of any wrongdoing. Peters is accused of creating an office key card using Wood’s identity that Hayes then used to access secure parts of the office.

The affidavit states, “The person who completed that computer service using Wood’s identity is still under investigation.”

James Cannon, the investigator from the Mesa County District Attorney’s Office who wrote the affidavit, said Brown “assisted and conspired with their overall scheme and crime(s).” He states Brown would have known the man calling himself Wood was not an employee and that “she did not have an administrative assistant, and that Wood did not work at the Clerk and Recorder’s Office.”

His investigation also indicated that Hayes was the recipient of copies of the election machine hard drives made before and after the software update. That data was later leaked online.

Brown and Clerk Peters are alleged to have used their key cards to access the secure room containing elections equipment twice — once before and once after the upgrade. At each of those times someone made a copy of the machines’ hard drives.