Pueblo man accused of tampering with voting equipment in 2022 has case dismissed
More than a year after being arrested, Richard Patton’s journey through the legal system is coming to a close.
Patton, 32, was accused of tampering with a voting machine at the Pueblo County election office shortly before polls closed during the June 28, 2022, primary. He was arrested Nov. 3 of last year and charged with tampering with voting equipment and computer crime, but his case is now slated to be dismissed in Pueblo District Court.
A registered Democrat at the time of his arrest, Patton did not fit the mold of election integrity skeptics who tend to be right-wing Conservatives, such as former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters.
His case was the first in the state to be charged under a law the Colorado Legislature passed in 2022 that strengthened election security and heightened criminal penalties for tampering with election equipment.
Why the case was dismissed
Judge William Alexander ordered a mental health evaluation of Patton's competency to stand trial in November 2022, upon request from Patton’s public defender. Patton was found incompetent to stand trial and Alexander ordered Patton to undergo outpatient mental health treatment to restore his competency in early January.
Court minutes from a hearing on Dec. 15 show that Patton’s case is being dismissed because the court found his competency is "not restorable in the foreseeable future.”
Tenth Judicial District Attorney Jeff Chostner confirmed with the Chieftain that the judge’s latest ruling pertains to Patton’s mental competency.
"Our office takes election tampering very seriously and accordingly charged Mr. Patton with this offense under the relevant Colorado statute," Chostner told the Chieftain in an email.
Chostner said Patton engaged in the required outpatient mental health treatment, but the evaluating doctor thinks that he is "still incompetent to stand trial and is not likely to be restored within the foreseeable future without the use of psychotropic medication."
"Given that this is a pre-disposition decision, the court indicated it did not believe it has the legal authority to require Mr. Patton to take medication, even if that would help restore him to competency," Chostner said. "Therefore, the court dismissed the case based on the defendant being found incompetent and not likely to be restored in the foreseeable future.”
Jack Todd, a spokesperson for the Colorado Secretary of State’s office, declined to comment about the case’s dismissal but confirmed that Patton’s case was the first in the state charged under the new state law from 2022.
How Patton responded
Patton told the Chieftain in an email Monday morning that the case “changed the direction" of his life, but he said he's currently not willing to discuss specific details.
“I would like to tell my side of the story, I have to be careful because if I word my comments wrong, I would accidentally start a civil war which is an action I don’t want to do ever,” Patton wrote.
Patton previously denied wrongdoing in a November 2022 interview with the Chieftain following his arrest.
What law enforcement alleged
Patton was accused of tampering with a voting machine about an hour before polls closed during the 2022 primary.
Election workers noticed an error message on the screen of the in-person voting machine Patton used, according to a report about the incident authored by the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office. Workers also claimed that the security seals on the machine had been tampered with.
Patton’s vote was cast in the system, but nobody else used the machine after him, the Chieftain previously reported.
Background on the bill that became Colorado law
One of Patton’s charges came under a new law passed with mostly Democratic support in spring 2022.
The Colorado Election Security Act, strongly supported by Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, strengthened security requirements for election administration and increased criminal consequences for messing with election equipment from a class 1 misdemeanor to a class 5 felony.
“It is vital that anyone who breaks the law in attempts of subverting the will of the people or undermining elections be held responsible,” Griswold told the Chieftain in a statement in November 2022.
This law comes in the context of the legal saga of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who allegedly tampered with secure election equipment in 2021. Peters has been charged by a grand jury with 10 counts of violating state law, including seven felonies.
Peters has pleaded not guilty. The trial for the election security breach has faced multiple delays but has most recently been scheduled for February 2024, according to Colorado Newsline.
Anna Lynn Winfrey covers politics for the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com. Please support local news at subscribe.chieftain.com.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Richard Patton, charged with Colorado felony, has Pueblo case dismissed
