Released from prison this week, former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters now begins a parole term that outlines strict limits on her movements and conduct, while separate ethics and campaign‑finance cases continue to move forward.

Peters’ parole, as first reported by 9News, required her to report immediately to Mesa County upon release and check in with her parole officer there. She must live in Colorado and cannot change her residence without her parole officer’s prior approval. The same approval requirement applies to any out-of-state travel.

She is barred from possessing or owning firearms or any other deadly weapons. She is also prohibited from using or possessing alcohol, illegal drugs or marijuana.

Peters is also required to find a job or participate in a full-time educational or vocational program.

Those conditions appear to be standard for parole. Peters must also follow additional individualized requirements, including completing a cognitive behavioral therapy program and undergoing a mental health evaluation, with any recommended treatment completed successfully.

She is further prohibited from having contact with a person protected by a restraining order. The parole documents do not identify who requested that order.

Peters, a Republican who served one term following her 2018 election, was serving a roughly nine-year prison sentence for a mixture of felony and misdemeanor offenses related to a security breach of her office’s voting equipment in 2021. Broadly, jurors found that Peters had used deception to enable unauthorized access to a “trusted build” update of her county’s election software, and that videos and images from the update were later posted online. 

Gov. Jared Polis commuted her sentence a few weeks ago, allowing her to be release on parole by June 1.  

Other legal issues remain

In 2021, the Colorado Ethics Commission agreed to investigate three complaints against Peters, all filed by Anne Landman of Grand Junction.

Those cases were put on hold in 2022 because of the Mesa County district attorney’s criminal investigation, which ultimately led to Peters’ trial.

Under commission rules, a person found to have violated state ethics laws may be subject to a fine equal to the amount of the violation, plus a second amount equal to the first. That could be well above $1 million, based on the amounts cited in the complaints.

The first complaint was filed in August 2021 and dealt with a cyber symposium sponsored by Mike Lindell, the MyPillow CEO. The complaint claimed Peters accepted thousands of dollars in services, travel, security and favors from Lindell. 

Peters denied violating the state ethics law. She had also characterized all accusations against her as politically motivated.

Peters’ response, submitted by her attorney Scott Gessler, asked the commission to pause the proceedings because a related complaint on the same issue had already been filed with the Secretary of State.

The second complaint, filed in January 2022, alleged that Peters ran a criminal legal defense fund in violation of state ethics laws — specifically, that she had violated the public trust by seeking personal financial gain through her public office.

It also claimed she operated the fund in ways that conflicted with ethics commission rules governing how public officials may solicit and accept money for criminal defense. Those rules require full public disclosure of all donations and prohibit the fund from being managed by anyone directly connected to the official. Landman wrote that Peters ran the fund in her capacity as an elected official, not as a private citizen.

Gessler asked that the complaint be dismissed, inferring that the ethics commission’s guidance is not mandatory and that disclosing donors could be dangerous to those contributors, given the nature of Peters’ situation.

Filed in May 2022, the third complaint alleged that Peters accepted an $800,000 contribution from Lindell, based on a statement he made in Denver on April 5, 2022. By that point, Peters had taken down the “StandWithTina.org” website and shifted her fundraising to Lindell’s “Legal Offense Fund,” which is based out of state.

Lindell told 9News he had put in “3, 4, 5, maybe $800,000 of my own money” into Peters’ legal defense fund. Peters claimed she had no knowledge of Lindell’s contributions. On numerous occasions, Peters and her allies had urged people to give to Lindell’s fund.

In 2023, Peters was also found guilty of violating state campaign finance laws by an administrative law judge, based on allegations similar to those in the ethics complaints. She was fined $14,500 by the ALJ, but a Denver District Court judge dismissed the two complaints in December 2024, citing a lack of jurisdiction.