Scott Gessler, the attorney for Clerk Tina Peters, has filed a motion to dismiss a case against her that seeks to remove her permanently as Mesa County’s designated election official.
For the second time in as many months, another convicted resident who was being held in community corrections escaped a felony charge for not returning to authorities when required.
Citing a precedent set in a Mesa County case last month, a three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that District Judge Richard Gurley was correct when he dismissed a charge of felony escape for Austin Urquhart, referring the matter to county court on a lesser misdemeanor count of unauthorized absence. Gurley did that because of a new law approved by the Colorado Legislature earlier this year designed to free up jail space for nonviolent offenders.