Arrest warrant for Tina Peters thrown out

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)-- Indicted Mesa County Clerk and Recorder and previous GOP candidate for Secretary of State Tina Peters has returned back to Colorado. But for now, she is not being brought back to jail.

An arrest warrant was issued for Peters after District Attorney Dan Rubinstein filed a motion saying she had left the state of Colorado without the court's permission. Traveling out of state is a violation of Peters' bond. She's been indicted on 11 felony counts, following a security breach of voting machines in Mesa County.

But Peters' attorney, Harvey Steinberg, told a Mesa County judge Friday that it was his fault that Peters violated her bond conditions and that she was under the impression she was allowed to leave the state after sending Steinberg her itinerary.

Rubinstein filed a motion Wednesday to revoke her bond, after learning Peters went to a conference in Las Vegas. Rubinstein said he found a video online showing Peters taking the stage at the Constitutional Sheriff's and Peace Officer's Association conference.

At the time, Peters' sent a text message to KRDO, saying the warrant being issued by Rubinstein was a "vicious retaliatory attack by the DA because I called him out for releasing a man on probation arrested with 26 lbs of fentanyl." In the text, Peters also said she submitted her itinerary to her attorney, "per judge order."

In court Friday, Steinberg said that was true, and that it was his fault that Peters believed she was ok to leave Colorado.

Steinberg said Peters flew on a private plane to Las Vegas on July 12, but when pressed by Rubinstein, he said Peters flew on July 11.

But the judge asked why Steinberg, one of the most high-profile attorneys in the state, didn't submit Peters' paperwork to the court. Steinberg replied that he’s not “computer literate” and his staff was out of town.

“Something like this occurring is remarkable,” Judge Matthew David Barrett replied. He added that now that Peters lost her bid for office, she's a flight risk. But because Rubinstein said he wasn't opposed to quashing the warrant if Peters’ didn’t know better, the judge threw it out.

"It will not happen again. You leave one minute before the time you're telling me you're going to leave, that is a violation of your bond," Barrett told Peters as the hearing ended.