A person accused of tampering with a voting machine throughout Colorado’s main election is mentally incompetent and can’t proceed with court docket proceedings, a choose dominated Thursday.
At the request of Richard Patton’s lawyer and prosecutors, Judge William Alexander additionally ordered that Patton endure outpatient psychological well being therapy in hopes of creating him nicely sufficient so he could be prosecuted.
Pueblo County, Colo., Sheriff’s Office
The choose’s ruling adopted an analysis by an knowledgeable who discovered that Patton was mentally incompetent. To be thought of legally competent to proceed, individuals accused of crimes should be deemed in a position to perceive proceedings and assist in their very own protection by with the ability to talk with their legal professionals.
Patton’s lawyer had requested the analysis in November however no particulars about why have been launched. Patton has not been requested to enter a plea but and the case towards him is not going to resume till he’s discovered to be competent.
Patton was arrested Nov. 3 and later charged with tampering with voting gear, which state lawmakers this 12 months made a felony punishable by as much as three years in jail. It was previously a misdemeanor offense with a penalty of as much as 364 days in jail. Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold had informed CBS News that 2022 marked the “first midterm elections when the country is facing an evolved threat of insider threats.”
According to his arrest affidavit, Patton, a registered Democrat, confirmed as much as vote in particular person on the final day of the first election, June 28. He made some ballot staff nervous after asking about what sort of safety there was on the voting middle due to threats that had been made towards election staff. An election employee escorted Patton to a voting machine, confirmed him the way to use it, and he was in a position to make use of it to fill out a poll and print out a marked paper poll to forged, investigators stated.
After Patton voted, an individual who went to scrub the voting machine found an error message saying {that a} USB gadget had been detected, in line with the affidavit. Other election staff stated the safety seal on the machine was both broken or had been tampered with and a USB port pulled out, it stated.
Patton denied any wrongdoing in an interview with The Pueblo Chieftain in November. He stated he requested assist from an election employee when he voted as a result of he’s dyslexic and accused the employee of inserting one thing into the machine.
“This is demonstrably false because I’m a jock. I’m basic. I like to weightlift,” he stated on the time. “I don’t know anything about coding and I don’t intend to because, frankly, it’s pretty boring.”