An ongoing criminal case against a Cochise County leader accused of election interference will move forward after a state appeals court threw out a bid to dismiss the charges.
The New Year’s Eve decision means Supervisor Tom Crosby still faces felony counts of conspiracy and interference with an election officer after opting to delay certification of the vote in 2022.
The case is currently set to go to trial in late January — but the appeals fight might not yet be over. Attorney Dennis Wilenchik, who is representing Crosby, said he intends to ask the Arizona Supreme Court to review the issue.
“We believe the decision is in error and not well grounded in law or fact,” he said. “If the court does not accept jurisdiction, then we will have to simply win at trial.”
A spokesperson for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting the case, declined to comment.
Crosby and Supervisor Peggy Judd, both Republicans, voted to delay certification after election conspiracists falsely convinced them the county’s vote-tallying machines weren’t properly certified, according to grand jury documents.
The two wanted a meeting to hear evidence about machines called tabulators. By that time, they had ignored repeated legal advice from the board’s attorneys that their actions were illegal.
They were quickly sued, including by then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs. One lawsuit resulted in a court order to certify the result, which the supervisors ultimately convened to do, though Crosby didn’t show up. They sent their canvass of election results to state officials on Dec. 1 — three days past the Nov. 28 deadline.