Cochise County Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby. November 28, 2023
Two Cochise County Supervisors who were indicted this week could be barred from holding public office if convicted.
Peggy Judd, the board’s Republican chair, and Tom Crosby, also a Republican and vice-chair have been indicted by a grand jury on two class 5 felonies each relating to conspiracy and interference with an election officer when they delayed the county’s canvass of the general election results past the state’s deadline last year.
Democratic Supervisor Ann English, who voted against delaying the canvass, was not indicted.
Under Arizona law, if convicted, the two supervisors could face a maximum prison sentence of two years for a first-time felony conviction and they would {not be allowed to hold public office or vote](https://www.azleg.gov/ars/13/00904.htm).
A court hearing has been set in Maricopa County in December with a trial tentatively set for May of next year.
Background
The indictments relate to actions the two Republican supervisors took almost exactly one year ago; on November 28, 2022, supervisors Tom Crosby and Peggy Judd did not vote to canvass the 2022 General Election, thereby failing to meet the state’s deadline; instead, Crosby said he wanted to wait until December to allow public comment.
“In the politically liberal viewpoint that may prevail at Melody Lane does not prevail in this county,” said Crosby during the November 28, 2022 meeting.
The delay surrounded doubts about the vote tabulation machines’ accuracy. The Arizona Secretary of State’s Election Services Director at the time assured the board that the machines were certified for accuracy. “The equipment used in Cochise County is properly certified under both federal and state laws and requirements,” said Kori Lorick, who was then Election Services Director for the Secretary of State during the November 18, 2022 Cochise Supervisors meeting. “The claims that the SLI testing labs were not properly accredited are false.”
The state filed a lawsuit against the supervisors for their refusal to canvass the election by the state’s deadline. A judge in December of last year ordered the board to canvass the election results. Judd said during the December emergency meeting called to comply with the judge's order that she did not regret her actions.
“I am a rule of law person but I had statutes in front of me that said something to me,” said Judd at the December 1, 2022 emergency meeting. “And I am not ashamed of anything I did. And today, I feel I must because of a court ruling …I feel like I must follow what the judge did today.”
Crosby did not attend that meeting and did not vote on the matter — leaving the vote to Judd and English, who both voted to approve the election results as the official canvass.
AZPM reached out to all three supervisors for comment, Judd did not respond and English said she does not have a comment.
Crosby sent AZPM a statement from his attorney Dennis Wilenchik who proclaimed Crosby's innocence.
"My response is that my client will be fully vindicated and that this is political partisanship and persecution at its worst. My client is innocent of any charge we know of that can be brought, and he will fully defend himself, and there is no plea in the works I am aware of and none so far even offered. I will review the charges when received since the AG sought to issue this to the press before notifying us," Wilenchik wrote.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes was not immediately available for an interview but said in an emailed statement that "Accountability is crucial in matters concerning our democracy."
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