Cochise County supervisors Peggy Judd, Ann English, and Tom Crosby listen to county officials at a recent board meeting. Photo courtesy of Cochise County
By Caitlin Sievers | AZ Mirror
Cochise County Supervisor Tom Crosby was not protected by legislative immunity when he delayed certification of the 2022 midterm election, an Arizona appeals court ruled earlier this week, upholding a ruling by a lower court.
Crosby now plans to ask the Arizona Supreme Court to reverse that decision, his attorney told the Arizona Mirror.
“We believe the decision is in error and not well grounded in law or fact,” Dennis Wilenchik, the lawyer representing Crosby, wrote in an email.
Crosby and Supervisor Peggy Judd, the two Republican members of the three-member Cochise County Board of Supervisors, were both indicted in 2023 on felony charges of conspiracy and interference with an election officer for their refusal to certify the results of the election by the state-mandated deadline.
Supervisor Ann English, a Democrat, was the only board member who dissented and voted to proceed with the certification before that deadline.
GOP county supervisors across the state faced intense pressure not to certify the election results in 2022 amid unsubstantiated claims by prominent Republican candidates and influencers of election fraud in Maricopa County.
The Cochise County Board of Supervisors only voted to certify the election results after a judge ordered it to do so. Cochise was the only Arizona county to miss the Nov. 28 certification deadline, putting the county’s votes at risk of not being counted. Even after the court order, Crosby refused to attend the certification meeting.
“Crosby himself admitted in his grand jury testimony that he was unaware of any issues with the election results submitted by the Cochise County Elections Department that would justify postponement,” Judge Paul McMurdie wrote in the Dec. 31 decision by the Arizona Court of Appeals.
