a man accused of tampering with a voting computing device throughout Colorado's primary election is mentally incompetent and cannot proceed with court docket proceedings, a choose has dominated
ByCOLLEEN SLEVIN associated Press
December 29, 2022, 6:20 PM
DENVER -- a man accused of tampering with a vote casting desktop all over Colorado's simple election is mentally incompetent and cannot continue with court court cases, a decide dominated Thursday.
on the request of Richard Patton's lawyer and prosecutors, choose William Alexander also ordered that Patton undergo outpatient mental fitness remedy in hopes of creating him neatly enough so he may also be prosecuted.
The choose's ruling followed an assessment by an expert who found that Patton turned into mentally incompetent. To be regarded legally ready to proceed, people accused of crimes need to be deemed in a position to be mindful complaints and support of their own defense by way of being able to communicate with their lawyers.
Patton's attorney had requested the contrast however no particulars about why had been released. Patton has no longer been requested to enter a plea yet and the case in opposition t him will not resume until he's found to be equipped.
Patton was arrested Nov. 3 and later charged with tampering with vote casting gadget, which state lawmakers this year made a legal punishable with the aid of up to 3 years in penal complex. It become previously a misdemeanor offense with a penalty of up to 364 days in penitentiary.
based on his arrest affidavit, Patton showed as much as vote in adult on the ultimate day of the simple election, June 28. He made some poll people frightened after asking about what sort of safety there became at the balloting middle on account of threats that had been made towards election workers. An election worker escorted Patton to a voting machine, confirmed him how to use it, and he turned into capable of use it to fill out a polland print out a marked paper ballot to solid, investigators mentioned.
After Patton voted, someone who went to clean the vote casting machine found an error message saying that a USB gadget had been detected, in accordance with the affidavit. other election laborers noted the security seal on the machine became either damaged or had been tampered with and a USB port pulled out, it said.
Patton denied any wrongdoing in an interview with The Pueblo Chieftain in November. He observed he requested help from an election employee when he voted because he's dyslexic and accused the employee of inserting whatever thing into the machine.
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