A grand jury transcript from a criminal case against a 2020 Superior Court candidate could show that the state's lead investigator in the prosecution of Cochise County Supervisor Tom Crosby is a "liar,'' according to Crosby's attorneys.
In a new filing, Crosby's attorneys are asking for the transcript, which they say could show that William Knuth, a former agent for the Attorney General's Office and lead investigator on Crosby's case, had a history of making false and misleading statements to jurors.
Defense attorneys continue to drill into Knuth's conduct in hopes that undermining his credibility could weaken the case against Crosby, too. If Knuth can't be trusted to relay the truth to jurors, the defense contends, the entire case should be sent back to the state grand jury for a second look.
Crosby was indicted on two felony charges — conspiracy and interference with an election officer — after he and his fellow former Supervisor Peggy Judd voted to delay certification of the 2022 election past the state-mandated deadline.
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Judd entered a plea deal in October 2024, but Crosby is still fighting his two felonies.
His latest effort centers around Knuth, the lead investigator on his case.
Knuth resigned in January after an internal affairs report found he had provided false documentation in a police report and inaccurately reported his time on the clock.
The violations occurred between October 2025 and January 2026, well after Knuth began investigating Crosby. But Crosby's attorneys contend the findings warrant a more in-depth look at Knuth's behavior before the first violation identified in the attorney general's review.
Now, their sights are set on a grand jury transcript from the criminal case against a 2020 candidate for Cochise County Superior Court judge.
In 2021, the state grand jury indicted Sandra Finch Russell, a former county prosecutor, on a perjury charge for attesting on her nomination papers to being a resident of Arizona for seven years, but separately signing and affirming she was a citizen in Georgia in 2016.
Knuth was the lead investigator on the case and served as the sole witness to testify to the state grand jury.
According to grand jury excerpts cited in a motion to remand Russell's case to the grand jury, her attorney, Louis Fidel, said that Knuth testified that Russell had not lived in Cochise County for the required amount of time to run for office, and he told jurors she had only lived in Arizona for three-and-a-half years.
But by that point, the court record had acknowledged that Russell had moved to Cochise County in 2013, though she still owned a residence, kept her voter registration and voted in a primary election in Georgia in 2016.
"From beginning to end, the grand jury presentment was replete with legal and factual errors and other improprieties,'' Fidel wrote in 2022.
The case against Russell was eventually thrown out.
All this now relates to the Crosby case.
In his new motion, Brian Gifford, one of Crosby's attorneys, emphasized to the court that Knuth had failed to acknowledge a "mountain of evidence'' that would have supported Russell's defense to the state grand jury.
And because of that failure, Gifford contends Crosby's defense needs to review the entire state grand jury transcript from Russell's case, citing what he called "new information demonstrating that Knuth is a liar and confirming that he was actively lying and misleading the grand jury.''
Gifford added the information was crucial to prepare his own motion to remand Crosby's charges to the state grand jury.
Beyond the transcript, attorneys for Crosby and the state have agreed to share additional information about Knuth's time at the Attorney General's Office, including his communications, case management, emails, phone logs, computer activities and draft reports from February 2023, when he began his investigation, through his resignation in January.
The state also agreed to provide Knuth's last known address but noted its own attorneys had made "reasonable but unsuccessful'' attempts to locate him and set up an interview.
Beyond Crosby's case, Knuth also served as an investigator on the criminal case against the 2020 alternate presidential electors.
One of the defendants, Tyler Bowyer, chief operating officer of Turning Point Action, asked the court for additional disclosure on Knuth.
The Attorney General's Office dropped that case after a judge ruled that the grand jury that indicted Bowyer, the other "fake electors,'' and associates and attorneys of President Trump had not been provided all the relevant information. The court dismissed the case without prejudice, so Knuth could come up again if and when Attorney General Kris Mayes attempts to bring criminal charges back to the state grand jury.
Richie Taylor, spokesperson for Mayes, declined to comment on the ongoing litigation involving Crosby. The state owes a response to the motion by Crosby's lawyer for the grand jury transcript by Wednesday, Sept. 16.
