Walter Lingfield Jr., the 27-year-old man accused of stealing keys to an electronic counting machine from the Maricopa County Election Department last month, has been charged with three additional counts of theft within the past year.
Lingfield pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Maricopa County Superior Court to one count of computer tampering, alleging he stole a key to a vote-counting machine from Maricopa County on June 20 while working as a temporary elections clerk.
In the other incidents, Lingfield was indicted by a grand jury on felony charges of theft and burglary and a misdemeanor charge of trespass.
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Lingfield was arrested on June 21 for allegedly stealing keys to vote-counting machines. Election workers reportedly saw him on security video with the keys in his pocket. Police said they found the keys during a search of his residence.
A few days later, police identified Lingfield as the man. allegedly stolen On June 15, several challenge coins and coasters were stolen from an Arizona senator's desk after entering a restricted area of the Arizona State Senate.
Police said they found challenge coins inside his residence.
Election conspiracy theorists, who have challenged the legitimacy of Maricopa County's election since Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, quickly began spreading the theory that the two instances of theft were part of a conspiracy. Some sort of planned conspiracy To interfere with the primary election scheduled for July 30th.
Lingfield previously worked as a volunteer for Democratic campaigns and filed a letter of intent to run for U.S. Senate as a Democrat last year, according to Maricopa County Sheriff Russ Skinner. Said There is no evidence that the crime was politically motivated or that anyone else was involved.
After Lingfield was arrested for the theft of computer keys, a Phoenix Police investigative analyst recognized his photo in a news report as a man police were searching for in a theft that occurred May 20 at the Phoenix Art Museum.
In that case, Lingfield On suspicion $9,500 worth of vintage jewelry was stolen from the Lingfield Museum during a private event. No one realized the jewelry was missing until two days later, and police later released Lingfield security camera footage and asked for help in identifying the jewelry.
Police also allege that a car driven by the man who allegedly stole the jewels that day at the museum matched a car owned by Lingfield, and that tennis shoes worn by the suspect were also found at Lingfield's home.
At the time of those thefts, Lingfield was enrolled in a diversion program following a felony theft of more than $1,000 from a Fry's grocery store in September 2023. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office filed a lawsuit against Lingfield on June 27 after he violated his diversion agreement by allegedly committing new crimes. the court asked Rescind the suspension of prosecutions for grocery store theft cases and resume prosecutions.
According to court documents, Lingfield is unemployed and has no assets, but is living with someone in Phoenix.
On his account on Trump-owned social media platform Truth Social, Lingfield has shared several posts from right-wing news outlets including Gateway Pundit and Newsmax, as well as posts from far-right social media figures.
His account was filled with confusing and hard-to-decipher posts over the past two years, but has since been deleted.
On May 19, 2023, he posted, “Not only am I preparing for the doomsday, I can easily defeat it. Where exactly is the doomsday?”
On July 28, 2023, Lingfield posted, “I will die for my country and state.”
