Tina Peters grabbed one other inmate’s neck and shoved her throughout a short jail scuffle Sunday evening, in keeping with surveillance footage that seems to contradict claims from Peters’ protection lawyer.
The footage, obtained by JHB on Monday evening, exhibits Peters, an ally of President Donald Trump and former Mesa County clerk, maneuvering a big cart towards a closet by way of an open room. Peters then enters the closet, with the cart on the closet’s entrance. One other inmate, who seems to be carrying cleansing provides, then enters the body and seems to attempt to transfer the cart away from the closet door.
As the opposite lady strikes the cart apart, Peters then emerges from the closet, grabbing the girl and shoving her into the center of the room. Peters has one hand on the girl’s neck and one other on her proper arm, the video exhibits. The 2 then appear to alternate phrases, and Peters shoves her away.
Peters is obscured from video footage when the scuffle first begins. The opposite inmate is seen all through many of the incident, save for a short second the place a part of her proper arm is obscured by the closet door.
Each girls later stroll down a hallway. The video was offered to The Submit in response to a public data request.
In an announcement Monday evening, state Corrections Division spokeswoman Alondra Gonzalez-Garcia confirmed that Peters “was concerned in an incident with one other inmate” Sunday evening. Nobody was injured, she wrote. Nobody has been charged on account of the scuffle, and Peters was moved to a special housing unit within the jail. Neither inmate was positioned in solitary confinement, which isn’t utilized in that facility, Gonzalez-Garcia wrote.
The division continues to be investigating, she mentioned.
The video and the division’s assertion appeared to contradict claims from Peters’ supporters and protection workforce, who alleged in a information launch that the previous clerk was “assaulted” within the closet and that she now faces legal fees consequently. One among Peters’ attorneys, Peter Ticktin, advised Trump ally Steve Bannon on Monday that Peters was attacked “from behind.”
Ticktin didn’t instantly reply to an electronic mail despatched Monday evening.
Peters was sentenced to a mixed 9 years in jail and jail in October 2024. She was convicted of a number of crimes after she offered a 3rd occasion entry to Mesa County’s election methods. Her incarceration has turn out to be a trigger celebre for Trump and conservative allies, who allege that Peters was wrongfully convicted. Trump, who issued a legally doubtful federal pardon for Peters late final 12 months, has repeatedly demanded that Colorado and Gov. Jared Polis launch her. Peters is interesting her conviction, and a state appeals courtroom signaled some skepiticism in regards to the size of her sentence final week.
Polis has mentioned he’s contemplating a request to launch Peters or alter her sentence. He has referred to as her sentence “harsh” and “uncommon.” Pressed by reporters final week, he refused to say if he’s mentioned the case with the Trump administration. He denied that he’d mentioned releasing her as a part of a commerce for restored federal funding or different concerns. A number of state officers — together with Lawyer Normal Phil Weiser, Secretary of State Jena Griswold and a gaggle of county clerks — have requested him to go away Peters’ sentence in place.
A duplicate of Peters’ inmate file, additionally obtained by way of a data request, exhibits she had a combined first 12 months in jail. Between April and July 2025, she acquired 4 write ups, prompting jail officers to reject her utility for a particular unit. Components of the file are redacted, although seen damaging writeups seem like associated to minor points, like loitering or “hiding.”
She advised jail workers in August that she would quickly be launched, in keeping with the file. In December, after officers advised her she wouldn’t be launched to go to her mom within the hospital, she mentioned she deliberate to have “damaging issues” in regards to the jail “plastered throughout social media.”
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