Tina Peters and another inmate involved in "incident" in prison, Colorado Department of Corrections says
Former county clerk Tina Peters and another inmate got in an altercation over the weekend at a Colorado prison where she is serving her sentence. That's according to a Colorado Department of Corrections spokeswoman, who said Peters was moved to a different part of the prison after what they called an "incident."
It happened at the La Vista Correctional Facility in southern Colorado on Sunday. According to Alondra Gonzalez, the department's communications director, no one was hurt. But Peters' legal team said in a statement on social media that there were minor injuries.
Video released by the department showed the aftermath of what Peters' lawyers say was a situation where she was filling a bucket with water in a maintenance closet and another inmate approached her and began striking her. The video shows the two people, both wearing their prison outfits, with arms locked around one another after they came out into a room.
Peters, 70, is currently serving a nine-year sentence at the facility in Pueblo. Staff there reviewed a surveillance recording of the incident and said the moving of the inmate is normal protocol for situations like the one on Sunday.
"Conducting an investigation and moving one or more of the involved inmates to different housing areas pending the investigation is a standard safety and security procedure for any incarcerated person involved in an incident, pending the investigation's results," Gonzalez said.
Two years ago, a Colorado jury convicted Peters on four felony charges and three misdemeanor charges after she orchestrated a deceptive plot to remove elections data in Mesa County.
President Trump has been pressuring Colorado's governor to release Peters. Gov. Jared Polis said he's thinking about clemency in the case.
Three Colorado Court of Appeals judges are currently considering whether Peters should finish out her prison sentence. A hearing on the matter was held last week and it's not known when they will make a ruling.
On the state of Colorado's website, the La Vista Correctional Facility is described as a "multi-custody Level III facility for female inmates."
