Tina Peters’ attorneys filed a petition with the Colorado Court of Appeals claiming the January 18 prison incident marked her fifth assault at La Vista Women’s Correctional Facility. The petition seeks Peters’ release from prison on bond while her appeal is pending.
Colorado Department of Corrections told media outlets “no one was injured.”
The sworn court filing states Peters “was assaulted for the fifth time at LaVista Women’s Correctional Facility in Pueblo and placed in solitary confinement.” It identifies the other inmate as a 29-year-old serving six years for aggravated assault. The arrest affidavit filed as an exhibit documents that the assailant previously stabbed her fiancé three times in the back with a knife; an ER doctor certified the wounds could have resulted in death. The assailant “was returned to the prison population” after the January 18 incident while Peters remained isolated.
Exhibits include the assailant’s judgment of conviction, arrest affidavit, Peters’ declaration, and a photograph of bruising.
DOC spokesperson Alondra Gonzalez stated “no one was injured” and Peters “is not in solitary confinement” but was “moved to a different housing area” as “standard safety and security procedure.” The DOC stated “La Vista Correctional Facility does not utilize solitary confinement.”
Peters’ declaration states she was held in the IDO unit from January 18 through January 27 in conditions she describes as solitary confinement: lights on 24 hours a day, two inches of foam on a steel slab.
Surveillance video shows Peters wheeling a cart toward a maintenance closet. Another inmate approaches. After a brief interaction obscured from view, Peters emerges with hands around the other inmate’s neck, pushing her backward. They separate within seconds. Corrections officers then handcuffed Peters and told her she was being charged with assault.
Peters’ sworn declaration tells a different account of the same moment. She states the assailant screamed at her, lunged, and tried to punch her in the face. Peters says she blocked the punch with her left arm, gripped the assailant’s right wrist with her left hand, then extended her right arm to push the assailant backward before disengaging. The declaration states the bruise on her left elbow from the blocked punch was still visible eleven days later.
The incident occurred four days after the Court of Appeals heard oral arguments on Peters’ appeal. Judge Craig Welling told state attorneys during that hearing: “The court cannot punish her for her First Amendment rights.”
The Court of Appeals denied Peters’ first bond request December 6, 2024. Federal Magistrate Judge Scott T. Varholak dismissed her habeas corpus petition December 8, 2025 under the Younger abstention doctrine. Federal courts must abstain from interfering with ongoing state criminal proceedings. The state appeal is Peters’ only remaining path to release.
Attorney Peter Ticktin told Federal Magistrate Judge Varholak in July 2025 that Peters faced danger at La Vista: “She doesn’t know each day if she’s going to survive the next day.”
Neither Peters’ attorneys nor the Colorado Department of Corrections provided details about four alleged prior assaults.
Peters was convicted in 2024 for orchestrating unauthorized access to Mesa County election equipment during a 2021 software update. She is serving eight years and nine months.
Peters’ attorneys submitted exhibits under oath. The Colorado Department of Corrections made public statements to media. The accounts contradict on injuries, confinement, who initiated the assault, and prior assaults. One is false.
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