DENVER (KDVR) — Newly released video shows the moments a Colorado elections official was detained and then apparently tried to kick a police officer as she was being accused of blocking investigators executing a search warrant.
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was confronted by police officers this week at a bagel shop in Grand Junction. They were called in for a disturbance on Tuesday morning when investigators with the district attorney’s office were trying to serve a search warrant for an iPad in her possession. Now, Peters is accused of obstructing that search.
Body camera video from one of the officers on the scene shows officers walking in, trying to get access to the iPad. They grab Peters by the bicep to get her away from a man blocking access to the iPad, saying Peters was resisting. They handcuff her, with Peters starting to complain that the cuffs are tight and are leaving marks on her.
At one point, she appears to kick at an officer. According to police documents, she kicked the officer’s Taser and magazine.
They take Peters outside, and Peters becomes irate, demanding police let go of her. “This is like, arrest without cause,” she yells at the officers, who explained they were trying to search her because they were going to arrest her.
Peters is now facing two misdemeanor charges of obstruction of a peace officer and obstruction of government operations. She posted a $500 bond on Thursday.
District Attorney Dan Rubinstein’s office issued a search warrant for “an Apple iPad with a white keyboard case located on or about the person of Tina Peters” on the morning of Feb. 8, KREX reported. The warrant was issued on the grounds that it “would be material evidence in a subsequent criminal prosecution.”
According to the document, Paralegal Haley Gonzalez and Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Mosher noticed that Tina Peters was using an Apple iPad to allegedly record a court hearing in the ongoing case against another clerk employee.