Monique Renee Peters – Mendocino County booking photo, and image from Facebook
Friday the 13th was not the best day for a Covelo woman who, along with her husband, has had several run-ins with Mendocino County law enforcement this year.
It was 8:47 that night, according to the Mendocino County Sheriff’s office, that deputies pulled over a 2007 Honda Accord on the 76000 block of Henderson Road, just north of the main part of Covelo. The car had lighting and registration violations. The deputies approached and spoke to the woman driving, who turned out to be Monique Renee Peters. But Mrs. Peters seems to have an aversion to being up front with law enforcement, and gave them a false name.
When the name did not check out, the deputies asked her to step out of the car. She instead stepped on the gas, speeding north up Henderson Road. With the deputies in full pursuit, Peters reached speeds of up to 90 miles per hour through the rural farmlands, and making her way over to Mina Road, headed north into the hills. Her destination was her home on Hulls Valley Road, about 12 miles through sometimes winding roadways in the sparsely populated area.
When she reached her home, she jumped out of the car and headed to the house, deputies in foot pursuit behind her. She went in the front door and out the back, and the deputies saw her toss a backpack away before they finally caught up with her and took her into custody.
The backpack was searched, revealing one and half pounds of bud marijuana, two hypodermic syringes loaded with liquid methamphetamine, a glass meth pipe, and a digital scale, commonly used for weighing drugs. They also were able to finally positively identify her, and found she had a misdemeanor warrant out for possession of a controlled substance.
Monique Peters booking photo from April
Monique Peters had been arrested on Saturday, April 18 of this year at 1:45 am while driving along the Redwood Highway through Ukiah, where she and her husband Byron were living at the time. She was found to be under the influence of a controlled substance, in possession of a controlled substance and paraphernalia, and driving on a suspended license. According to the arrest report, she also tried to destroy the evidence, likely having tossed the drugs out the window when pulled over. She was booked on six misdemeanor charges, while a man in the car with her, Jose Ramirez, also of Ukiah, was cited and released.
Out on bail, Peters failed to show up for her court date, and a warrant was issued. At around midnight Saturday, August 22, she was pulled over, and knowing she was wanted, gave a false name to the officer. She was identified however, and arrested at 12:15 am Sunday for driving with a suspended license, giving false information to an officer, and failure to appear in court.
Byron and Monique Peters on August 16, as he is being taken into custody (Facebook)
According to a post on her Facebook page, she and her husband Byron were both released on bail three days later on Wednesday, August 26. Byron Leonard Peters had been arrested on Sunday, August 16 on the service of a warrant, and charged with being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm. He had been arrested on June 11 this year for carrying a loaded firearm and being a prohibited felon in possession of a firearm.
Byron Peters’ status as a felon likely goes back to his involvement in a family feud that led to a shooting he was charged with in 1995, when he was sixteen years old. The feud was between the Britton family and the Lincoln and Peters families, which led to the deaths of Gene Britton, Leonard Peters, and Sheriff’s Deputy Bob Davis. The story is told in an article from the Anderson Valley Advertiser published in May of this year. In the incident, Byron was charged with shooting into a car belonging to the Brittons, though no one was hurt from his gunfire.
When Monique Peters was arrested last Friday, she was booked into the Mendocino County jail on charges of felony reckless evasion in a vehicle, transportation and possession of marijuana for sales, possession of a controlled substance – methamphetamine, paraphernalia, and for giving false information to an officer. She was held without bail initially, but released on $45,000 bond on Sunday.
