Coeur d'Alene defamation trial continues

COEUR d’ALENE — The videographer who edited footage of a drag performer and provided it to a blogger took the stand Wednesday in a defamation trial.

Local videographer Jeremy Lokken testified Wedesday that he recorded the drag performances at the City Park bandshell during the June 2022 Pride in the Park celebration. He later made videos and still images of his recordings available to blogger Summer Bushnell.

Lokken created the edited video that Bushnell later published, featuring Post Falls resident Eric Posey performing in drag. Bushnell claimed that Posey exposed himself to a crowd that included children, though city prosecutors declined to pursue charges because unedited footage of the performance showed no nudity.

Posey is suing Bushnell for defamation.

Lokken testified Wednesday that he saw no nudity when he watched Posey’s performance in real time. But later on, when he pulled still images from the recording, upscaled them by 300% and increased the brightness by more than 50%, he said he believes he saw Posey’s genitals in five frames of video.

At the request of Bushnell’s attorney, Lokken rose from the witness stand and approached a screen where a magnified image of Posey’s performance was displayed. He pointed to a shadow on Posey’s leg, telling jurors he believes a testicle is visible in that spot.

“This does reflect more than what I saw at the park that day,” he said.

Joshua Michel, a forensic examiner for the Spokane firm Roloff Digital Forensics, testified that he examined multiple images and videos created by Lokken. He said upscaling an image by 300% and brightening it significantly can create “artifacts” that do not exist in the original image.

“You tend to get pixelations and you tend to get distortions in an image that aren’t necessarily there when you look at its base value,” he said.

Lokken also acknowledged that he had included footage of children in the edited video that was recorded during a different performance.

“That shot was a reference shot in relation to who was there that day,” he said.

In continued testimony Wednesday morning, Bushnell maintained that she believes she saw “the faint outline of a testicle” in upscaled, brightened still images, though she admitted Tuesday that she never saw the “fully exposed genitals” that she told people were visible.

She also said she didn’t share the unedited footage, which was shown in court and contained no nudity, because she believes it is too graphic for social media.

“I don’t believe it would’ve stayed up,” she said. “I believe it would’ve violated community standards and been taken down.”

Jane Clark, Posey’s friend, took the stand Wednesday. The owner of Clark’s Diamond Jewelers in downtown Coeur d’Alene, she is married to Dr. Sarah Lynch, who was on the North Idaho Pride Alliance’s board of directors in 2022 and is now the executive director.

Clark testified that she met Posey in 2021 at a wedding. They became friends and agreed to entertain together at Pride in the Park in June 2022, with Clark singing “Proud Mary” and Posey and another dancer performing as Tina Turner. Posey performed two other routines in drag that day.

Clark was there when her wife received a call from Coeur d’Alene police, who were trying to reach Posey about allegations of indecent exposure. She said she soon realized the allegations stemmed from Bushnell’s blog, The Bushnell Report.

In the days and weeks that followed, Clark said the allegations snowballed, going from the topic of local online discussions to regional, national and international news.

“I watched as it exploded,” she said.

Clark said she was shocked and dismayed by Bushnell’s claims, as were others who knew Posey.

“We all knew the accusations weren’t true,” she said. “How could someone lie like this?”

She became emotional as she described the “agonizing” waiting period while police investigated the matter.

“The things that people were saying about (Posey) — calling him a pedophile, calling for his death,” she said through tears. “I kept telling him, ‘This is going to get better.’ Unfortunately, that is not what happened.”

Clark said the allegations have had a massive and ongoing impact on Posey, affecting his housing and employment, his mental and physical health, his relationships and even his spirituality.

“I can’t think of any way it hasn’t affected his life or any area of his life that has been protected from this,” she said.

She said Posey’s life has been “on pause” since Bushnell accused him of exposing himself during his performance.

“Imagine going into a job interview or even trying to get a job interview when you Google his name and what comes up is that he’s been falsely accused of a sex crime,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes with a tissue. “How likely do you think he is to get an interview or a call back?”

Clark said Bushnell’s allegations made a permanent mark on Posey’s reputation.

“The sad truth is, for Eric, this isn’t going to go away,” she said. “It will never go away. You cannot undo what is on the internet. There is still a portion of people who will always believe it, no matter what the truth is.”

The trial continues today.