Idaho GOP: Security was ‘clearly identified,’ ‘professional’

“Is this your deputy?” 

That was one of the many questions asked by an Idaho woman before she was forcibly grabbed, picked up, dragged and removed from a chaotic legislative town hall event in Coeur d’Alene on Feb. 22 by four unidentified men dressed in plain clothes.

In widely circulated videos that have garnered international attention, Teresa Borrenpohl was seated in the Coeur d’Alene High School auditorium as she pointed at a man dressed in gray pants, a plain black zip-up and an earpiece. Borrenpohl asked Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris if the unknown man worked for him.

Norris didn’t answer her. 

And despite continual pleas from the Post Falls resident and others in the crowd, none of the men identified themselves as they dragged her body across the floor and out of the crowd, with Norris at one point saying that it “doesn’t matter” who the men are, according to footage reviewed by the Idaho Statesman.

The Idaho Republican Party announced Friday its support for the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee. It’s the first time the state’s Republican Party has addressed the high-profile incident since it occurred nearly two weeks ago. 

In a statement, the organization said newly released police bodycam footage and videos from the event provided a clearer picture of what transpired, adding that the security personnel were “professional and clearly identified.”

“The Idaho Republican Party condemns the heckler’s veto as an assault on reason, not a defense of rights,” the state’s Republican Party said in a news release. “Choices matter, and some have questioned the KCRCC’s actions without addressing the conduct that necessitated them — clarity requires both sides of the story.” 

“The KCRCC has carried this burden with resolve, and we stand with them,” the news release added.

But video footage posted by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee doesn’t show any of the security guards wearing uniforms or items that visibly identify them as security. And under the city of Coeur d’Alene’s code, they were expected to be easily identifiable as security guards.

In the summer of 2024, the Coeur d’Alene City Council amended its municipal code to better regulate the licensing of security agents — including adding language that requires security agents to wear uniforms that clearly state “security” on the front and back of their uniforms. 

The men who detained Borrenpohl were later identified by the Coeur d’Alene Police Department as employees of Lear Asset Management, a private security firm that operates throughout the northwest.

But none of the men who detained Borrenpohl — which included Lear Asset Management CEO Paul Trouette — wore uniforms that identified them as security agents. The other men were identified as Christofer Berg, Jesse Jones and Alexander Trouette, according to the Coeur d’Alene Press. 

All the men were wearing green or dark pants with zip-up jackets, but none of their jackets bore security labels, though one man’s jacket had Velcro attached to it on the front and arm where a patch could have been placed.

Trouette, of Hayden, told the Coeur d’Alene City Council when members voted last year to amend the city code that his company’s uniforms have “giant patches” on the back of their uniforms and lettering on the front that identify employees as security, according to a recording of a city council meeting reviewed by the Statesman. 

“It’s very large, very bold,” Trouette said.

Lear Asset Management didn’t respond to a request for comment or several questions sent by the Statesman via email. 

Borrenpohl — who has since hired an attorney — told an officer with the Coeur d’Alene Police Department following the detainment that none of the men identified themselves and refused to tell her who they were, according to footage posted by the KCRCC.

“As far as I’m concerned, I have random men accosting me in a public space,” Borrenpohl told the officer, though the officer later told her that the men did identify themselves but that Borrenpohl didn’t hear them. 

Since then, city leaders have quickly responded to the incident: Coeur d’Alene police announced they were investigating the incident. The city’s prosecuting attorney’s office moved to dismiss a citation for battery against Borrenpohl. And Lear Asset Management? 

The city of Coeur d’Alene revoked its business license for violating the city’s municipal code. Coeur d’Alene Police Sgt. Jared Reneau told the Statesman in a phone interview that specifically the men’s uniforms were in violation because they weren’t identifiable as security.

“That’s a big problem for us,” he said. 

There were some other problems, including the guards’ failure to notify the Coeur d’Alene Police Department about Borrenpohl’s alleged crime, Reneau added. He said that if the agents believed she was trespassing because she didn’t leave the event when asked, the men could have called the police before doing anything, and officers could have intervened if needed.

Coeur d’Alene High School, which is north of downtown, is within the city’s police department’s jurisdiction and not the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office. While sheriffs have jurisdiction over the entire county, typically anything within a city falls to the corresponding police department, and the sheriff’s office will respond if asked. Despite this, Norris — who directed members of Lear Asset Management to remove Borrenpohl — told the Coeur d’Alene Press that it wasn’t the Coeur d’Alene Police Department’s place to intervene in the incident.

“They don’t have jurisdiction,” he told the Press. “They would not have come into a private event held at the high school, and the person who secures the location gets to set the protocols of what occurs.” 

The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office wasn’t involved in the event, according to a news release from the agency. Kootenai County Lt. Jeff Howard said in a phone interview that the reason Norris was in attendance was because he’d been asked by the event organizers to lead the Pledge of Allegiance.

There will be an outside independent investigation to decide whether Norris violated any agency polices, Howard told the Statesman, adding that the investigation was prompted since there has “been a lot of outcry” over the way Borrenpohl was removed. Norris requested the investigation, Howard added.

 It’s not yet known who will handle the outside investigation, but Howard said it would fall to a neighboring law enforcement agency aside from the Coeur d’Alene Police Department since they are handling the criminal investigation.

Howard said it’s not uncommon for private security to detain someone, but it becomes a problem “when it gets out of hand.”

“That’s why we have all these other investigations going on,” he said.

Private security doesn’t have special privileges 

“There’s no real difference” between a private security officer and a private citizen, Duke Law Professor Ben Grunwald told the Statesman, though he said specifics can vary state by state, and some states might give security officers more authority.

“Don’t take that to mean that private security officers don’t have real power,” Grunwald said. “This is kind of a not-so-well-known fact, but private citizens actually have a fair amount of powers that are a little bit like what police officers can do.”

“In a lot of states, private citizens have the right to a citizen’s arrest,” he added. “That is the thing that we sometimes see on TV, or maybe it doesn’t seem like a real thing — but it is a real thing.” 

This is the case in Idaho. Private security agents aren’t given special privileges, and under state law, they have the same rights as private citizens: the ability to make a citizen’s arrest.

Under Idaho law, a private citizen can arrest someone when a public offense was committed or attempted in their presence or when someone has committed a felony in or out of their presence, and the citizen has reasonable cause to believe the person committed the crime. 

This doesn’t include misdemeanor-level crimes that happened outside of someone’s presence, as police aren’t even able to arrest someone for those types of crimes unless they saw it happen or they have a warrant, according to a 2019 Idaho Supreme Court ruling.

In the case of a citizen’s arrest, Grunwald said a private citizen can use a reasonable amount of force to restrain someone until law enforcement arrives, but if that citizen ends up being wrong about whether the other individual committed a crime, that citizen might be exposing themselves to a lot more liability. 

“Speaking broadly in very big general terms, they are exposing themselves to more potential liability than police, either through criminal sanctions or civil sanctions,” Grunwald said.

Citizens should ‘feel safe’ at public events, Coeur d’Alene School District says 

The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, in a statement, said it informed the town hall’s attendees that the event was a private event and that any disruptors would be asked to leave. People were heard cheering or jeering during the event, and the KCRCC said Borrenpohl interjected seven times.

“The First Amendment does not protect the right to interfere with others’ freedoms, and Borrenpohl’s behavior crossed this line,” the committee said in a statement. They added that she has disrupted other meetings and alleged that her actions align with a “broader pattern” of Democrats targeting similar events. 

In one video that starts just before the incident begins, the event’s emcee, Ed Bejarana, reprimanded people for speaking out.

“You folks who are just popping off with stupid remarks, you are not taking into account the people sitting next to you,” Bejarana said onstage in the video. “There’s a bunch of people that came here to hear them.” 

Borrenpohl then yelled multiple times over him from the crowd and asked, “Is this a town hall or a lecture?” The video then pans to Norris, who leaned across the aisle, gesturing at Borrenpohl to come with him. Various attendees can be heard clapping or booing while Bejarana is in the background saying, “Get them out.” 

“If you can’t be civil, then get out,” he added.

Norris then turned toward the stage before going back to Borrenpohl and telling her to “Get up or be arrested,” the video showed. It’s unclear in the video whether Norris ever told Borrenpohl what she’d be arrested for, but when Coeur d’Alene police officers arrived, he requested that she be arrested for trespassing, the Coeur d’Alene Press reported.

“We respectfully informed the sheriff that, since this was an open to the public event, we are not going to arrest anyone for trespassing,” Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White told the Press. “That would be inappropriate.” 

White told the Press that it’s not appropriate to forcefully remove someone from a town hall for speaking out of turn, adding that they have to “respect everybody’s First Amendment rights, regardless of what side of the aisle you happen to sit on.”

Body camera footage posted on Facebook by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, though, showed the Coeur d’Alene police officer who initially cited Borrenpohl inform her that they could have charged her for trespassing or disorderly conduct. 

“We were able to kind of talk the sheriff off the ledge a little bit,” the officer told Borrenpohl, according to the footage.

Coeur d’Alene Mayor Woody McEvers, along with the city’s council members, backed the chief, stating in a news release that the city’s leaders have had a “long history of strongly supporting human rights, civil rights and dignity for all.” The Coeur d’Alene School District — which signed off on the event — chimed in, stating that it “unequivocally condemns any action or rhetoric that denies” someone their constitutional rights. 

“Any person attending a public event in a public building should feel safe and able to participate without fear of being verbally or physically disrespected, assaulted or mistreated,” the district said in a news release.

The Coeur d’Alene School District said its schools are open to community groups to hold public events, and officials granted the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee’s request to host the February town hall. But the district added in the release that “at no point” was the event represented to them as a private meeting and that if it had been, the request would’ve been denied.

“The behavior displayed at the town hall does not align with the district’s expectations for respectful and constructive public discourse,” the release said. “Additionally, the conduct of many adults at the meeting does not model productive civil engagement for our students, our community, our state and beyond.”