Security guard found guilty in CdA town hall battery case

A Coeur d’Alene jury convicted the leader of a private security team of battery for pushing a woman and removing a man from a Republican town hall in February.

A jury of five men and one woman deliberated for nearly 10 hours Wednesday night and Thursday before reaching a split verdict in Paul Trouette’s case, convicting him of four charges and acquitting him of four others.

Trouette pushed Sarah Forsgren against a wall and took Gregg Johnson out of the auditorium at Coeur d’Alene High School with the help of Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris.

Trouette also was found guilty of two counts of wearing a uniform that didn’t properly identify him as security. He was found not guilty on accusations of battery and false imprisonment for dragging Teresa Borrenpohl from the auditorium. He also was acquitted of battery related to a confrontation with Ben Stallings and of false imprisonment of Johnson.

Coeur d’Alene Chief Deputy City Attorney Ryan Hunter said he believed “justice was done” and the jury’s decisions were carefully made.

“I’d be hard-pressed to say I’m not a little disappointed,” he told reporters. “I’m mostly disappointed for the victims who were named in the not guilty verdicts, but at same time, I respect the jury’s verdict. And I respect it because of the time they clearly put into it. It’s not the ideal outcome, obviously, but it’s a good outcome.”

The charges stem from a Kootenai County Republican Central Committee-hosted town hall meeting that spun out of control and ultimately resulted in security officers hauling out Borrenpohl, a former Democratic candidate for the Idaho House of Representatives, for jeering the emcee on stage.

“There was no care for Teresa Borrenpohl when she was dragged out of that town hall unceremoniously,” Hunter said in closing arguments Wednesday.

Borrenpohl was one of many attendees who cheered or jeered those on stage or each other in the audience.

“I understand a town hall to be a place where the community gathers and interacts with their public officials,” Borrenpohl testified Tuesday.

Borrenpohl said she made a comment about a legislator stealing from public lands. She said the emcee then called her out and directed the audience to give Borrenpohl the attention he said she was seeking.

Multiple videos show Norris telling Borrenpohl to leave, but she declined.

He then asked her if she wanted pepper spray and told her she would be arrested, video shows.

“I recognized this wasn’t going to deescalate,” she said.

Norris grabbed her arm with both hands and attempted to remove her from the town hall. She retorted in the video, “Please, don’t touch me.”

After she did not comply, Norris gestured to two unidentified private security guards in plainclothes and pointed at Borrenpohl. According to video of the incident, Borrenpohl asked, “Who are you?” Norris responded, “It doesn’t matter.” The two men later wrestled her to the ground as she yelled, “Who are these men?” until she was pinned on the floor.

She said the men twisted her arm and grabbed her breast as she kept asking them who they were with no response.

“I was thinking that I wanted to stay in the auditorium as long as possible because these men were so brazenly assaulting me that I didn’t know what they would do if they got me alone,” she said, crying.

She was eventually dragged away on her back, exposing her bra, to the lobby as she used her feet to try to grab onto chairs.

“It was absolutely humiliating,” she said. “I had no liberty in that moment.”

The four men and their supervisor, Trouette, who owns private security company Lear Asset Management, were eventually charged. The state dropped charges against the four employees last week, but Hunter chose to move forward with the trial against Trouette, who is pictured in several photos grabbing Borrenpohl’s feet.

The Idaho Office of the Attorney General cleared Norris of criminal charges.

In closing arguments, the prosecution and defense differed on whether Norris commanded Trouette to escort and detain victims in the town hall.

Josh Hanners, Trouette’s attorney, argued Norris relied on the security team for help and never told them to stop.

“He is obviously accepting of their aid,” Hanners said of Norris.

Hanners declined to comment after the trial.

Hunter argued Norris’ finger pointing could not be construed as a command.

“He was not commanded to do a single thing,” Hunter said of Trouette.

Sentencing has not been scheduled, but Hunter said those hearings are typically set out one to two months after trial.

The maximum punishment each for battery and a city code violation is six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, Hunter said. So, Trouette faces up to two years behind bars and a $4,000 fine.

AG letter complicates trial

Outside of the jury’s presence, attorneys and Kootenai County Magistrate Judge Mayli Walsh had lengthy discussions Tuesday and Wednesday about a letter from the Idaho Office of the Attorney General that cleared Norris of criminal charges related to him making physical contact with Borrenpohl and another man.

Hunter argued the letter, which he said included inaccuracies, would mislead the jury from Trouette’s case and upend the state’s entire case. Hunter said he would have prepared for trial differently, including calling new witnesses and preparing different opening and closing arguments, had he known the letter would be included as evidence at trial.

He called the letter “irrelevant” and a “complete and utter distraction,” in closing arguments.

Hanners argued the state knew the letter existed for over a month.

Walsh ultimately allowed the letter at trial, ruling it was highly relevant, not “unfairly prejudicial,” and should not have come as an “undue surprise” to the prosecution, given its availability since early November.

The six-page letter from Deputy Attorney General Jeff Nye to Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney Stanley Mortensen said he could not prove Norris “acted in bad faith or with malice” at the event.

The letter says Norris was allowed to make physical contact with Borrenpohl to arrest her for potential charges of trespassing and resisting arrest after she refused to leave. Coeur d’Alene police declined Norris’ request to trespass and arrest Borrenpohl.

Borrenpohl was initially cited on suspicion of battery, but the city prosecutor’s office dropped the charge.

Rathdrum Police Chief Dan Haley, a former Coeur d’Alene police detective who investigated the town hall incident, sent his investigative findings to the AG’s office. He was never contacted by the AG’s office about his investigation.

He testified he found out about the AG’s decision regarding Norris from a Kootenai County Republican Central Committee Facebook post. It seemed “out of the ordinary” that the AG’s office never contacted him about the letter.

‘Preserve the peace’

Norris, dressed in his sheriff uniform, said several times during his one-plus-hour testimony Wednesday that he was trying to “preserve the peace,” which is his primary responsibility as sheriff.

He said it’s standard protocol for law enforcement and security to work together at events, and state law says he can ask others to assist him in keeping the peace.

Norris said he initially attended the town hall to lead the Pledge of Allegiance and attend a dance competition afterward. He then learned that someone threatened to kill Idaho State Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, and his family. Redman was scheduled to speak at the town hall.

“That changed my role at the event,” Norris said.

Ryan Gaddy was arrested the morning after the town hall, according to KHQ. Online court records indicate Gaddy has since pleaded guilty to threats against a state elected official, a felony, and given credit for time served, five years probation and 250 hours of community service.

Norris said he briefed Trouette and Brent Regan, chair of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, on the situation, including the description of the suspect and his vehicle.

Norris said he was primarily looking toward the parking lot for the alleged bomb threat suspect, but checked in on the town hall event inside the high school auditorium as well.

The atmosphere in the auditorium started “deteriorating” as people started yelling and using profanities, he said.

The sheriff said Borrenpohl “was acting in a very, very loud and boisterous manner.”

Norris said other people started to yell toward her and the temperature in the room reached a “flashpoint,” and if he didn’t act, something may have “sparked.”

Norris said he asked her “six or seven times” to come outside before telling two security officers to remove her.

Norris said he was “familiar” with Borrenpohl prior to the town hall and that he was “neutral” toward her.

“I know they have a particular political view, but I wouldn’t say I hold any disdain for that,” he said.

Hunter said in closings that Borrenpohl’s “removal from that meeting was almost predetermined.”

Norris said at one point during the incident, he asked the moderator, emcee and legislators to stop talking and go behind the curtain in an effort to restore peace.

He said he and Trouette escorted Johnson, who Norris claimed encouraged Borrenpohl to resist, to the hallway where Norris left him with Trouette.

Norris said he told Trouette that Coeur d’Alene police was on its way and to “handle” Johnson before Norris went back into the auditorium where Borrenpohl was being dragged out.

Johnson, an interior designer, testified Norris spun him around and asked, “Do you want to go to jail?” and then, “You’re out,” without explaining why he was being removed. He said Trouette joined Norris in hauling him to the hallway.

“You would have thought I was a 22-year-old drunk at the Beacon downtown?” Johnson said of the way he was treated.

He said he was held up against the wall with his hands ziptied for several minutes.

Hunter asked whether Norris was a lawyer, to which Norris replied, “No, I make an honest living.”

Norris admitted obscene language and gestures are not law violations, but Norris said his job is to “preserve the peace.” If he had not done anything and the town hall broke into a “melee,” people would have asked why he didn’t do something to prevent that.

Norris said he also considered the “totality” of the situation, including the bomb threat to the local politician, children and elderly people in the audience, and the fact he was the only peace officer there.

When Hunter asked Norris whether he called Coeur d’Alene police about the bomb threat, Norris said, “I was shocked they weren’t there because they were the handling agency of that death threat.”

He said Redman told Coeur d’Alene police he would be at the town hall, and he noticed police in the parking lot at one point. Norris said he knew police were looking for the suspect and felt he didn’t need to coordinate with them.

He said he did not call any deputies to respond and did not call 911, but he asked someone to call 911.

After the incident, Norris said he did not submit a report and did not generate a use-of-force report despite the sheriff’s office’s policy to write the latter. The sheriff’s office said shortly after the town hall that an independent investigation into Norris would be conducted, but Norris testified Wednesday that an internal investigation was never done.

Trouette’s take

Trouette said he developed a connection with the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee over their shared political affiliations and “like-mindedness.”

He was asked a few days before the town hall to potentially provide security at the event. A contract was never signed between his security company and the Republican committee because of the little notice given, so Trouette said he volunteered to provide security.

However, Haley said the unsigned contract simply made Trouette and his men private citizens.

Trouette said he understood Norris’s gestures to remove and detain people. He described the situation as dynamic, fluid and getting out of hand.

“In my estimation, there was never a time where it had to be spoken or some kind of delineation,” Trouette said.

When asked whether Norris told him that anyone was under arrest, Trouette said it was “implied by the nature” of the sheriff trying to keep the peace.

Forsgren, a mental health counselor, testified Trouette pinned her against a wall and grabbed her breasts, she said.

Trouette denied grabbing her breasts and said she was resisting.

She said she fought to get away from him and that Trouette never identified himself, despite her requests.

He then redirected his attention to Borrenpohl and let her go, she said.

“I was shocked and was scared,” Forsgren said.