Security personnel no longer facing charges related to town hall incident
HAILEY HILL | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 month, 2 weeks AGO
FILE - Teresa Borrenpohl of Post Falls was dragged out of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee's Legislative Town Hall on Feb. 22 after making several remarks against various legislators and initiatives.
HAILEY HILL/Press
COEUR d’ALENE — Charges against four security personnel accused of battery and false imprisonment following a town hall event in February have been dropped.
Court documents signed Dec. 2 in Kootenai County Magistrate Court included dismissal orders for Jesse Jones, Christofer Berg, Alexander Trouette and Russell Dunne.
All four were employed by LEAR Asset Management, a private security firm based in Northern California.
The dismissal signaled a change of course by First District Judge Mayli Walsh, who had initially said during a Nov. 24 hearing that it would not be appropriate for her to dismiss the charges.
“This is really an issue that is ripe for a jury’s determination,” Walsh had said previously.
The men had been charged with battery and false imprisonment, both misdemeanors, after they forcibly removed Post Falls resident Teresa Borrenpohl from the Coeur d’Alene High School auditorium for shouting several times from the audience during the town hall.
They were acting at the direction of Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris.
Borrenpohl’s lawyer was unavailable for comment Friday.
Alexander Trouette also faced charges for violations of the security agent uniform and duties. Berg and Dunne each received citations for violations of security agent uniform requirements and for breaches of security agent duties.
The men had pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Documents pertaining to Jones, Berg and Dunne read in part that “the court having before it the State’s Motion to Dismiss, in which the State makes plain that it has chosen to abandon the prosecution of the defendant without seeking reconsideration of jury instructions it believes ‘erroneous,’ by failing to provide any legal authority for its belief, and for good cause shown.”
LEAR Asset Management owner and CEO Paul J. Trouette still faces four counts of battery, two counts of false imprisonment and two counts of security agent violations, all misdemeanors.
Trouette's jury trial remains scheduled to begin Dec. 15. LEAR Asset Management did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
In Idaho, false imprisonment is punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000. Misdemeanor battery carries a maximum sentence of six months and a fine of up to $1,000.
The dismissal comes several weeks after the Idaho Attorney General’s Office declined to file criminal charges against Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris following an investigation into his actions during the town hall, the Press reported last month.
"The sheriff indisputably had law enforcement jurisdiction at the event held in a high school in Kootenai County," the AG's letter stated.
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