Woman dragged out of Kootenai County Republican town hall event in Coeur d’Alene: ‘Please don’t touch me’

Private security dragged out a woman who had been interrupting a Kootenai County Republican Central Committee legislative town hall Saturday as Sheriff Robert Norris stood by, video shows, spurring a disagreement between the sheriff and Coeur d’Alene’s police chief over the First Amendment implications of the incident.

Multiple video recordings of the incident at Coeur d’Alene High School show Teresa Borrenpohl, who ran for Idaho’s House of Representatives in 2024, 2022 and 2020 as a Democrat, seated in the auditorium as boos and cheers erupt around her.

Brent Regan, chair of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, said Borrenpohl  and others had shouted six or seven times as lawmakers spoke, so she received three warnings to stop interrupting.

“At the beginning of the event, I made an announcement we were to maintain decorum and anyone who interrupted or caused a ruckus would be asked to leave,” Regan said, noting her first “catcall” happened during the invocation at the outset.

Video shows Norris eventually approach Borrenpohl, telling her she’ll be arrested if she doesn’t leave the town hall.

“Do you want pepper spray? Let’s go,” Norris said as he pulled Borrenpohl’s hand with one hand and her shoulder with another.

“Please don’t touch me,” the Post Falls resident said as Norris tugged her arm.

Videos show Norris stepping aside and pointing at Borrenpohl and a woman sitting next to her recording the interaction, gesturing to two plain clothes men. Regan identified them as hired private security from LEAR Asset Management Inc.

The above video of the altercation at Saturday’s town hall at Coeur d’Alene High School contains profane language.

The commotion ensued when multiple audience members chanted “free speech, free speech,” as the men confronted Borrenpohl, and event emcee Ed Bejarana stood at a podium on stage speaking over the din on a microphone.

“The reality is, there’s a whole bunch of great things that are happening, the problem is we’ve got a bunch of rabble -rousers who just won’t allow it to be spoken,” Bejarana said. “So the thing is, what I’m doing up here is, I’m simply overtalking you because your voice is meaningless right now.”

Private security didn’t identify themselves to Borrenpohl after she asked multiple times, then refusing to comply with their multiple directives to leave.

Regan said he’d arranged for extra security because of recent online threats made against Rep. Jordan Redman, R-Coeur d’Alene, one of the lawmakers present at the town hall.

Videos show three men wrestling Borrenpohl out of her seat and onto the ground into the aisle, holding her by her feet and shoulders as she lay on her back. She pulls herself again to her seat, where two of the men force a struggling Borrenpohl again to the floor and hold her on her stomach.

“This man is assaulting me,” she shouted, as Norris stood by and recorded the scene on his phone.

They grab her by her hands and drag her into the lobby as a mix of boos and cheers fill the auditorium.

Two Coeur d’Alene police officers later addressed Borrenpohl and the men who dragged her in the lobby, still surrounded by people bearing cellphone cameras.

Regan said an “unfortunate” aspect of the scene is that it caused an 18-minute recess from the town hall, taking away time from constituents looking to hear from and address their elected leaders.

“When the mic was being passed between the various legislators, she would yell out long enough and loud enough to interrupt them,” Regan said.

Borrenpohl declined to comment when reached by phone Sunday afternoon; she later provided a written statement.

“I could never have imagined my right to free speech and my right to assemble could be stripped in such a violent way,” she wrote.

She spoke to the Coeur d’Alene Press on Sunday with her recount of the incident.

Coeur d’Alene police cited and released Borrenpohl for misdemeanor battery because she bit one of the men as they dragged her, she told the Press.

Coeur d’Alene police Chief Lee White told the Press the prosecutor’s office would review the citation after viewing the numerous video recordings capturing the interaction.

White also told the Press he declined to arrest and trespass Borrenpohl from the town hall as Norris requested.

Norris could not be made available for comment Sunday, a spokesman said, but he told the Press his and the security guards’ handling of the interaction was in line with protocol and reactive to Borrenpohl’s disruptions.

White disagreed, telling the Press removal was inappropriate and cited First Amendment freedom of speech rights.

The incident also brewed disagreements on whose jurisdiction Coeur d’Alene High School falls within. Because of the online threats to Redman, police stood outside the event but weren’t made aware of the incident until after security dragged Borrenpohl to the linoleum floor of the lobby. Officers would have responded sooner if they’d been alerted to the chaos, White told the Press.

Norris told the Press it wasn’t the city police department’s jurisdiction, but White disagreed, according to the Coeur d’Alene Press.