Private Security Officers Charged After Unruly Town Hall Incident

Prosecutors from the city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, filed criminal charges against five people associated with a private security firm stemming from incidents at a 22 February legislative town hall meeting where a protester was forcibly removed.

News reports described a scene where the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee (KCRCC) hosted the region’s state representatives and senators in a legislative town hall at the city’s high school auditorium in which numerous members of the crowd of around 450 people interrupted the legislators with shouts, taunts, and accusations.

Approximately one hour into the session, Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris told Teresa Borrenpohl, who had heckled the speakers, to leave. After repeated orders for her to leave, Norris signaled for assistance, and several men associated with private security firm Lear Asset Management, including CEO Paul Trouette, forcibly removed Borrenpohl. She did not leave willingly.

There are several videos of the incident, including this one:

A police report said that Trouette and three other individuals associated with Lear have been charged with misdemeanor battery, false imprisonment, security agent uniform violations, and security agent duties violations. A fourth person affiliated with Lear only faces the uniform and duties violation charges.

In the wake of the incident, the City of Coeur d’Alene revoked Lear’s business license for allegedly violating city ordinances that require security agents to wear clearly marked uniforms. The security officers at the KCRCC event were dressed in green tactical pants and black tactical shirts.

In the police report, Coeur d’Alene Police Detective Daniel Haley said he investigated and could not determine if there was a signed contract between Lear Asset Management and either the high school or the KCRCC. The school resource officer did provide Haley with a document titled “Legislative Town Hall and Security Advance.” From the report: “An excerpt from the Roles and Responsibilities section of the plan: ‘Warn those who are disruptive in the meeting to cease, or they will be removed or (sic) the direction of the Chair.’”

Brent Regan, chair of the KCRCC, told The New York Times after the incident that the committee had arranged for extra security because of a bomb threat to one of the legislators, but that the security firm had volunteered its services and was not hired by the committee.

There is some question about whether the event was public or private. The notice in the local paper described the event as a town hall and did not mention needing to register or be invited. However, the KCRCC said the event was private, an assertion that Trouette reiterated to Security Management. “It was a private meeting in a private venue set by a moderator for a specific purpose,” he told Security Management.

“To  the extent that the party has reserved the space, it does get a degree of control over the space and can ask people to leave,” Richard Seamon, a law professor at the University of Idaho, told a local news outlet. “If they don’t leave after being asked, they may be subject to trespassing laws that can be enforced by police.”

Trouette declined to address other specifics about the incident, citing the ongoing legal case. He did warn that the case could have a chilling effect on private security.

“This event could define the nature and future of private security,” he says. “It’s lawfare. When security does everything 100 percent by-the-book, including having law enforcement summon us.”

He formed Lear Asset Management in 2012 to handle “niche clients” that have high risk-management profiles.

“I’ve seen an escalation of these kinds of things through the years,” he says. “We’ve worked other contracts on the same type of work, and we’re facing agitators who have a strong playbook. They know how to disrupt things and spin it. It’s something security will need to get ahead of soon. We’ve been doing this kind of work for 10 years and it’s escalating because [society’s] lack of dealing with it. We’ve allowed it to just grow and get larger.”

Trouette told The New York Times via email, “We believe these charges are false and should have never been made.”