On February 22, 2025, in a public high school auditorium in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, a woman was dragged — literally — from her seat and thrown out of a Republican town hall meeting. Her crime? Asking questions the sheriff didn’t want to answer. Her punishment? Physical violence, false imprisonment, and humiliation. The perpetrators? A group of unlicensed private security contractors posing as authority figures, now facing criminal charges. And the man who gave the signal? Sheriff Bob Norris.
What happened that night was not a misunderstanding. It was a power play. It was an audition for the type of America some people want to build — where dissent is met not with debate, but with brute force.
WHO WAS DRAGGED
Teresa Borrenpohl is a political organizer, a mother, and a citizen. She showed up to a town hall hosted by the Kootenai County GOP to ask questions. Public questions. In a public building. About public policy.
She didn’t raise a fist. She raised her voice.
In return, three men with no badges, no uniforms, and no right to use force grabbed her by her limbs and hauled her out like she was smuggling a bomb. She screamed for help. People sat silent. Sheriff Bob Norris, standing just feet away, looked on and let it happen — then claimed he didn’t know who they were.
WHO DID THE DRAGGING
Six men are now facing charges. Let’s name them.
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Paul Trouette: CEO of Lear Asset Management — a private security firm with a track record of militarized tactics and zero regard for the law. He’s been charged with battery, false imprisonment, and violating Coeur d’Alene’s security rules. This wasn’t the first time Trouette and his crew acted like they were above the law — just the first time a city finally pushed back.
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Alexander Trouette IV: His presence reeks of nepotism. No badge. No marked uniform. No justification. He’s been charged with multiple violations.
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Christofer Berg: Former city employee turned security enforcer. He knew better. He did it anyway. Now he’s facing the consequences.
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Russell Dunne: Charged with battery and false imprisonment. No license on file. Just muscle and arrogance.
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Jesse Jones: Filmed the whole thing like it was a highlight reel. He didn’t just participate — he documented his own crimes.
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Michael Keller: Not even part of the security team. Just another man who decided that silencing dissent was worth getting violent over. Charged with battery.
They weren’t protecting anyone. They weren’t de-escalating. They were executing an extrajudicial order to silence a woman in a public building — and they did it with swagger, like they expected applause.
WHO GAVE THE SIGNAL
Sheriff Bob Norris was not a passive witness. He was an active participant. When Borrenpohl pushed back on his narrative, he told her to leave. She refused — as was her right in a public forum. So he turned to the private muscle, nodded, and let them take over.
And then, in a move of pure cowardice, he claimed ignorance.
He told reporters the event was private — it wasn’t. He said he didn’t know the men — they were working security at the event he was invited to speak at. He washed his hands of the violence he tacitly approved.
Norris is not just a sheriff. He is a sheriff who wants to be a political enforcer. And in a state like Idaho, where militia sympathizers and far-right groups are embedded in public life, that should terrify everyone.
WHO LET IT HAPPEN
The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee hired Lear Asset Management. They brought private force into a public school. They wanted the optics: men with earpieces, tight polo shirts, silent intimidation. It wasn’t security. It was theater.
Until it became real.
And when the dragging began, no one on stage stopped it. They watched. They allowed it. And afterward, they tried to rewrite the facts — painting Borrenpohl as the aggressor and themselves as victims of “disruption.”
WHY IT MATTERS
This wasn’t just about one woman, one sheriff, or one firm. It’s about a dangerous merging of authoritarian instincts and unchecked power.
The Republican Party in places like North Idaho doesn’t just tolerate intimidation — it contracts it.
They invited private enforcers into a public civic space and tried to call it order. But what we saw that night was not order. It was suppression. And now the perpetrators are being dragged into the light, charged, named, and exposed.
NEXT STEPS
Charges have been filed. Affidavits are incoming. But justice doesn’t end with courtroom procedure. It requires clarity. Accountability. And the courage to call this what it was:
An assault on democracy by men who thought they could get away with it.
They were wrong.
This post has been syndicated from Closer to the Edge, where it was published under this address.