An Idaho woman was restrained and removed by an unidentified security force after she expressed her dissent during a town hall meeting hosted by Republican lawmakers over the weekend — a blatant violation of her First Amendment rights, witnesses to the ordeal have said.
Teresa Borrenpohl, a former Democratic candidate for the Idaho state legislature, called out Republican corruption in the middle of the meeting, which featured state legislative GOP lawmakers and was hosted by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee. She has said that although her comments could be viewed as heckling, audience members who were shouting in support of Republicans didn’t face any repercussions.
“Nobody was telling people cheering to stop cheering, but anytime there was a negative reaction, we were scolded,” Borrenpohl told The Idaho Statesman. “I felt comfortable expressing displeasure because people were very openly expressing their appreciation for the legislators there.”
After Borrenpohl singled out a state legislator for stealing “timber from public land” — referring to an incident where a Republican lawmaker wrote a check to the state for market value logs to build his own home — Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris approached her, asking, “Do you want me to pepper spray you?” Borrenpohl said she didn’t recognize the sheriff because he was dressed in street clothes and didn’t otherwise identify himself.
Norris then took Borrenpohl’s arm with both hands and attempted to pull her from her seat. When she refused to leave, Norris turned to a group of plainclothes security personnel and said, “Guys, get her,” according to Borrenpohl.
In response to that order, three security officers approached Borrenpohl, demanding that she leave. The men were not wearing badges, and when Borrenpohl insisted she would stay until they identified themselves, they ripped her out of her seat and dragged her out of the auditorium, to the objection of many in the audience.
Video of the incident has since gone viral on social media.
At one point, Borrenpohl can heard be yelling “Who the fuck are these men?” — but none of the three provide any indication that they’re law enforcement or security hired by county Republicans. Others who witnessed the assault can be heard on the video shouting, “Who are you?” and “They’re hurting her!”
One witness provided a detailed description of the security team’s violent treatment of Borrenpohl:
They came and took her by the arms and pulled her and then took her by her feet and pulled her into the aisle. They laid her face-down on the floor. Two of them were on top of her, holding her down, and then eventually they boosted her up on her feet and dragged her out the door. I was worried about their handling.
Borrenpohl was initially cited with a misdemeanor battery charge after she defended herself from the unidentified security forces. After her arrest made national headlines, the city attorney’s office dismissed the charges.
“They were not very kind to her — it was pretty violent and traumatic,” one witness who was sitting behind Borrenpohl said.
“Nobody knew who these people were that were assaulting her and pulling her away. They would not identify themselves, and nobody would say who they were,” another witness said.
“It was evident that dissent was not being tolerated,” a separate witness explained.
News of the incident comes as Republican lawmakers are facing dissent from frustrated constituents in town hall events across the country. Although this event featured state lawmakers, others have featured voters voicing their opposition to House Republicans allowing Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” to rip through the government’s funds and personal data while conducting mass firings at the federal level.
The men in the video shown dragging Borrenpohl out of the Idaho town hall were eventually identified as workers for the private security company LEAR Asset Management. However, it is still unclear who they were hired by. The Kootenai County Republican Central Committee has refused to say whether they hired LEAR workers, and the sheriff has denied knowing the security personnel — despite ordering them to restrain Borrenpohl.
After the incident sparked national outcry, Kootenai County Undersheriff Brett Nelson said that there will be a “complete and independent investigation of the incident conducted by an outside agency.”
Borrenpohl believes her experience was an alarming violation of free speech rights.
“I think that my civil rights were stripped from me in that moment in a really embarrassing way,” she said. “Admittedly, I spoke out of turn. But do we live in a country where you speak out of turn and the result is three men assaulting a woman?”
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