Misunderstanding or Malice? A Legal Battle Brews Over Coeur d’Alene’s Town Hall Clash
By Greg Pruett • May 1, 2025Did a misunderstanding at a town hall in Coeur d’Alene occur right before the chaos started?
On February 22, 2025, the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee held a town hall at a local school. Although the event was private, it was free and open to the public.
At the beginning of the meeting, attendees were warned several times that they could not become disruptive and that they would be removed from the meeting if they did so.
A woman named Teresa Borrenpohl interrupted the speakers multiple times and was eventually removed from the meeting. Borrenpohl has filed a tort claim seeking $5 million in damages from the sheriff and six men who allegedly helped the sheriff remove her from the town hall. A GoFundMe was also started for her, which has raised over $339,000.
Just before Borrenpohl is removed from the meeting, Sheriff Robert Norris tells her that she has to leave because of the disturbances she is causing.
Norris can be seen and heard talking to Borrenpohl in a video, stating,
“My name is Sheriff Norris. I am the sheriff of this county. We’re asking you to leave on video. Please get up or be escorted out.”
Borrenpohl then replied, “escorted out.” However, it is possible that she replied, “escorted out?” Idaho Dispatch contacted Borrenpohl through her Facebook profile to ask for clarification on whether she was making a statement about how she wished to be removed from the meeting or if she was asking him why she was being escorted out.
No matter how Borrenpohl intended to respond to the sheriff, it appears that he took her response as a statement of how she wanted to be removed from the meeting. When Norris heard Borrenpohl’s response, he said,
“Okay, let’s go.”
Norris then walks over and grabs Borrenpohl’s arm, but she refuses to leave her seat. He attempts to stand her up multiple times, telling her to leave. Borrenpohl tells the sheriff not to touch her multiple times, but she does not comply with his order to go.
According to a Coeur d’Alene police department search warrant affidavit, after the sheriff could not remove Borrenpohl from the event, he asked several men to help remove her.
Idaho Dispatch attempted to email Norris to ask what he believed Borrenpohl said at the event and if he took her words as a statement rather than a question; however, the sheriff’s office’s email system did not allow our inquiry to go through.
You can view one of the videos from the event on the KCRCC Facebook page here.
According to body cam footage given to Idaho Dispatch by Casey Whalen, a CPD officer who issued Borrenpohl a misdemeanor battery citation for biting one of the security guards. The officer tells her she could have been charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct. However, the officer tells Borrenpohl that the CPD convinced the sheriff not to charge her.
The charge against Borrenpohl has since been dropped, and the city attorney has charged the men who removed her from the town hall, who were acting under the sheriff’s orders. Six men are facing various charges ranging from battery to false imprisonment to violating city code for uniform violations. Five of the men charged work for a private security firm called LEAR Assett Management.
No charges against the sheriff have been filed at this time.
Several sources, who did not wish to be identified for this article, tell Idaho Dispatch that Borrenpohl’s First Amendment rights ended when she became a disturbance at the event.
Borrenpohl’s attorney, Wendy Olson, told Channel 2 News in Boise,
“Today is the first step in the civil legal system for pursuing justice for Teresa and holding Lear Asset Management and Sheriff Norris responsible for the disturbing events that happened at the town hall event. We have put the county on notice that its public officials intentionally obstructed Teresa’s constitutional rights and physically assaulted her in the process.”
Idaho Dispatch is working on several stories surrounding this incident and will continue to investigate any additional information that comes forward.
Would how Borrenpohl responded or how the sheriff asked have made any difference? Was Borrenpohl set on not moving from her seat, no matter what? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Tags: Coeur d'Alene, Coeur d'Alene Police Department, Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, Lear Asset Management, Sheriff Robert Norris, Teresa Borrenpohl, Town Hall, Wendy Olson
I was at the said town hall, and was seated close to the events described. TB very definitely committed the crime of disturbing the peace, and after having been warned that such would not be tolerated.
Before that, I have personally seen and heard TB’s actions at multiple public meetings of elected officials. She has always behaved as exactly what she is: an Extreme Leftist agitator. I have personally seen her violate public meeting laws on multiple occasions, and generally behave as a total barbarian. She was credibly suspected (with video coverage to support it) of pulling a fire alarm in order to disrupt a North Idaho College trustees’ meeting. The city refused to prosecute her.
Some examples — among many — of her known public behavior: https://kootenaijournal.com/2023/10/26/nic-president-allows-public-to-obstruct-media/ and https://www.idahotribune.org/news/corruption-leaked-nic-security-report-positively-identifies-teresa-borrenpohl-in-fire-alarm-incident-prosecutor-declines-charges
Now the Leftist CDA city council, and its minions, the city attorney and the CDA “police” (read Brownshirts) are emboldened. They got away with flouting the law in that instance, and now they’re pushing the envelope. No longer content with protecting anarchist kooks like TB from prosecution for their crimes, they are trying to prosecute those who want to see those crimes prosecuted.
Give them credit. No Nazi could possibly have done anything so incredibly hypocritical and blatantly evil.
TB is very obviously being protected by the Powers That Should Not Be, who are also attempting to intimidate the good, and use the usual Leftist tactic of lawfare to do so.
I hope those powers are stupid enough to plow ahead. It will only expose them more clearly.
She was in the wrong period! She was disrupting the meeting. She was asked to leave numerous times, yet she refused. It was stated before the meeting that type of behavior would not be tolerated. She’s an adult, she should’ve known better.
Our Sheriff did nothing wrong. Creation of a disturbance in this manner, should have merited an old fashioned hickory headache.
Agreed ! Heck, she should have been beaten to death !
she is a trouble maker where ever she goes. this could have been prevented if the moderator had at the second disruption. said this meeting is over. tell her she is no longer able to attend any of there meetings. reasons being you are to disruptive.