Six men who forcibly removed a woman from a Republican town hall meeting have been hit with a string of charges, following the chaotic incident in northern Idaho.
Paul Trouette, Russell Dunne, Christofer Berg and Jesse Jones are all charged with misdemeanor battery, false imprisonment, and violations of security agent duties and uniform requirements, according to the Coeur d’Alene City Prosecutor’s office.
Alex Trouette, is charged with security agent duties and uniform violations.
All five of the men are linked to the private security firm Lear Asset Management, which had its license revoked by the city after the town hall, The Associated Press reported.
The sixth man, Michael Keller, is not associated with the security firm, but is also charged with misdemeanor battery, the prosecutor’s office said. The office declined to comment further on the charges.
It comes after the incident in February, where a female protester – Teresa Borrenpohl – was pulled from her seat, wrestled to the ground and dragged out of a packed auditorium by the unidentified men.
The men were also in plain clothes and refused to identify themselves at her request.
Borrenpohl, a former Democrat nominee for state office, was asked to leave the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee meeting at Coeur d’Alene High School after she and other activists heckled state GOP lawmakers on stage about several bills working their way through the state’s legislature.
She told the Couer d’Alene/Post Falls Press that she had been “seized” after speaking out against state Representative Ron Mendive.
Borrenpohl has since moved to file a $5 million lawsuit against the six men and the county sheriff, claiming her constitutional rights had been violated.
“Town halls are intended to foster conversation and discourse across the aisle, which is why I am deeply alarmed that private security dragged me out of the public meeting for simply exercising my fundamental right of free speech,” Borrenpohl said in a statement shared with NBC News.
In footage of the incident that circulated at the time, Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris – wearing jeans and a baseball cap – can be heard telling “Please get up, or you will be escorted out.”
“Who the f*** are you?,” Borrenpohl repeatedly asked Norris as he filmed the encounter in the background, later stating she had not recognized him because of his attire and the lighting in the room.
After the incident, Kootenai County Undersheriff Brett Nelson released a statement saying the agency would undergo a “complete and independent investigation of the incident conducted by an outside agency.”