Coeur d'Alene Man Sentenced for Threatening Town Hall Attendees in 2025

Paul Trouette, owner of Lear Asset Management, will avoid jail time for battering two people at a chaotic legislative town hall inside Coeur d'Alene High School's auditorium if he completes 200 hours of community service within a year. First District Judge Mayli Walsh imposed the conditions Friday after a Kootenai County jury convicted Trouette in December on misdemeanor battery counts against Gregg Johnson and Sarah Forsgren, along with security agent uniform and duties violations.

Walsh sentenced Trouette to 180 days in jail for the battery charges, then suspended all but 10 days. She gave him one year to complete the community service or face the remaining jail time. For the security agent violations, Walsh added 10 days in jail and ordered Trouette to complete 40 hours on the Sheriff's Labor Program by July 9 or serve that time instead. He must also pay $3,000 in fines.

"This just went too far," Walsh told Trouette before handing down the sentence. She said that by completing hundreds of community service hours, Trouette could give back to the community "in a real way" and earn back the trust his actions had damaged. "People should have the expectation that they can be in a public place and not be aggressed," she said.

Before sentencing, Trouette told the court he believed he was acting lawfully under Sheriff Bob Norris's direction when he battered Johnson and Forsgren. He declined to comment afterward.

The convictions stem from the February 22, 2025, town hall organized by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, which drew hundreds of people to the CHS auditorium. Video recordings showed Sheriff Norris approach Teresa Borrenpohl after she spoke out of turn, attempt to pull her from her seat, threaten her with pepper spray, and then direct plainclothes security personnel to remove her. Trouette and three employees of Lear Asset Management provided security at the event on a volunteer basis; no contract existed between the company and the KCRCC.

The six-person jury deliberated for nearly eight hours across a three-day trial before returning a mixed verdict in December. Jurors acquitted Trouette of battery against Borrenpohl, whose removal was captured in a video that circulated widely, and against Ben Stallings, who testified that he paused in the aisle to wait for his visually impaired wife when Trouette and another guard put their hands on him. The jury also found Trouette not guilty on two false-imprisonment counts related to Borrenpohl and Johnson.

"Justice was done," said Ryan Hunter, chief deputy prosecutor for the city of Coeur d'Alene, which filed the misdemeanor charges against Trouette. The Idaho Attorney General's office had previously declined to bring charges against Sheriff Norris, and charges initially filed against other security guards at the event were later dropped.