A Tale of Two Lawsuits
Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris has been a familiar figure, but he wasn’t nearly as famous as he is now. All it took was widely disseminated footage of a woman being dragged out of a Republican Central Committee event to tell the entire nation what many local citizens already knew. Bob lost control, and mayhem ensued. What has burst upon the national scene is old news for us locals. What’s largely unknown is that it’s happened before and with far less provocation; it’s just that this time, Bob got caught.
It was nearly one year ago, at a town hall meeting in the small community of Cataldo, that Norris, by his own admission, “called out” a woman named Pennie Collinson. That’s one way to put it. Another might be, according to dozens of eye-witnesses, is Norris pointed out a beautifully dressed, quietly observant photographer and announced “That woman likes oral sex and giving blow jobs.”
The ensuing uproar consumed the campaign for Sheriff for months to come.
You Can’t Make This Stuff Up
I didn’t know Pennie when this happened in April of 2024. I hired her the following month for a photography job. She recounted the entire story to me, but I didn’t believe her. I simply could not. No reasonable person, much less a county Sheriff, would conduct themselves with such aberrant accusations in a public setting. The truth became clear when I met several people who witnessed the scene firsthand.
As the citizens of Kootenai County grappled with the dawning knowledge that our Sheriff is a true vulgarian and happily indulges in gross misconduct at will, the denials can be summarized like this: He didn’t do it. Nobody saw him do it. You can’t prove a thing. The old Bart Simpson defense. When it became undeniable that a growing crowd of witnesses was coming forward, the rebuttals changed to “They have a history. She’s driven him crazy for years. She had it coming.”
Bob’s gutter response to the mere presence of a local photographer is easier to comprehend if you know the backstory.
- The year was 2019, there was a meeting of the local Pachyderm club. Pennie was attending to introduce an organization advocating for protection for animals, later named Hank’s Law, after Hank, a dog that was abused to death. Bob Norris walked through, announced who he was and that he was running for Sheriff, and promptly left.
- It was months later that a town hall was held, ostensibly to discuss a proposed Re-Entry Facility for released prisoners but that appeared to be just a veneer for an ‘elect Bob Norris for Sheriff’ campaign event.
- The next encounter was at a local gym where Pennie overheard a group of men talking about a tattoo on the back of Bob’s calf.
They knew Bob was from L.A. and were speculating that he had a Viking tattoo on his calf as a sign of White Supremacy and wanted him to show the tattoo on his leg (the tats are there or the shoulder), and Pennie said she would ask about it. She got on social media and made the query. Bob posted a video, mentioned Pennie, and showed his leg, but only on the side, not the back where the tattoo would be. Shortly thereafter, he deleted the video.
Pennie’s family has lived in Coeur d’Alene since 1972, and for as long as they have lived here, the Aryan Nation organization has been a concern. The family is Jewish. She just wanted to know if she would be safe around Bob.
The Sheriff’s race was hotly contested with three candidates, Richard Whitehead, Kim Edmonton, and Bob Norris. Pennie supported Whitehead and attended events to take photos. She noticed that social media attacks were directed her way.
We need to travel back in time for context. Pennie owned a thriving and recognized business for 23 years, Coeur d’Alene Photography. She was the photographer for Global One News Network, the Events photographer for the Cda Resort, she photographed professional sporting events and for the organizations Wednesday’s Child and The Children’s Village.
This was why, in 2018, a woman named Jennifer Peacock sought her out to photograph a group of people working on animal rights. Soon, Pennie was helping with marketing, and her son designed and hosted the website. They created brochures and began fundraising. Since Pennie was the photographer for the Cda Casino and The Cda Resort, she gained support from people attached to those businesses. She also obtained donations from people involved in the booming real estate market, and funds were pouring in. Yet, as it does every year, tax season rolled around. The Casino was the first donor to ask for the EIN for a write-off. Pennie attempted to get that from Jennifer, who failed to provide it.
Jennifer would never provide the tax ID # and now we know why. Pennie and two others pursued the issue with the IRS and were told it wasn’t a registered 501c3 and she needed to inform the businesses she recruited to warn them of the status. Pennie even went so far as to warn Bob Norris supporters in the Sheriff’s department by private messages on the business page. Norris had been involved with supporting Hank’s Law. You’d think he’d be grateful for the warning bark, but no.
The Thanks You Get
One day Pennie opened her front door for a deputy, a friend of Jennifer Peacock, who was invited inside and gave her a citation for libel for the ‘offense’ of informing people that Hank’s Law was not a non-profit. She was informed she could be arrested and jailed. She hired attorney Craig Zanetti, and the prosecuting attorney dropped the citation. Her attorney told her to take the information to the Sheriff’s department and report felony fraud. They opened an investigation, it even made the paper, which included instructions for people to send their information to the sheriff’s department if they’d given to Hanks Law. It was sound advice, but the Sheriff’s department took no action except for deputies harassing Pennie.
Along with the citation, two different suits were filed for defamation against Pennie. One was filed by Jennifer Peacock, who had the most to lose if her fake charity was exposed as a corporation. The other was the delightful D.R. (I’d provide her name but she’s a difficult creature), with the actual complaint stating Pennie had “agreed with others” in social media postings that were exceedingly unflattering. Jennifer and D.R. are thick as . . . and suffice it to say they worked closely together on Hank’s Law and also the campaign for Bob Norris.
Here’s where it gets sticky. Jennifer and Pennie had another partner in the ‘non-profit. Her name was Janice McCune. The lawsuits were flying around because Jennifer was, well, enjoying the company of Janice McCune’s husband. So Jennifer sued both Pennie and Janice for defamation for 501c3 and for implying she was sexually involved with the irresistible Mr. Balison.
There is thankfully an end to this dismal chapter, and mediation concluded the scrap. Both lawsuits were dropped, and the impression left was that they were filed purely for harassment.
Public Enemy #1
The first few encounters Pennie had with Bob Norris are snoozers. Bob has won the campaign and is now the Sheriff of Kootenai County, holding regular meetings with constituents as any politician does to maintain favor. What follows is a distinct foreshadowing of dragging dissident women out of meetings.
The scene is set at a local restaurant on February 22, 2024. Pennie was there having lunch with a friend, we’ll call her Deanna because that’s her name.
The cast of characters is about to get richer. I’ll be introducing Quincy Franklin, aka thebcpreacher, who is a videographer. The second introduction is County Commissioner Bruce Mattare, a Bob Norris cohort who has been granted the status of Special Deputy.
So, Pennie and Deanna were having lunch in the main section of the restaurant when they spotted Quincy and spoke briefly with him. He was heading to the Meet and Greet for Norris but was unceremoniously tossed out as no video was allowed. Deanna, a person with a proper sense of moral indignation, went to the door of the meeting and asked, “Why did you throw him out? Is it because he’s black?”
Bruce Mattare came out to Deanna and Pennie and invited them into the meeting. Deanna retorted, “I know who you are, and I don’t like you.” His rational response was, “You don’t have to like me. We would like to invite you into this meeting”. The ladies agreed to go in.
There was a Q&A session, yet Pennie’s consistently raised hand was not acknowledged, so as it ended, she approached Bob Norris. He was flanked by Republican maven Terri Seymour and Bruce Mattare. Pennie’s burning question had to do with a brochure created to boost an event called Show Your Proof, which was billed as an opportunity for Bob Norris to defend his reputation, seemingly a never-ending task as his payment to Reputation Defender attests. Pennie perceived it was nothing more than a ruse to attack political opponents. After the lawsuits and pressure from deputies, she was deeply disturbed and said, “You’ve ruined my life, and now you’re at it again. You’re a commissioner; this is wrong. You’re our Sheriff; this is wrong”. She began to cry. In an endearing show of empathy (just kidding), she was asked, “Do you need to be escorted out?”
A waitress, noticing her tearful agitation, offered her a glass of water. Others gathered around her. Special Deputy/ County Commissioner/Norris PR Manager Bruce Mattare approached. She confronted him with the Show Your Proof brochure, and he admitted he “created it with others.”
When the much-touted Show Your Proof event occurred, Quincy attended to obtain video and was blocked by Bruce Mattare’s ever-vigilant wife, who was adamantly opposed to objective exposure.
At this point, Pennie became the enemy. She thought Bob Norris & company were ‘ruining her life’, but it was just getting started.
The Slur Heard ‘Round the World
Two months later, Bob Norris stood with mic in hand and issued the slur heard ’round the world. He asserted that Pennie is obsessed with taking pictures of child porn and then the stunner, that she likes oral sex and giving blow jobs. Pennie was allowed to respond, but this time, someone had turned on their camera, so there is audio and visual evidence of her outraged response. She denounced what he’d said as disgusting, she demanded to know “Did you just call me a pedophile?” then proceeded to explain why she was driven to expose the child porn available in the local library. Her cousin was killed at age 7 by a sexual predator, and Pennie has been a potent child advocate ever since. Bob didn’t take the time to listen. He snapped out, “What’s your question?” Appropriate empathetic responses are not his strong suit.
The Sheriff of Kootenai County has a database of crime records and is now proclaiming that Pennie has criminal proclivities. Did he know he was lying? Did his merry band of sycophants know it was false? The tide of abuse that the Sheriff unleashed was horrifying.
The essence of these posts was repeated for months and gained traction with each re-telling. Such is the power of the office of Sheriff. The offset is in the power of justice; the lawsuit contains the option of including third parties in the course of Discovery, and I can’t wait. The damage done was much more than emotional or relational; Pennie’s 23-year business was in shambles. Her bookings tanked, professional connections dissolved, and her income was all but wiped out.
Even under the social media barrage, it is important to retain the true essence: Pennie lost someone precious to her at a very young age due to a sexual predator. It made her a lifelong advocate for the helpless, so there’s not a dog or child she will not fight to protect.
You’d think it would be sufficient for an elected Sheriff to brand a woman as a sexual deviant, but it doesn’t stop there. The Tort claim was filed, which is how you must proceed when you are suing a government entity. The County decided not to respond, which was their option. Bob decided to up the ante, offering $10,000 as a reward to anyone who could provide recorded proof of his slur. He did this with the time of county employees utilizing county resources to put in the hot seat anyone who stood by their testimony that he had, indeed, verbally sexually assaulted a member of the public. He used the Sheriff’s letterhead and Sheriff’s official social media sites to fight his personal legal battle. It was the use of County resources that caused the suit to be amended and refiled and this isn’t good news for Bob. Result: full-blown lawsuit against Norris and Kootenai County and then amended to pursue relief for his use of County assets to paint anyone who varied from his account as liars and hoaxers.
If Bob were a thoughtful man, he wouldn’t have opened with a Triple-Dog-Dare, of course if he were a deep thinker, he wouldn’t have vented his spleen on Pennie in the first place but now he’s dragged the County into this in full view. It seems he can’t count. He accused a member of the public of being a sexual predator in front of about 60 witnesses.
It’s just a working theory but think about it. What if Bob is actually a moron?
So here we are, the year-in-the-making lawsuit for slander and defamation is proceeding in the court docket with $500,000 as the starting point. The scoffers who said she’d never do it out of fear of a countersuit have (thankfully) been silenced as no countersuit is forthcoming. What is forthcoming is yet more bleeding out of the Kootenai County Taxpayers.
Queue Galactic Lawsuit Number Deux
The opening scene is the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee legislative update town hall meeting on February 22nd. If the organizers didn’t know that rowdy disrupters would be in attendance, then they should have known. As Vince Lombardi said, “The will to win is not nearly so important as the will to prepare to win.” If you don’t understand the plan, you can’t create a counter-plan. This unappealing crew of outraged liberals has demonstrated their craft before, so was there a plan? Because right at the moment, the plan looks to be “How to make Teresa Borrenpohl famous and rich”.
The preferred elements:
- Large public gathering
- Master of Ceremonies with the emotional range and razor wit of your average 6th grader
- Security without badges identifying them as such
- The sheriff was present, not in uniform. Civilian or Incident Commander?
- Agitators with a plan
Adding insult to injury, Bob’s verbal abuse has now escalated into physical assault, and it’s gained national, if not international, attention. I can hear the outrage already: “Cops have to touch people who are getting arrested!” I see your point, but was she arrested by Bob? In California, where Bob acquired his vaunted state-of-the-art law enforcement skills, if you grab someone, put them in restraints and Mirandize them, they are arrested. What is plain as day is that Bob tried to move her up and out of her seat. No dice. So he grabbed her with both hands, then let go and backed off, then he physically engaged yet again, to no avail. In watching the widely available video I was struck by the humiliating ineffectiveness of the Sheriff. He was hands on – hands off . . . hands on – hands off. Who taught him law enforcement technique? Mr. Miyagi??
Within seconds, he bellowed, “You – out of here NOW!” and directed the security team to get her gone. It was not effective containment of someone disrupting a public meeting. Bob has now been cited by Coeur d’Alene Police Department for battery.
The lawsuit for this Charlie Foxtrot has yet to be filed, but the woman dragged out must have a lot of friends because in just a few days her war chest exceeded $300,000. She has now filed a Tort Claim with the Kootenai County Clerk.
If Bob Norris understood the obligations and limitations of law enforcement, now of this would have occurred.
I’ll close with a summation of a recent My Turn opinion piece in our local paper by Bailey O’Neil:
How much longer can we afford leadership that mistakes brutality for strength? Sheriff Norris has proven himself not just unworthy of his office but dangerous to the very citizens he swore to protect. His badge has become not a shield for the vulnerable but a license for the powerful to abuse their authority. He will be known not for the power he wielded but by the trust he betrayed.
Con
