COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho – A Kootenai County woman who says she was defamed by the county sheriff during a public meeting is suing him, claiming defamation and the infliction of emotional distress.
Pennie Collinson filed the lawsuit this week against Kootenai County and its sheriff Bob Norris.
Her claims stem from an incident in April at a Kootenai County Republican Party candidate forum in Cataldo.
Collinson says more than 50 people were there to listen to candidates for sheriff and county commissioner.
According to the lawsuit, Collinson was taking pictures of people at the meeting.
Norris was speaking at the meeting and, according to the lawsuit, “making comments about what he had done for the community by removing pornographic books located in the children’s section of the library.”
According to Collinson, Norris asked if there were any minors in the room before talking about oral sex.
The suit claims that Norris pointed at Collinson and said that she likes to give oral sex and photograph child pornography at the library.
Collinson filed a tort claim in July and said that Norris then made public statements and social media posts “to publicly portray Collinson as being an untruthful person.”
She alleges that Norris has launched a campaign to ruin her reputation and intimidate her into not suing.
She specifically points to a post on the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office Facebook page in which a press release on official letterhead discusses the tort claim and mentions that Norris is considering all legal options.
The lawsuit suggests that someone in the county asked that the post be removed, but as of this writing, the post is still online.
Collinson says Norris committed libel/slander/defamation with his comments in the meeting. She said the incident and aftermath has left her feeling pain, suffering and emotional distress.
The lawsuit includes statements from several people who were at the meeting and said they heard Sheriff Norris’s comments.
Norris replied to the lawsuit Wednesday in a news release on Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office letterhead.
He called the lawsuit ‘frivolous’ and said “I will expose the extent of this hoax.”
Norris went on to call the lawsuit “local-level lawfare to create doubt and uncertainty” regarding his character.
4 News Now asked if it was appropriate for the sheriff to respond on county letterhead and with county resources to something that happened when he was appearing as a candidate.
The sheriff’s administrative assistant pointed to the fact that Kootenai County was also named in the lawsuit.
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