Post Falls blogger testifies in defamation trial

COEUR d’ALENE — A blogger on trial for defamation admitted in court Tuesday that she knew her claims that a drag performer exposed himself to a crowd in City Park were untrue.

In June 2022, Post Falls blogger Summer Bushnell published an edited video of Eric Posey performing in drag at the City Park bandshell. Bushnell claimed Posey had exposed himself to the crowd and called for his arrest, sparking national news coverage and a police investigation. City prosecutors declined to pursue charges, saying there was no evidence Posey committed a crime.

Posey sued Bushnell in September 2022, saying she defamed him.

Wendy J. Olsen, legal counsel for Posey, questioned Bushnell about Facebook messages she sent to multiple friends, including ones in which she references being able to see Posey's genitals in an unedited video.

“And you knew at the time it was false,” Olsen said.

“It was not accurate,” Bushnell replied.

“You knew that at the time,” Olsen said.

“Correct,” Bushnell said.

Bushnell, whose attorney said she is a journalist, said she didn’t seek to identify or interview Posey before publishing content about his performance, nor did she interview anyone else.

“I don’t normally interview people,” she said.

The day of Posey’s performance, June 11, Bushnell posted a video of herself discussing the mass arrest of Patriot Front members near City Park, as well as Posey’s performance.

“Why did no one arrest the man in a dress who flashed his genitalia to minors and people in the crowd?” she said in that video. “No one said anything about it and there’s video. I’m going to put up a blurred video to prove it.”

The next day, Bushnell published a video showing Posey crouching on the stage during his routine. The video slowed down, and a blur appeared over Posey’s pelvis.

The video cut to footage of a group of children watching the stage before cutting back to Posey, showing the same blurred clip of him crouching. Then images of Idaho’s indecent exposure law appeared, highlighted in places.

Bushnell said she received both the edited and unedited footage from local videographer Jeremy Lokken. She confirmed that the clip showing children was taken from a different performance featuring a different musical act and was spliced into the video of Posey’s performance.

Wes Somerton, recently retired from his longtime position as Coeur d’Alene’s chief criminal deputy city attorney, also took the stand Tuesday.

Somerton said city prosecutors reviewed the evidence gathered by police in Posey’s case, including the edited and unedited video. They ultimately determined that Posey had not violated any state or local law and published a news release saying so in July 2022.

“We have, as prosecutors, a duty to file charges if, based on the evidence, we have a good faith basis that we can prove the case,” he said Tuesday. “We have to prove our case at trial. We need to make sure what we’re doing can be supported. Equally, we need to make sure that we’re not filing charges when evidence doesn’t support that.”

After city prosecutors declined to pursue charges, Bushnell urged friends and acquaintances to contact Kootenai County prosecutors about Posey's performance, according to Facebook messages shown in court. One woman told Bushnell she had done so, using four different email addresses.

Posey said in court Tuesday that Bushnell’s allegations are “absolutely not” true and said he was negatively affected by her claims.

“I’ve never been in trouble with the law,” Posey said. “I’m a law-abiding citizen, so to have investigators contacting my personal phone looking for me, I got a little frantic. I got a little nervous. This is North Idaho. We don’t play about our kids. To know that my name was behind this debauchery — I was mad. I’m still mad.”

When Posey agreed to perform at the bandshell for Pride in the Park, he said he also committed to perform at a private, ticketed show two weeks later. The second show was for audiences over the age of 21 and benefited the North Idaho Pride Alliance.

Posey said the private show had to be moved to a different location for safety reasons, due to the “hateful rhetoric” that followed Bushnell’s allegations.

At the show, Posey said he had a panic attack. A witness testified that Posey was visibly nervous when he began his performance and shaking so badly that he fell and had to be helped off the stage. He was unable to finish the performance.

“I knew there was somebody out there that hated me, that didn’t know me, that judged me and I didn’t know if she was out there to do it again,” he said.

Posey said he received death threats as a result of Bushnell’s allegations, still experiences panic attacks and feels unsafe when going out in Coeur d’Alene. 

The image of Posey dancing in a multicolored leotard became the symbol of a political movement against drag shows, Posey said.

“There were flyers of the doctored video all through Coeur d’Alene,” he said. “My face plastered in policies, my face proposed on bills in the very state that I love.”

The trial continues today.