BUTTE CITY, Idaho — Multiple witnesses say the Butte City Mayor pointed a gun at them during a City Council meeting after they brought up issues about cyberbullying from a public official.
Mayor Kevin Turner, 63, was arrested on July 11 and charged with misdemeanor exhibition or use of a deadly weapon.
RELATED | Mayor arrested for allegedly threatening City Council with gun during meeting
Turner was appointed mayor of Butte City in 2024, when the former mayor, Steven Neal, moved out of the area. According to the Butte County Clerk’s office, Turner had been a city councilman since 2012.
Police reports state that during a council meeting, Turner slammed his holstered gun on the table “like a gavel” while attempting to fire City councilman Steven Avery.
As Avery is an elected official, he cannot be fired; he would have to be recalled by voters in an election.
Avery and his wife, Bonnie Jopson, say the police report is not accurate.
“He pulled the gun long before there was ever anything about firing me,” says Avery.
Jopson provided a video to EastIdahoNews.com that she reportedly took during the meeting. The camera was pointed at the ground, but Jopson says you can hear the incident in the footage. Listen to it in the player above.
According to multiple witnesses at the meeting, attendees brought up concerns over a now-deleted Facebook page called Butte City Happenings. It was later reopened and named Butte City Information, where they say rumors, bullying, and false accusations were running rampant among the community of 78 people. That page also no longer appears to exist.
“We went in there to solve a problem and (the mayor) caused one,” says Butte City local Shuree Burgoyne. “I just pray we get our community back, because that’s all we want.”
Multiple locals have told EastIdahoNews.com the Facebook pages, reportedly run by Erica Lange Turner, the mayor’s wife, quickly became a “gossip column”, and many citizens were banned from the page.
Locals say Erica is also the city’s clerk, secretary and treasurer.
Burgoyne says she brought up “this conflict of interest” at the meeting, and believes that prompted Turner to pull his gun out of his pocket and “wave it” while it was still in the holster, before banging it on the table.
“He told me, ‘Do you want to leave? Get out of here.’ And I said, ‘No, I don’t want to leave,'” says Burgoyne. “That’s when he banged his gun on the table and then pointed it at all of us, and told us basically again to leave, and we did.”
Toni Tipton, another local who attended the meeting, says she showed up to “de-escalate” the online situations and try to figure out a peaceful solution.
“We went there to kind of de-escalate and talk to him about some of these issues,” says Tipton. “When Shuree even brought up the idea that it was a conflict of interest for (Erica) to be in control of our funds, (the mayor) went ballistic.”
Multiple locals expressed concern about Butte City’s checks and balances, citing concern about the handling of a recent $500,000 award from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality for drinking water construction funding.
RELATED | Idaho DEQ awards $500,000 to Butte for drinking water construction
“We don’t get to see our checks and balances when we go to the City Council meetings,” says Avery. “We got a ($500,000) grant to do our water system, and (Mayor Turner and Erica Lange Turner) are handling all of that.”
Avery, who’s been on the City Council for nearly four years, says he is considering resigning.
“I’m sick and tired of the trash-talking,” says Avery. “We’ve talked about this before, and (the Facebook page) needs to get squashed.”
Mayor Turner pleaded not guilty on July 14 to misdemeanor exhibition or use of a deadly weapon.
Turner appeared for a pretrial conference on July 24; further court hearings have not yet been scheduled.
EastIdahoNews.com contacted Turner after our first story on the incident, and he declined to comment. We also contacted Erica Lange Turner, who did not respond to our request for comment.
We then contacted Turner’s attorney, John Malek, who did not respond to our request for comment.
We also called the phone number listed for Butte City on its website, but it has seemingly been disconnected.
If convicted, Turner could face up to six months in county jail and a $500 fine.
Though Turner has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.
