Idaho
Records shed light on Idaho man suspected of killing Ada County sheriff’s deputy – East Idaho News
(Idaho Statesman) — It’s been nearly two months since Ada County Sheriff’s Deputy Tobin Bolter was fatally shot following a traffic stop on the Boise Bench, and despite attempts by law enforcement, there’s still no clear public understanding of what motivated the killing.
Documents obtained by the Idaho Statesman showed 65-year-old Dennis Mulqueen, the Boise man suspected of killing Bolter, as a largely nonviolent person who long struggled with an alcohol use disorder and had numerous — but minor — interactions with law enforcement. Court records reviewed by the Statesman showed Mulqueen’s charges dated back to 2007, ranging from open container violations to failing to appear for hearings.
Police have said Bolter was shot and killed by Mulqueen during an April traffic stop on the Boise Bench. Mulqueen was later shot and killed during a confrontation with police.
“I am not proud of my record, but never considered myself truly criminal and have tried to retain some amount of integrity in life,” Mulqueen wrote to a judge in a 2018 letter asking to reduce a theft conviction from the year before. The Statesman obtained the letter through court filings.
Mulqueen said in the letter that he decided to seek treatment by completing a six-month substance use treatment program at Easterseals-Goodwill Behavioral Health in Caldwell. He said he’d been living in recovery for over a year and a half, and struggled to find full-time employment and long-term housing because of his criminal background. The year before, in 2017, he had been convicted of misdemeanor theft by acquiring lost property when police found him with a lost cellphone.
Mulqueen, in the years prior, had struggled with homelessness. Paired with his drinking, he said in the letter, that led him to “numerous conflicts with law enforcement.”
Boise police arrest Mulqueen for DUI
Last year, Mulqueen was arrested again for misdemeanor driving under the influence. He was stopped by a Boise officer just after 10 p.m. Sept. 12, 2023, after he drove through a stop sign at the intersection of West Kootenai and South Owyhee streets and was swerving in the lane, according to a Boise police report provided to the Statesman through the public records process.
Mulqueen was arrested and later booked into the Ada County Jail on several misdemeanor charges after he failed a field sobriety test. Boise Police Officer Garrett Britton in the report said Mulqueen became “increasingly agitated” during the arrest and was “lashing out verbally.”
Later testing showed Mulqueen’s blood alcohol content was at nearly 0.14, well over the legal limit of 0.08, according to an Idaho State Police report provided by Boise police.
The Ada County Sheriff’s Office denied the Statesman’s request for investigative reports regarding Mulqueen, citing an exemption under Idaho’s Public Records Act for ongoing investigations.
Mulqueen’s bail was set at $1,500, and he was released from jail after posting the bond at the end of the month, court records showed. Mulqueen was in and out of jail in the following months after he missed hearings and didn’t check in with the Ada County Sheriff’s Office for alcohol and drug testing as part of the terms of his release.
In December 2023, a second warrant with a $3,000 bond attached to it had been issued for Mulqueen’s arrest after he missed another hearing. He wouldn’t be located again until April, when Bolter attempted to conduct a traffic stop roughly two miles from the initial DUI arrest.
Shooting still under investigation, sheriff’s office says
Shortly before 9 p.m. April 20, Bolter, who worked the night patrol shift, pulled over Mulqueen’s vehicle near Overland Road and South Raymond Street on the Boise Bench. Before Bolter could approach the driver’s-side window of Mulqueen’s vehicle, he was shot in the neck, according to the Ada County Sheriff’s Office and Ada County Coroner’s Office.
It’s unclear why Bolter pulled over Mulqueen, but he had notified dispatch of the misdemeanor warrant. Body-camera footage for the shooting hasn’t been released, and the Sheriff’s Office denied a request to obtain the footage and investigative reports by the Statesman, citing the ongoing investigation.
Bolter was transported to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise after three bystanders called 911 and attempted to stop the bleeding. He died at the hospital roughly 12 hours later.
Mulqueen fled the scene and was found later that night outside a home on South Jackson Street by Boise officers. Boise Police Chief Ron Winegar said they attempted for “quite some time” to apprehend him peacefully, but he fired a gun at officers, prompting Boise Police Officer Joshua Sontag to fire back and shoot Mulqueen.
Mulqueen died hours later from a gunshot wound to the chest, the Coroner’s Office said in a news release.
The Ada County Sheriff’s Office said last week that the investigation was still ongoing and that the agency didn’t have any new information.
Law enforcement investigators are still asking anyone who might have had any interactions with Mulqueen in the days before the shooting or any other information to contact Ada County Dispatch at 208-377-6790.
“We’re angry, and we’re confused, and we’re sad,” Ada County Sheriff Matt Clifford said at a vigil in Star, “but the showing of support from the public has given us so much hope.”
In our Reality Check stories, Idaho Statesman journalists seek to hold the powerful accountable and find answers to critical questions in our community. Read more. Story idea? Tips@idahostatesman.com.
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Idaho
Gov. Little signs bill ending license plate registration stickers in Idaho
Gov. Brad Little has signed House Bill 533, which would remove the need for license plate stickers on Idaho vehicles.
The legislation, introduced earlier this session by Rep. Jon Weber (R) of Boise, eliminates the requirement for registration stickers on Idaho license plates. Weber stated during the bills intorduction that officers can verify the status of license plates without the stickers, potentially saving the state around $300,000.
During the bill’s introduction, some lawmakers argued that it could increase the workload for law enforcement.
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The new law is set to take effect in July.
Idaho
Idaho resolution opposing same-sex marriage advances
For the second year in a row, House lawmakers will consider urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.
The nonbinding resolution, which carries no legal weight, says the decision in Obergefel v. Hodges violates the longstanding religious definition of marriage between one man and one woman.
“The current definition of marriage that allows for same-sex marriages is a defilement of the word marriage,” said Rep. Tony Wisniewski (R-Post Falls), who sponsors the measure.
The resolution further states that the Obergefel decision “arbitrarily and unjustly” rejects the historical definition of marriage.
Idaho voters passed a constitution amendment in 2006 that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, which was invalidated by the Obergefel ruling.
Wisniewski said regulating marriages should be a power left to the states.
Rep. Brent Crane (R-Nampa) agrees.
“If you want to get things … closer to the people with respect to some of these more complex social issues, I think the best place for those things to happen is in the states,” Crane said.
Doing so is a risk, he said.
“You may have states that choose to acknowledge [polyamorous relationships]. You may have states that choose to have relationships between adults and younger children,” Crane said.
Cities in neighboring Oregon and Washington, for example, are considering giving those in polyamorous relationships legal recognition.
But he said that risk is worth it to allow other states that choose to only recognize traditional marriages.
Four lawmakers on the House State Affairs Committee opposed the resolution.
Rep. Erin Bingham (R-Idaho Falls) said she’s tried to balance her own religious beliefs with those of others while considering the measure.
“I do feel like that it is important for us to work together, to find ways to compromise and to live together in peace and mutual respect,” Bingham said.
The resolution now goes to the House floor for consideration.
House lawmakers last year passed a similar measure, but it never received a hearing in a Senate committee.
Copyright 2026 Boise State Public Radio
Idaho
University of Idaho professor awarded $10M after TikTok tarot influencer claimed she ‘ordered’ quadruple murders
A University of Idaho professor won a $10 million judgment after a tarot TikTok influencer publicly pushed false claims that she was behind the savage quadruple slayings of four college students.
A Boise jury in US District Court ordered fortune-telling Texas TikToker Ashley Guillard on Friday to pay $10 million after concluding she falsely accused professor Rebecca Scofield of having a secret romance with one of the four victims and orchestrating their killings, the Idaho Statesman reported.
Following the verdict, Scofield thanked the jury and said she hopes the case sends a clear warning that making “false statements online have consequences in the real world.”
“The murders of the four students on November 13, 2022, were the darkest chapter in our university’s history,” Scofield told Fox News.
“Today’s decision shows that respect and care should always be granted to victims during these tragedies. I am hopeful that this difficult chapter in my life is over, and I can return to a more normal life with my family and the wonderful Moscow community.”
Scofield, the university’s history department chair, filed the lawsuit in December 2022 — just weeks after Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin were brutally stabbed to death at an off-campus rental home in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022.
Guillard began uploading videos to her more than 100,000 TikTok followers in late November 2022, accusing Scofield of a secret relationship with one of the students and claiming she had “ordered” the killings, garnering millions of views across the social media platform.
The complaint states that Scofield had never met the victims and was out of state when the murders occurred.
Even after being served with cease-and-desist letters and after police publicly confirmed Scofield had no connection to the murders, the Houston-based tarot reader continued posting videos, the history professor’s legal team argued.
Guillard doubled down on her accusations against Scofield after being sued, posting a defiant video saying, “I am not stopping,” and challenging why Scofield needed three lawyers to sue her “if she’s so innocent.”
The professor’s legal team argued the defamatory accusations painted her as a criminal and accused her of professional misconduct that could derail her career.
Bryan Kohberger, then studying criminology at Washington State University, pleaded guilty in July 2025 to the quadruple murders in a deal that took the death penalty off the table. He is currently serving four consecutive life sentences in Idaho.
In June 2024, Chief US Magistrate Judge Raymond Patricco found Guillard’s statements legally defamatory, leaving damages to be decided by a jury.
During the damages trial, Scofield described the anguish of seeing her name tied to the murders online, the Idaho Statesman reported.
However, Guillard, acting as her own attorney, insisted her comments were simply beliefs based on tarot card readings.
She claimed to have psychic powers and testified that she relied on tarot cards to try to solve the shocking homicides that shook the rural college town and sparked global attention.
It took jurors less than two hours to return their verdict, the outlet reported.
The jury awarded Scofield $7.5 million in punitive damages in addition to $2.5 million in compensatory damages.
With Post wires
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