An Idaho elected official is accused of holding a woman at knifepoint and stabbing a girl during an altercation with an Ada County family on the Payette River last summer, according to a civil lawsuit the family filed against him and two other men.
Boise County Commissioner Darrell “Lindy” Lindstrom and two others are named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed March 26 in Boise County on behalf of plaintiffs Abby and Treyson Beard, and a minor identified as TB. emotional distress.
Lindstrom did not respond to requests for comment.
According to the lawsuit, the Beards were floating the main Payette River in private rafts on Aug. 23, 2025, when they approached the Parnell Beach Recreation Site, a take-out point about 4 miles north of Horseshoe Bend on Idaho 55.
About a mile from Parnell Beach, a group of men on jet skis began riding near Beard’s Rafts at high speeds, the lawsuit said. The jet ski riders reportedly had open containers of alcohol, and one had two young children on the jet ski.
TB, a minor, “directed gestures” at a group of men “because they were reckless, dangerous and the presence of children was bothersome,” the lawsuit said.
When the family pulled their rafts from the river at Parnell Beach around 7 p.m., the men followed and became aggressive, according to the lawsuit, when one of the defendants and a stranger approached and asked “who they wanted to fight.” The lawsuit states that the stranger pushed Abby to the ground and TB into the water, prompting an unrelated third party, a man named Dylan, to intervene in the physical altercation with the unidentified man.
Tresson filmed an altercation between Dylan and the man, the lawsuit said, during which one of the defendants and an unidentified man allegedly threatened to kill Beards.
Abby Beard then retrieved the “river safety knife,” still in its sheath, from her raft because she feared for her life and the safety of her children, the lawsuit said. He asked the men in the jet ski group to leave the area, which they did. According to the lawsuit, they took the two children on a jet ski to a nearby property before returning with Lindstrom, a third defendant and another unidentified man. The identity of the two unidentified men is still unknown, the lawsuit said.
The men were confrontational when they returned to the beach and asked “who’s going to get it,” the lawsuit said.
“Fearing for her life and the lives of her children, Abby removed the knife from its sheath and brandished the knife in hopes of scaring off the aggressive and confrontational men,” the lawsuit states.
That’s when Lindstrom allegedly grabbed Abby, forced her to the ground, held the now-sheathed knife to her throat and said, “I’m going to f–king kill you, b—h,” the lawsuit said.
TB tried to intervene, the lawsuit said, and Lindstrom stabbed her in the leg, then threw the knife into the river.
At the same time, one of the other defendants punched Treson in the back of the head before beating him, the lawsuit said. The attack resulted in “serious facial and dental injuries requiring medical and dental attention.”
According to the lawsuit, Lindstrom got off Eby, who stood by and saw the bruises and tuberculosis injuries, and again asked the men to leave the area. Meanwhile, others in Beard’s group called for help from the rafting shuttle stop, and a police officer and an ambulance arrived to take Tuberculosis to St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise.
Tuberculosis left “a large slash mark on the outside of her left leg, near her knee, deep into the muscle, two small stab wounds near her knee, and an injury to her hand when she tried to pull the knife away” from Lindstrom, the lawsuit said.
Court documents said the plaintiffs filed police reports but faced “delays and stalls” from Boise County officials before they learned Lindstrom was a Boise County commissioner.
Boise County Sheriff Scott Turner did not respond to a request for comment. Neither man has been charged criminally in connection with the alleged incident.
Boise County Prosecutor Alex Sosa told the Idaho Statesman in an email that the sheriff’s office “has not completed the investigation due to the heavy caseload,” and that his office would refer any case to another county due to a conflict of interest.
The Beards’ attorney, Terry R. Pickens, told the Statesman in a statement that “due to unexplained delays by law enforcement,” his clients “had no option but to initiate a civil action to recover damages.”
“It’s unfortunate that an elected official felt so comfortable engaging in the conduct alleged (and will be proven) in the complaint,” Pickens said. “We are encouraged that the justice system will work and that my clients will prevail with both physical and emotional injuries.”
