A security guard who pushed Alaska Dispatch editor Tony Hopfinger into a wall and handcuffed him after a town hall meeting for Senate candidate Joe Miller on Sunday afternoon in Anchorage said he did so because Hopfinger refused to leave a private event.

William Fulton from Dropzone Security Services said Hopfinger should have known from the "Joe Miller for Senate" signs outside Central Junior High School that the town hall meeting -- to which Miller invited citizens on the internet sites Facebook and Twitter -- was a private event.

"They leased it for a private event," said Fulton. "It wasn't a public place." That, he said, gave him the legal authority to tell Hopfinger to leave, then grab him and handcuff him when he didn't do as told.

Hopfinger said he had no idea who Fulton was. The security guard was in a black suit, not a uniform, Hopfinger said, and refused to identify himself.

"He throws me up against the wall," Hopfinger said. "He handcuffs me," and even then Fulton refused to identify himself.

Fulton, who said he has done security for Miller before, has a different version of events. Problems started, he said, because Hopfinger was "getting really pushy with Joe. Joe was trying to get away from him."

Hopfinger agrees with that. He said he was trying to get Miller to answer questions about whether he'd been in danger of being fired from his job as an attorney for the Fairbanks North Star Borough when he quit in 2009. Hopfinger said he kept after the candidate because Miller never told him to get lost, but instead just kept moving away.

A veteran reporter, Hopfinger said he has been in media scrums before, and this seemed like another of those. There was a mob of people. Some were in dark suits like Fulton and others in flannel, he said. Some, Hopfinger said, were telling him to quit pestering Joe with questions, but as a reporter, he had questions he thought needed to be asked.

Fulton said he was watching Hopfinger because the man had "something in his hand."

"It could have been a camera," the guard said. "It could have been a recording device. It could have been an iPhone." When asked, though, Fulton conceded the something in Hopfinger's hand obviously wasn't a weapon.

Hopfinger said he had in his hand a small video camera, called a "Flip." He was trying, he said, to get an on-camera interview with Miller. In the process of following the candidate, Hopfinger added, he was getting pushed into by people who were crowding the hallway.

It was at that point, Fulton said, that Hopfinger "shoulder checked a guy into a locker."

Fulton did not know the name of who was "shoulder checked." It wasn't one of our guys," he said. "It could have been anyone. (But) I saw that shoulder check as being violent."

A pot-bellied and overweight writer, Hopfinger wasn't sure what a "shoulder check" is when asked about it. He said the only person he remembers touching is Fulton. Hopfinger said he put his hand on Fulton's chest to try to push the former soldier back.

"I was being pushed into a lot of people," Hopfinger said. "I used my hand. It all happened in seconds. He said it was a private event. He grabbed me and said, ‘You're under arrest'."

Fulton, according to Hopfinger, next said he was calling the Anchorage Police. Hopfinger told Fulton that would be a good idea. The reporter was held in handcuffs, though others tried to intervene, until the police arrived. Police told Fulton to release the writer. Fulton did not know how long Hopfinger was in cuffs. Hopfinger said it seemed like a long time. He said Fulton left him in the "custody" of people who identified themselves only as "Miller volunteers."

Fulton said that as a security guard he is familiar with state law, and he believes he has the legal authority to police "private events" no matter where might take place. He refused to answer how exactly a member of the public attending Miller's town hall meeting at a public school was supposed to know it was a private event, but said the Joe Miller sign outside was the giveaway.

The meeting was open to the public. There were no names taken at the door. Reporters were not asked to apply for credentials.