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Friday, September 30, 2011

Ind. Courts - Adams County court security a growing concern

So reports J. Swygart in this story dated Sept. 29 in the Decatur Daily Democrat. Some quotes:

The location of a September 16 police standoff in Decatur, during which a Berne man was shot and critically injured by law enforcement authorities outside the Adams County Superior Court building, was not a random one, according to a county jurist.

And the proximity of the incident to the court building on Third Street could force local policy-makers to implement many of the court security measures recommended more than 10 years earlier.

According to initial police reports, on the Friday evening in question Jerry Nussbaum of Berne was found "waving a handgun and speaking in an erratic and angry manner" in front of the court building. Nussbaum was shot by an officer after allegedly raising his gun toward the police.

But Superior Court Judge Pat Miller this week said Nussbaum apparently was at that location for a very specific reason.

"From what I've been told, he said he was there looking for a judge," said Miller. "He was overheard saying he wanted the damned judges to do their damned jobs."

Because the standoff took place near the court building, Miller is required to submit a full report of the incident, including all police reports, to the State Court of Administration. And that report will likely only reinforce something Miller said has been common knowledge for the past decade or more: Security measures are woefully lacking not only at the Superior Court building but at the county courthouse and county Service Complex, as well. * * *

Because of the incident earlier this month outside the superior court, Miller expects another visit from the U.S. Marshal Service "to study my building and the Service Complex" and make additional security suggestions. And what they will find, he said, is the nearly complete absence of any court security measures currently in place.

"We have no guards, no metal detectors, no locked doors, no buzzers ... nothing," said the judge. "If Jerry Nussbaum had come to my building at 4 p.m. instead of 10 p.m., well ... that's a scary thought. We have a lot of security problems here that need to be corrected. I'm just not sure how to do that."

Currently the lone court security measure comes in the form of one police officer who is shared between the superior and circuit courtrooms. That setup, Miller said, is less than ideal. And the September 16 incident outside his court "really drove home the point that things need to change."

But those changes, Miller conceded, will be costly. He has talked with Adams County Circuit Court Judge Frederick Schurger, as well as to judges in neighboring counties and officials at the state level, about the availability of state or federal funding to assist in implementing security updates. He has also talked with Sheriff Shane Rekeweg and Chief Deputy Eric Meyer about possible solutions to the security inadequacies.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 30, 2011 09:55 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts