Court Security

Courthouse’s new security measures add estimated 30 minutes to entrance time

Following criticism by the county sheriff, a Wisconsin courthouse has amped up its security measures. And, as a result, it’s taking longer for those with business to do at the Milwaukee County courthouse to get where they’re going, reports the Journal Sentinel. Even before the security measures, which include removing…

Mar 11, 2013 2:00 PM CDT

Sheriff sends undercover officer to courthouse with gun; she makes it through 6 checkpoints

Saying that he was unable to arrange a meeting with a Wisconsin county executive to discuss court security in the wake of safety concerns raised by a high-profile courthouse shooting in Delaware last month, the Milwaukee County sheriff tried a different approach. Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. sent a female…

Mar 7, 2013 5:38 PM CST

Son of Del. courthouse shooter faces new probation violation charges related to ammo

New probation violation charges have been filed against the son of a man who committed suicide immediately after shooting to death two women at a Wilmington, Del., courthouse last month. David Matusiewicz, 45, is accused in a violation petition filed Tuesday of living in a home in Texas in which…

Mar 7, 2013 5:09 PM CST

Lawyers in courthouse fistfight file dueling lawsuits

Two lawyers involved in a January fight in a West Virginia courthouse have filed dueling lawsuits. Stephen Sean Murphy sued first, naming Scott Radman as a defendant in his Monongalia Circuit Court complaint. However, Radman fired back with a counterclaim alleging that he was the victim in the Marion County…

Mar 6, 2013 10:14 PM CST

Criminal charges dropped against lawyer facing disorderly conduct case over courthouse filing

All charges have been dropped against a suburban Chicago lawyer facing a criminal disorderly conduct case over a filing he attempted to make at the Lake County courthouse in December. Soon after the Dec. 19 incident, a sergeant with the Lake County sheriff’s department said Lee Fainman, 37, had been…

Mar 6, 2013 5:08 PM CST

Suspect in courthouse bomb-threat case faces 4 felonies, is held without bond

A 21-year-old man accused of calling in a courthouse bomb threat from a pay telephone in order to try to avoid his scheduled sentencing that morning in a malicious wounding case is now facing a new case. Devon Tyrell Slaughter is charged with four felonies concerning the Feb. 20 incident,…

Mar 5, 2013 5:45 PM CST

Larry Flynt’s lawyer and others recall March ‘78 shooting near courthouse

No one, of course, would want to be shot by a man armed with a .44 magnum “elephant gun.” But there were a few slight benefits that resulted when he and his client, Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, were attacked on their way back to the Gwinnett County, Ga., courthouse…

Mar 5, 2013 4:21 PM CST

Sequestration puts litigants and court personnel ‘in physical jeopardy,’ ABA says in joint statement

The American Bar Association is joining with two other legal groups to warn that across-the-board budget cuts threaten access to justice and put litigants, court staffers and judges “in physical jeopardy.” ABA President Laurel Bellows signed the statement along with leaders of the American Association for Justice and DRI—The Voice…

Mar 4, 2013 6:38 PM CST

2 cats roam courthouse dome, tasked with scaring pigeons away

Maintenance director Mike Miller used to have to arrange to remove pigeon droppings from in front of the Boone County, Ind., courthouse on a daily basis. Now all he has to worry about is cleaning the kitty litter box. In a creative approach to the pigeon problem, court officials housed…

Mar 1, 2013 5:18 PM CST

Defendants shot deputy at courthouse, escaped in sheriff’s prison transport van, authorities say

An apparent altercation Tuesday among prisoners being held just outside a courtroom in a small town in Alberta, Canada, led to a sheriff’s deputy being shot in the hand and a subsequent escape by two defendants in the sheriff’s prison transport van. The two were soon captured, and no one,…

Feb 28, 2013 4:35 PM CST

Barefoot man accused of firing gun outside courthouse pleads not guilty due to insanity

A man accused of walking barefoot onto the grounds of an Oklahoma courthouse last year and firing a handgun into the air pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity on Monday to various charges he faces as a result of the March 2012 incident, according to Fox 23 News. Andrew…

Feb 26, 2013 7:10 PM CST

Courthouse shooter had prior run-ins with lawyers over family dispute

Thomas Matusiewicz reportedly had anger issues for years before the 68-year-old shot to death his former daughter-in-law, Christine Belford, and a female friend in the lobby of a Wilmington, Del., courthouse earlier this month. The women were there for a hearing in a long-running child-support case involving the shooter’s adult…

Feb 26, 2013 5:05 PM CST

Man arrested at Pa. courthouse is charged with stealing files from Reed Smith

A visitor to a Pennsylvania courthouse was arrested Wednesday after authorities said he behaved in an unusual manner, falsely claimed to be both a law firm intern and an intern for a local judge and was determined to have stolen civil case files from a major law firm in his…

Feb 22, 2013 5:08 PM CST

Courthouse shooter had handwritten death warrant for lawyer who wasn’t there, authorities say

Surveillance footage obtained by the News Journal shows a man who, moments later, shot and killed two women at the county courthouse in Wilmington, Del., walking with his son in a courthouse parking lot on Feb. 11, according to authorities. An earlier Daily Journal article says the son, David Matusiewicz,…

Feb 21, 2013 7:35 PM CST

Court security is hot topic after recent litigation-related attacks

Fatal shootings at or near courthouses, law offices and an elementary school throughout the country in recent weeks and months—as well as a former Los Angeles police officer’s murderous rampage targeted at his attorney and others after what he described as an unfair firing—have focused increased attention on the security…

Feb 21, 2013 7:23 PM CST