Courtroom confidence

Is Justice Center secure enought?

Cement barriers outside the Flathead County Justice Center are intended to stop attacks on the building. Foliage was cleared away after 9/11 to remove any hiding places for explosives or bad guys. Security was tightened up.

Actual security inside the building? It's nonexistent, according to some officials, and in the wake of several incidents of recent violence against judges and their families, that's downright worrisome.

The Flathead County Sheriff's Office provides security officers for the courtrooms. But not every hearing is staffed, and visitors are rarely checked for weapons before they enter.

Thursday, a distraught man prowled the hallway of the second floor of the justice center. He wanted to talk to Justice of the Peace David Ortley. He brought a stuffed backpack, from which fishing gear was visible. When a reporter walked past, he was talking about a machine gun. A security officer eventually ushered him out of the building.

Friday, Justice of the Peace Dale Trigg ordered a man's dog destroyed after the dog's third bite victim testified. The owner became hysterical, screaming and crying. He rushed from the courtroom to the animal shelter where he took the dog, in violation of the court's order.

"That's an example of the kind of emotional state that happens with some frequency," Trigg said. "At any time, you never know what they are capable of."

Officials also don't know what visitors are carrying.

There is no metal detector in operation at the justice center.

"I've never walked into a courtroom without going through a metal detector" before coming to Flathead County, Trigg said.

District Judge Ted Lympus has no way to know if anyone is armed in his courtroom, so he is.

He's gotten threatening mail recently from an Aryan Nations member he sentenced years ago.

"I don't think it's wise to blow them off completely," Lympus said.

But, he says, "How I do my job isn't going to be affected by security" or a lack of security.

Sheriff Jim Dupont said his office tries to staff courts with an appropriate number of security officers. About six officers were in court with an alleged militia member once, Dupont said.

The trouble is, trouble is a moving target and the sheriff's office can't staff every courtroom with a wall of security officers.

"In reality, we don't have enough people on the street," Dupont said.

He thinks Montanans have more regard for the law and its representatives than people in some other parts of the country have, which contributes to a safer environment.

"You don't see the disrespect you see in other areas," he said.

That's little comfort to Ortley, who bristles at any argument for safety that begins with, "It's going to cost money and I'm not willing to pay for it."

He doesn't think elaborate video cameras or other expensive surveillance is needed. He'd just like to know that no one can walk into the building with a gun.

An impotent X-ray machine sits in the lobby of the justice center, where visitors enter the sheriff's office or jail or go upstairs to the courts or county attorney's offices. It was donated by the airport after 9/11, but has never been used. Visitors are occasionally scanned for metal with a hand-held wand outside the courtroom doors during high-profile proceedings, but even then, visitors are unchecked until they actually enter the court.

Other courthouses in Montana handle security differently, but none routinely check every person who enters the building. Billings, for example, uses an X-ray machine during high-profile cases, while Great Falls has no permanent security devices. Missoula County has an X-ray machine, metal detector, and hand-held detector, although they aren't used all the time.

According to a Missoula County Sheriff's Department deputy, Lt. Rich Maricelli, safety awareness has to be balanced with the public's right to come and go.

Conversely, no one enters a federal courthouse without passing through a metal detector and having belongings X-rayed, as they are at the federal building in Missoula.

By their nature, courthouses are a concentration of people's conflicts and emotions, Ortley said.

It is where volatile situations go to be resolved. Domestic hostilities, neighbor disputes, tenant and landlord friction, and other civil and criminal allegations are heard.

Statistically, it isn't usually in a criminal proceeding where courtroom violence happens, even though that's what triggered a lethal attack in Atlanta recently, where a judge, sheriff's deputy and court reporter were among the dead.

Lympus said at a judicial college in Reno, he learned that the most dangerous courtroom scenario involves a divorce case and a man who is used to being in control, learning that his visitation with his children is being restricted.

In Flathead County, those types of hearings are not usually heavily guarded by security officers.

Joy Ortiz is the court security officer. She reviews cases in District Court and Justice Court a day in advance and prioritizes where she needs to be, considering whether a subject has been violent in the past. Past behavior isn't always a predictor, though.

"It can go from calm to crazy in five seconds," Ortiz said. Evidence of that is the Joseph Aceto trial three years ago, in which the attempted-murder defendant flew into a rage, frightening a witness and juror into tears before he could be removed from the courtroom.

Ortiz has help from detention officers, but staff shortages and inmate crowding make that an unreliable source of help, long-term.

If Ortiz needs immediate help, she radios to the detention center. If a judge needs help, he connects with a sheriff's dispatcher. Ortiz goes from room to room, but someone who plans an attack doesn't announce it in advance.

Since the Atlanta shootings, Ortiz said, people have told her "they're concerned about me and they're glad I'm here."

Ortley said he's glad to have armed security in his courtroom at times, but he thinks the more logical approach is to make sure that people in the courtroom aren't armed. Security begins long before a shootout starts, he said.

Ortley said he's not just concerned about himself. He believes people who sit in a courtroom as witnesses or spectators have an expectation that they'll be safe there.

He thinks that's reasonable.

"There is no valid reason for not having a secure courtroom," he said.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com