PORT TOWNSEND — Security at the highly accessible, century-old Jefferson County Courthouse came to light again Monday because of a rowdy man and a gardening tool.
County Prosecuting Attorney Scott Rosekrans said the man who had an open trenching tool attached to his backpack came to Rosekrans’ fourth-floor office last week, acted irrationally and vowed to return as he was escorted out by sheriff’s deputies.
“I have spoken to several of the employees who have all expressed concern and fear that he will return,” Rosekrans said in a letter to County Administrator Philip Morley dated Friday.
“I also share their concerns as I noticed a small spade attached to his pack which could, depending upon the manner in which it was wielded, be a deadly weapon.”
His letter came with an incident report from Kim R. Henry, a Prosecuting Attorney’s Office staffer, who wrote:
“The easy access that the public has to this office is unacceptable and unsafe.
“Our office deals with people who have committed serious, often violent, offenses and we need to tight the security.
“I feel unsafe with the situation as it currently exists.”
Rosekrans reiterated his worries about courthouse security Monday at the Jefferson County commissioners meeting in the same courthouse.
But he learned that a tight county budget is an issue.
After the unidentified man confronted Rosekrans and his staffers, two county sheriff’s deputies escorted the man out of the building — but not before Rosekrans saw him point his finger his way and heard him say: “I’ll see you again,” three times in a “threatening voice.”
Rosekrans said that in another incident, a man who had been convicted of threatening to kill people dropped by his office, asking to see him.
“We have had a number of people who have alarmed us up here,” Rosekrans told the commissioners.
Besides the automatic door fronting it off Jefferson Street, the 1892 courthouse has a west entry through which prisoners are brought from the parking lot to the elevator and up to the third floor court.
It also has a north side entrance that is accessible to the disabled.
Only the south side entry has been closed off.
Rosekrans recalled a shooting incident next to his office when he worked in the San Jacinto County, Texas, prosecutors’ office.
“He didn’t want to pay child support, so he shot his girlfriend three times right outside my door,” Rosekrans said.
Joe D’Amico, president of Gardiner-based Security Services Northwest, who has offered his services to the county commissioners several times over the past few years, took another opportunity Monday.
“You do need to have courthouse security,” D’Amico told the commissioners. “Put deputies on the road and hire some contract security.”
County Administrator Philip Morley said there are not only security concerns, but concerns about earthquake damage.
Morley said the county already has to “juggle its goals and with very limited means.”
The courthouse’s security and maintenance to meet safety needs are tempered by the fact that the county’s “capital funding has really dried up,” Morley said.
He urged the commissioners to focus on maintaining capital facilities.
Rosekrans said he would support a single entry with deputies using a metal detector at all times.
“You hate to work in an armed camp, but if it makes it safer . . .” Rosekrans said.
As it is now, a metal detector has only been used at the courthouse in the murder trial of Michael J. Pierce, convicted in 2009 of the murders of Pat and Janice Yarr.
Deputies ran spectators through a metal detector at the entrance to the Superior Court courtroom when the high-profile trial was conducted.
The state reimbursed the county for the extraordinary security measures taken to protect Pierce.
County Court Clerk Ruth Gordon also has called on the county commissioners to become more involved in courthouse security.
Gordon, whose office in was broken into, vandalized and burglarized in September 2009, said she believed a criminal who went through the court system was responsible.
The intruder set two sheets of paper on fire that scorched the side of a cubicle, but the fire quickly extinguished itself.
The intruder also attempted to break into a walk-in safe containing court documents, damaged a courtroom video camera and stole one of two scales from a “Scales of Justice” antique statue in the Superior Court judge’s chamber.
The burglar apparently entered through the ground floor window of Morley’s office, using a rock to break the glass.
The courthouse was also broken into in December 2008.
The attempted burglary was foiled thanks to county workers making a routine check of the courthouse at the time.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
