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Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Ind. Courts - Tippecanoe County courthouse security still evolving
Two stories today in the Lafayette Journal & Courier on Tippecanoe courthouse security. The first reviews the courthouse bombing eight years ago. Some quotes:
Eight years later, Tippecanoe County magistrate Norris Wang can still feel the humidity in the air, can still smell the diesel fumes and smoke. He still remembers the feeling of relief.The second story is headlined "County courthouse security still evolving.": Some quotes:He was up watching the 11 p.m. news the Sunday night of Aug. 2, 1998, when he first found out that someone had crashed a bomb-laden pickup truck through the Fourth Street doors of the Tippecanoe County Courthouse, lit a fuse and fled.
Wang, the deputy prosecutor who prepared charges in felony cases at that time, had to go downtown to see it for himself.
Into the predawn hours of Monday morning, Aug. 3, 1998, Wang joined dozens of police and fire officials crowded in a conference room at the Lafayette Police Department two blocks away from the courthouse. They brainstormed about who might have been motivated to commit such a crime.
"It never occurred to me that it'd still be unsolved today," Wang said recently.
Investigators suspect the building's sprinkler system put out the fuse before a homemade bomb detonated or ignited several drums of flammable liquids in the bed of the truck.
By all outward appearances, the investigation into the unsuccessful attempt to blow up the courthouse has been stagnant for years. But the legacy of the attack -- the effort to protect the building, its workers and visitors from violence -- is evolving even to this day.
For the past four years, the general public has had to enter the Tippecanoe County Courthouse through the ground-floor entrance off Fourth Street -- the same entrance that a truck bomb rammed in 1998.The attempted bombing and a series of bomb threats to the courthouse that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks led to a series of security upgrades. The most extensive of them involved closing seven of the courthouse's eight entrances.
But the flow of visitors to the courthouse will change later this month, after contractors finish rebuilding the Columbia Street entrance. Workers are installing automated doors and a wheelchair ramp to make the south-facing entrance the point of public access.
Chuck Molter, head courthouse bailiff, said the X-ray machine and metal detectors currently operated by bailiffs at the Fourth Street entrance will be moved to the south entrance. Workers also are installing new, high-tech cameras to help bailiffs stationed at Columbia Street monitor the locked, restricted-use entrances at Third and Fourth streets.
Courthouse employees and local attorneys still will be permitted to enter and exit the building at those doors without going through security by swiping a card.
The Fourth Street access primarily will serve as a prisoner entrance.
The primary purpose of all of the changes is to reduce interaction between the public and jail inmates making court appearances, Molter said.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 2, 2006 08:37 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts