DEL.ICIO.US4 years after attacks, courthouse lacks security plan
Associated Press
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Fulton County’s courthouse, where a rape defendant killed a judge and three others and escaped four years ago, still doesn’t have a security plan as the law requires.
Three years after lawmakers outraged by the killings in Atlanta’s seat of justice mandated that every sheriff adopt such a plan, sheriffs in as many as 14 counties haven’t done so, according to the state sheriffs’ association.
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The delays worry officials who fear a replay of Brian Nichols’ murderous rampage in 2005, when he wrested a gun from a sheriff’s deputy and killed a judge, a court reporter, a deputy and a federal agent. Nichols was sentenced in December to life without parole.
Former state Sen. Joseph Carter, who sponsored the law requiring the security plans, said he’s particularly unsettled by the lack of one at the vast Fulton County Courthouse, a sprawling downtown complex where thousands of people pass through daily.
“You’d think they would be one of the first,” said Carter, an attorney who says such plans are crucial to ensuring judges’ safety. “It really concerns me. I hope we don’t have another tragedy, but the way to prevent that from happening is to think, to put a plan in place and to make sure changes are in effect to prevent it.”
Concerns about courthouse security spread far beyond Georgia after the rampage, and security officials were reminded of the dangers as recently as March when a murder defendant attacked a judge in Stockton, Calif., with a 6-inch metal blade before being shot to death.
New Fulton County Sheriff Ted Jackson, who took his post in January, said he’s frustrated too. He wouldn’t cast blame on his predecessor, Myron Freeman, but he said he had to start the process over when he came into office.
“We’re going to do it right,” said Jackson, who said he hopes to have a draft completed by month’s end and a final version by July 31. “We’re getting there. To me, a security plan is something that shouldn’t be rushed — especially after a tragedy.”
Freeman didn’t respond to voice mail messages left at a number listed for him.
Seeking to prove they were intent on bolstering security after the shootings, Georgia lawmakers overwhelmingly adopted the legislation in 2006 despite critics who said it wasn’t strong enough. The law doesn’t require specific security measures, nor did it set a deadline for the plans or impose sanctions on officials who don’t comply.
The Georgia Sheriffs’ Association has been tracking compliance. Of Georgia’s 159 counties, 127 counties have established security plans and another 18 are waiting for their plans to be approved by the county’s chief judge, the sheriff’s group told The Associated Press.
It said the remaining 14 sheriffs have yet to indicate whether they have complied with the law, and it refused an AP request to publicly disclose a list of those counties due to security concerns.
“We are not going to identify the counties in question, to avoid causing someone to use violence to test for themselves how prepared those counties actually are,” said Bill Hallsworth of the association’s court services division.
Yet it’s clear through an informal survey that the shootings and other security necessities were a wake-up call for many sheriffs in Georgia’s most populated counties.
Officials in Cobb, Bibb and DeKalb counties said they quickly implemented security plans. In Gwinnett County, Sheriff Butch Conway said he long had been concerned that part of a complex used by administrators had “little security” and he implemented full building security in the year after the rampage.
Changes have ranged from sweeping overhauls of security protocol in some populous counties to simple revisions in rural outposts, down to locking more courthouse doors, said Carter.
Fulton County officials acknowledge they have a daunting task. The sheriff oversees security in three high-rise buildings covering a full city block, a separate juvenile court building and annexes in the north and south of the county. About 3,000 visitors pass through the courthouse each day, and sheriff’s deputies protect its 47 judges.
Jackson, who said he was frustrated the previous sheriff didn’t implement a plan earlier, acknowledged that the responsibility to complete it is his now.
“I don’t dwell on the past,” he said. “We’re going to do it right.”
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