Court Security

Taking selfie with Lady Justice atop courthouse put man behind bars, sheriff says

Sheriff’s deputies searched a Texas courthouse Tuesday night after a man was spotted by witnesses climbing up an exterior fire escape and then sliding back down. However, it appears that a 19-year-old Baylor University freshman now facing a criminal trespass charge never went inside, Instead, Jack Minrod Decker III is…

Jan 13, 2016 3:00 PM CST

Man gets 18 months for threatening divorce judge in email

A Connecticut man described by supporters as a hardworking, loving father and dedicated community volunteer was sentenced Tuesday to serve 18 months for sending an email that threatened the judge who oversaw his contentious divorce case. After more than a year of home confinement as he awaited the verdict, Edward…

Jan 13, 2016 12:35 PM CST

Millionaire lifer sought $50K contract hit on judge, offered $25K to kill prosecutor, charges allege

Already serving a life sentence imposed earlier this year, a millionaire convicted child molester is now facing new charges in Florida. Loomes Wheeler Jr., 72, is accused of conspiring with a fellow inmate in an effort to hire a hit man, reports the Orlando Sentinel. The alleged targets were Circuit…

Dec 18, 2015 12:25 PM CST

Final defendant sentenced in suburban Chicago courthouse beating gets 3 years

Martell Jones said he was simply in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong group of people. But a suburban Chicago judge on Monday said the evidence showed Jones, now 27, was involved in beating a man outside the Will County Courthouse nearly a year ago. He…

Dec 16, 2015 1:20 PM CST

DA unbuttons suit jacket, then brings down suspect fleeing courthouse

A suspect fleeing down the hallway of an Oklahoma courthouse last week was no match for the local district attorney and at least one fellow lawyer. Oklahoma County DA David Prater coolly unbuttoned his suit jacket, a security video shows, before grabbing Israel Pointer by the leg and holding on.…

Dec 15, 2015 11:05 AM CST

Federal judge ran a mile barefoot to get help after home invasion

A federal judge ran a mile barefoot, in her nightgown, to get help after a Friday night home invasion in which she and her well-known husband were held at gunpoint in their bedroom, according to authorities and a neighbor. U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott only realized her feet were bleeding…

Dec 8, 2015 11:20 AM CST

‘Sovereign citizen’ gets 10 years for bogus liens on federal judge and prosecutor

A Texas man upset about his 2010 conviction and five-year federal prison term in a human smuggling and money laundering conspiracy case made a court filing or two soon after his release last year. That resulted in a new 10-year federal prison term for Tyrone Eugene Jordan on Friday, following…

Dec 7, 2015 2:05 PM CST

Suspicious materials outside courthouse were likely a Santeria hex, authorities say

A investigation by the Rockland County sheriff’s department has determined that suspicious items found outside a New City, New York, courthouse a little over a week ago were not part of a bomb. But authorities said the materials that brought out the bomb squad likely were part of a Santeria…

Dec 7, 2015 5:45 AM CST

Man asks for federal prison time in judge-threat case so he can get mental health treatment

Already serving a five-year South Carolina state prison sentence for threatening the life of a prosecutor, Kashif Quanta Washington asked for, and got, additional federal time for threatening the life of a federal judge. The 11-month federal term imposed Wednesday in the Charleston case will be served consecutively, as Washington’s…

Dec 3, 2015 11:00 AM CST

Man disarmed deputy, committed suicide in courthouse, authorities say

A defendant in a Louisiana courthouse for a status hearing on Tuesday got into a scuffle with deputies, disarmed one and apparently shot himself to death. The shooting occurred at about 2 p.m. at the Morehouse Parish Courthouse in Bastrop, a state police spokesman and Sheriff Mike Tubbs told KNOE.…

Dec 1, 2015 4:55 PM CST

Man gets 10 months for threats in voice mail to federal judge

Sentenced by a federal judge in Hawaii to a 27-month prison term for burglary in 2002, followed by more supervised release time, Julius Hudson completed his sentence in 2007. For some time, he apparently stayed out of trouble. But in February of this year, authorities said, he left a profane…

Dec 1, 2015 4:30 PM CST

Car going ‘way too fast’ crashes outside entrance to federal courthouse

A black car that crashed into a lamppost and flipped onto its roof in front of a federal courthouse in Detroit on Tuesday prompted a response by the Department of Homeland Security as well as courthouse and local law enforcement. The crumpled Oldsmobile that crashed outside the Theodore Levin Courthouse…

Nov 24, 2015 5:00 PM CST

Ex-client guilty of threat to kill lawyer; another man fights case over lawyer face-slap

After less than an hour of deliberation, a federal jury in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Wednesday convicted Leon Houston of threatening to kill his former attorney, James Logan, during a jailhouse conversation with his girlfriend. Houston, who will be sentenced at a later date, had argued that what he said wasn’t…

Nov 19, 2015 4:30 PM CST

Man mistakes courthouse for Hilton hotel, winds up at county jail

An Oklahoma man who said he somehow managed to confuse a Texas courthouse with a Hilton hotel in Waco over the weekend wound up with a bed at the county jail. Harold Anthony Schroeder, 35, was charged with misdemeanor criminal trespass after he was found asleep in a third-floor courtroom…

Nov 17, 2015 11:05 AM CST

Feds secretly bugged courthouse grounds to eavesdrop on private conversations, motion says

Wiring a federal agent or informant would have been legal. But the feds crossed the line by secretly installing microphones in at least three locations outside a California courthouse in 2009 and 2010 and eavesdropping on private conversations, says a motion. It was filed by defendants in a criminal case…

Nov 17, 2015 10:25 AM CST