Security at Courts Will Be Boosted

Law enforcement officers Tuesday hauled before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors dozens of guns, ice picks and switch-blade knives that had been seized at two courthouses--evidence enough, they argued, for why detection devices should be installed at every county courthouse.

Though not promised everything they asked for, proponents of improved security left fairly pleased. The board unanimously agreed to convene a task force to study courthouse security problems and to install X-ray units and metal detectors in some of them as an experiment during the next few weeks.

Courtroom security became a hot topic last week when a gun battle erupted in a Van Nuys Municipal courtroom, leaving the perpetrator dead and a bailiff wounded. Armed with an automatic pistol, Jeremey A. Sigmond, a Sepulveda chiropractor, threatened to kill a prosecutor during a courtroom standoff before a bailiff burst through the door and fatally shot him during an exchange of gunfire.

“The situation could have been much much worse,” Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn told the supervisors. “Frankly, it’s time we start thinking about protecting people who are in the courts.

‘Absolute Madness’

“It’s absolute madness to ignore the threat to security,” added the grim-faced city attorney, who sat next to his father, Supervisor Kenneth Hahn during the meeting.

James Hahn was joined by Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner and several Municipal and Superior Court judges who urged the board to find a reliable way to detect visitors who try to slip into the county’s approximately 500 courtrooms with concealed weapons.

“There are an awful lot of crazies out there,” warned Reiner, who noted that threats against his prosecutors were on the increase.

But the arm-twisting did not seem necessary. The board appeared eager to tackle the problem, with three supervisors calling for studies on the feasibility of installing metal detectors and X-ray units at the county’s three dozen courthouses.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich helped dramatize the weapons display in the board chamber. Two sheriff’s deputies placed a large cardboard box on his desk. With the television cameras rolling, Antonovich tilted the box and out spilled dozens of knives, guns and ice picks. The weapons were only a sampling of the weapons that had been confiscated since October at the Compton Courthouse--the only county courthouse where metal detectors and an X-ray machine are used.

“We can’t permit a gun to be held to the court of justice,” Antonovich said.

Wooden Board

The weapons arsenal grew when two federal marshals unveiled a huge wooden board mounted with weapons that had been confiscated from the downtown Federal Courthouse, the only other courthouse in the county with detectors. In 1986, federal marshals seized more than 1,900 weapons by using the devices at the courthouse, Inspector Gilbert Garcia said.

Some courthouses could start getting similar equipment as early as next week, said Richard Dixon, the county’s chief administrative officer. The county hopes to borrow the $40,000 X-ray machines and $4,500 metal detectors from suppliers as an experiment.