Van Nuys Courts Still Shut by Anthrax Scare

The Van Nuys courthouses remained closed Tuesday as health officials worked to confirm that no anthrax biotoxins had been released in either of the buildings, although authorities had said earlier that such a threat Monday was a hoax.

The scare put dozens of court cases on hold for a week and scattered court staff and lawyers across the county. Court officials said the busy courthouses will remain closed today but are expected to reopen Thursday.

It was the fourth anthrax scare for the region in a week. A telephone threat cleared the U.S. Bankruptcy Court building in Warner Center on Friday. Previous threats were received at a Westwood office building and a Riverside school district office. All were hoaxes, authorities said.

“I’d be very surprised” if the deadly spores were discovered in the Van Nuys buildings, said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, head of the county health department.

He said the courthouses were evacuated and samples taken and tested solely as a precautionary measure. People who were in the building were given instructions on decontaminating themselves, their clothing and their belongings on the off chance that the bacteria were present.

“At this point, we haven’t seen anything that has caused us concern,” Fielding said. “We haven’t found any indication of anthrax. But we won’t be sure until tomorrow.”

He said the samples, many of which were taken by swabbing the air conditioning systems, are being cultured to determine whether anthrax spores, which can be deadly if inhaled, were present. The testing takes 48 hours.

Authorities will notify evacuees--who filled out cards with their names and contact information--if the threat is determined to be real, and administer a vaccine and antibiotics, Fielding said.

More than 250 jurors who had been called in for service Monday were told to return to the courthouses Thursday. A judicial emergency was declared, allowing all criminal cases to be put over for a few days without securing waivers from the defendants.

People who had been arrested on suspicion of crimes, who by law must be seen by a judge within 48 hours or be released, were arraigned at the San Fernando courthouse Tuesday. A small crew of deputy district attorneys and deputy public defenders who normally work in Van Nuys were sent to San Fernando to handle the new filings and arraignments Tuesday and today.

Civil cases that would normally be filed in Van Nuys were being accepted in both the San Fernando and downtown Los Angeles courthouses.

John Hoos, a spokesman for the FBI--which had ruled out the presence of anthrax by Monday evening--said he does not believe the threats are the work of a single person, but rather a series of copycat incidents. He said investigators are trying to identify the hoaxers through voice recordings and other means.

Anyone convicted of making such a threat is guilty of terrorism through the use of a weapon of mass destruction, which carries a possible life prison sentence, he said.

“The sad part is that this is costing taxpayers lots of money,” he added. “We take each call out as a serious incident because of the public safety involved.” Los Angeles police have estimated the cost at about $500,000 per incident, to pay for police and fire time, federal investigators, biohazard specialists and other expenses.

In the Friday incident, about 100 people were quarantined at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for eight hours and given antibiotics after an anonymous caller told a court clerk that anthrax had been released into the air conditioning system. Authorities took the more serious step of decontaminating some 20 people each at a Westwood office building and Riverside County school district office after receiving threats there.