The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

July 9, 2008

Bomb threat clears Mercer County courthouse

Building open today; suspect in custody

By Matt Snyder

MERCER — A one-sentence e-mail on Wednesday afternoon informed Jeff Greenburg that someone had called the courthouse where he works and told people there was a bomb in the building.

“When you see those words in front of you, it sucks the wind out of you for a second,” said Greenburg, the county’s public information director.

The e-mail, part of the county’s emergency protocol, flashed to everyone in the courthouse, telling employees to leave the building immediately.

No one was hurt as a result of the threat that was called in at about 3 p.m. Wednesday, Greenburg said. Evacuation of about 160 employees in the courthouse was swift and orderly. “It was cleared within minutes,” he said.

Sheriff’s deputies and two bomb-sniffing dogs from Mercer and Beaver counties swept the building inside and out, Greenburg said. It was cleared by 5:30 p.m.

Mercer County commissioners stayed on site with evacuated employees after closing the courthouse because it was already late in the day, Greenburg said. The building is open today.

Investigators, meanwhile, traced the call back to its source with the help of the 911 Center, said Mercer County Sheriff Bill Romine. A suspect was arrested by deputies and Hermitage police within an hour of the threat, Greenburg said.

“It was pretty remarkable they were able to track this guy down within an hour,” Greenburg said.

The suspect has not yet been charged, Romine said. His identity and further details will likely be released today, he said.

The courthouse closure forced the cancellation of an evening class for drunken drivers that was rescheduled for 6 p.m. today, Greenburg said.

The last bomb threat against the courthouse was made more than three years ago, on Feb. 22, 2005.

At the time, John “Jerry” Johnson _— a Mercer councilman and former county commissioner who has spent most of his eight decades of life in the shadow of the courthouse — said the incident was the first bomb threat he recalled being made against the building.

“They’re relatively new,” said Mercer County President Judge Francis J. Fornelli. “We have had them at sporadic times over my 26 1/2 years. And we do adapt to them. We take them very seriously.”

In the case of the courthouse, he said evacuation is the only option. “What it does is it simply terminates what’s occurring at that point. There are literally no options.”

If he ever sensed bomb threats were being used to delay courthouse activity, he said off-site locations could be used for proceedings. There is no indication that a bomb threat has ever been used to delay any courthouse activity to date, Fornelli said.

Penalties for anyone convicted of calling in a bomb threat would fit the crime, Fornelli said — which disrupts governmental processes and threatens each employee in the courthouse, all those present for litigation, and residents of Mercer borough.

“It’s a very serious thing and would result in very serious consequences,” he said.

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