Judicial Order : Courthouse Gets Metal Detector

Unwilling to wait until next week for Los Angeles County to increase courthouse security, judges had a metal detector installed Wednesday in the entryway to the main San Fernando Courthouse building.

A day before, six knives were confiscated at a hearing in the courthouse involving reputed gang members charged with killing a police officer, said Gregg Marcus, supervising judge of San Fernando Municipal Court.

“There’s obviously a need to do something like this,” Marcus said. “I’m pleased to see such quick action.”

The metal detector’s installation, called for by Municipal and Superior Court judges in San Fernando before they heard about the confiscations, came in the wake of a gunfight in a Van Nuys Municipal Court last week in which the assailant was killed and a bailiff wounded.

It also follows a vote Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors to install X-ray units at some courthouses as early as next week and to convene a task force to study courthouse security.

Days of Apprehension

“We decided to have the machine installed the moment we found out from the marshal’s office that it was available,” said Robert D. Fratianne, supervising judge at San Fernando Superior Court. “We sit in these courtrooms, and there are days when we have more than a little apprehension, believe me.”

But Billy Desmond Webb, head deputy district attorney in San Fernando, said that, although he is “all for getting weapons out of the courts,” he does not believe the device will deter anyone who is serious about killing court personnel.

Webb said “serious” assassins will find other ways to get to prosecutors and judges.

The metal detector was in use Wednesday, but no weapons were discovered, authorities said.

Formerly used by deputy marshals to search people entering courtrooms when there was reason to believe a threat existed, the device is not equipped with an X-ray unit, said Lt. Edwin M. Powell, head of the San Fernando branch of the Los Angeles County marshal’s office.

However, small objects such as keys will not trigger the machine’s alarm because the device is set to detect metal objects the size of a small gun, Powell said.

Judges in Van Nuys have postponed a plan to install a metal detector in the Van Nuys Courthouse lobby. The detector in question is so sensitive it would have forced searches of virtually everyone wanting to enter the building, authorities said.

San Fernando Courthouse officials said they have instituted other safety measures, such as blocking the back entrance to the main building at 900 3rd St. and changing the locks to staff corridors. Unannounced searches will be conducted at the courthouse complex’s other building at 919 1st St., they said.

Chiropractor Slain

Last week, armed with an automatic pistol, Jeremey A. Sigmond, a Sepulveda chiropractor, threatened to kill a prosecutor during the courtroom standoff in Van Nuys. A bailiff burst through the door and fatally shot Sigmond during an exchange of gunfire.

On Tuesday, deputy marshals discovered the six knives at the pretrial hearing with a hand-held metal detector, Marcus said.

Thomas Lee Mixon, 19, and Louis Belvin Jr., 18, are charged with murdering Los Angeles Police Officer James H. Pagliotti on June 22. He had been investigating drug dealing in the Sylmar Square area when he was shot.

According to court documents, Mixon told police that he and Belvin are members of the Bloods gang and went to Sylmar to sell drugs.