Guns in the courtroom

I was shocked this morning in Judge Feetterer's courtroom when Woodstock Police Chief Bob Lowen and Deputy Chief Steve Bozer showed up for a civil hearing with their handguns strapped in the holsters on their belts. The Chief and the City's Board of Fire and Police Commissioners were defendants in a request for a temporary restraining order.

I asked the courtroom security officer what the court protocol was for armed persons in the courtroom, and he told me that defendants could not be armed. As he said that, he looked at Ofc. Jim O'Doherty, who was wearing a business suit and was seated next to his attorney.

I pointed out that he was looking at the Plaintiff and that the Defendant in the case was seated in the spectator seating and armed. I asked him to confer with the judge about whether the judge would allow an armed defendant in his courtroom. I don't know whether he did, but nothing was said when court began.

It was just a year ago that Woodstock Police Officer Sandra Valle was suspended for seven days without pay by the Woodstock Board of Fire and Police Commissioners for showing up at the courthouse court in uniform and armed. She was there on a personal matter involving her son that was scheduled before the time she was to appear, according to the Northwest Herald, "in another court case that morning on behalf of the city."

At the time prosecutor Greg Barry, of Zukowski, Rogers, Flood, and, McArdle, which is the law firm that is contracted as City Attorney by the City of Woodstock, was quoted in a Northwest Herald article on April 3, 2007, as saying, "I felt very pressured and nervous. She was a police officer, and my prior experience was that you take some direction from police officers because they are our clients."

Now, first of all, what kind of statement is that? It doesn't even make any sense. Does he mean that a police officer tells the prosecuting attorney how he is going to conduct himself in court, and he'd better do what she said because she was armed? Was he worried that Sandra was going to whip out her pistol and beat him over the head with it? Or shoot him?

Let me hasten to say that I do not know Sandra and, to my knowledge, have never spoken with her.

But let's get back to guns in the courtroom...

Should Jeff Burke of the FOP or Ofc. O'Doherty have complained to the judge that they were nervous, worried, feeling pressured with an armed defendant sitting near them in a civil trial. I wonder what Judge Feetterer would have said about that.

Thirty years ago in Arapahoe County, Colorado, only the bailiff was armed in the courtroom. When police officers or deputy sheriffs were in the courtroom, their weapons had been checked into secure lockers out of the courtroom, and their holsters were empty. This is how it should be in McHenry County.

I left a message for Court Administrator Dan Wallace to discuss my request for a no-guns policy with the judges, and I hope I'll hear back from him with a positive response.

If you agree, call Mr. Wallace right away at 815-334-4000; ask for Court Adminstration. Or you can fax to him at 815-338-0248. And, if you are acquainted with any McHenry County judges, tell them how you feel about armed, uniformed officers appearing in court as defendants (or even plaintiffs) in civil cases.