LAKEPORT, Calif. – A bomb threat on Wednesday afternoon led to an evacuation of the Lake County Courthouse, with the county’s undersheriff reporting that the threat allegedly was in response to the ongoing marijuana eradications taking place around the county.
Court personnel, county staffers and members of the public began streaming out of the building – located at 255 N. Forbes in Lakeport – shortly after 2:15 p.m., after a county official was directed by the sheriff’s office to activate the building’s fire alarm, signaling everyone to clear the building.
Those who had left the building gathered at the Courthouse Museum square across the street as Lake County Sheriff’s deputies, Lakeport Police and California State Parks responded to close down the building and set up a safety perimeter.
Lakeport Public Works put up barricades to block off N. Forbes Street between First and Fifth streets, with barriers also placed at N. Forbes Street’s intersections with Second and Third streets. Sheriff’s and Lakeport Police patrol cars also were used to block the streets.
Undersheriff Pat Turturici, who was on scene shortly after the building was vacated, said an anonymous male subject had phoned in the threat to Lake County Record-Bee reporter Jeremy Walsh, with the newspaper in turn reporting it to the sheriff’s office.
Turturici said the caller made the threat in co
nnection to the sheriff’s office’s ongoing marijuana eradications around Lake County.
Ten law enforcement officers were involved with searching the building, Turturici said. Each of the floors was searched and nothing was found.
Just before 3 p.m. the all clear was given and the public and staff were allowed to return to the building. The street barricades later were cleared.
Turturici said the sheriff’s office was continuing to investigate the threat, and there were plans to talk to Walsh to get further information about the call.
The sheriff’s office doesn’t plan to let up on eradicating illegal marijuana grows around the county because of the threat, the undersheriff said.
Turturici said this was the third bomb threat targeting county facilities since the start of 2011.
In April 2011, a threat was called in to the courthouse a short time before the start of a Lake County Planning Commission meeting that had a proposed ordinance to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries on the agenda.
The caller in that 2011 threat had warned, “don’t mess with the marijuana users,” according to the sheriff’s office.
This past January, the Lake County Superior Court’s Clearlake courthouse – which also houses a Lake County Sheriff’s substation – was evacuated as the result of a bomb threat.
Turturici said the county has no bomb sniffing dog to help quickly and safely respond to such situations, and a dog from a neighboring agency wasn’t readily available for the Wednesday incident.
An explosive ordinance disposal K-9 detection team from Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield had been called in to deal with the April 2011 threat.
Turturici said he was looking at getting such a bomb sniffing dog in light of the continuing threats the county was receiving.
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