In one of those truly rare moments, courthouse security actually caught someone doing something dangerous. Courthouse security, the folks primarily tasked with confiscating your cellphone lest a judge have to hear an inopportune text alert, stage a game rendition of security theater at every court around the country. Consider it the off-Broadway rendition of TSA’s long-running O’Hare show (tagline: “You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll take off your shoes.”).
So imagine the surprise at the Middlesex County Superior Courthouse in New Brunswick last week when security peered inside a briefcase with their taxpayer-provided X-Ray specs and found a loaded gun.
Mark Jander, a Monmouth attorney, had brought the gun and that ended with him charged with unlawful possession of a weapon. One assumes he didn’t realize he had the gun on him because people only walk through security like that when they’re inside the Matrix. This is as good a time as ever to remember to clean out your lit bags — it’s always embarrassing to show up for a deposition and pull out a couple of flashbang grenades.
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Though given that we’re talking about New Jersey, it’s equally possible that a judge told him to come heavy or not at all.
But it’s a good reminder that courthouse security may not be doing a ton day-to-day, but they really are there to keep things safe and in the rare occasion that something like this comes up, they’re ready to take action. It’s also probably a good reason not to issue all those “attorney cards” and other backdoor solutions that let lawyers bypass security. You never know when they might accidentally (or intentionally) be the security risk themselves.
Attorney brought loaded gun to N.J. courthouse, police say [NJ.com]
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Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.