Aug 25, 2017 3 min read

Washington County sheriff’s deputies transport youth to and from Jefferson County Juvenile Detention Center in Steubenville, Ohio, “almost every day,” said Sheriff Samuel Romano, who had no deputies in that vicinity Monday when a shootout in front of the courthouse wounded a judge and resulted in the death of the assailant.

“It’s getting a little bit crazy out there,” said Romano, who is responsible for security at Washington County Courthouse. “At least he could protect himself,” Romano said of Judge Joseph Bruzzese Jr., who was ambushed.

Bruzzese, 65, underwent emergency surgery and survived the attack, in which he and a court employee returned fire. He is one of two Jefferson County judges.

Romano and Washington County President Judge Katherine B. Emery recall the days when the county’s five judges had parking spaces behind the county jail that were marked with their names.

That sort of personalization would be forbidden in today’s security-conscious atmosphere.

Romano has discussed security issues at Washington County Courthouse with federal marshals. He’d prefer there would be a single public entrance to the courthouse rather than the current ones on South Main Street and West Cherry Avenue, which also leads to the Family Court Center in the old jail.

Both Emery and Romano characterized the Jefferson County encounter as “tragic.”

“It’s always the case you don’t expect that sort of blows up,” Emery said. “It wasn’t even over criminal dealings, but some civil lawsuit. It’s the family law cases (divorce and child custody) that worried me the most because people’s emotions were so high. Sometimes in dependency cases, again, emotions are very high and mental illness issues maybe come to the forefront.”

According to an Associated Press account, the suspect in the Ohio shooting was Nathaniel Richmond, who had filed a wrongful-death suit against a housing authority over a fire that killed Richmond’s mother and his 2-year-old nephew. Bruzzese was overseeing that case, in which a motion to dismiss a punitive damage claim had been scheduled for a hearing Aug. 28.

Although judges can assess the security needed inside their courtrooms, the president judge said she’d like to see additional deputies stationed in the hallways, which are, at times, full of people.

But Emery said, “We can’t barricade ourselves in a bubble. We can’t worry about all those things. We have to be prudent, too.

“There has to be a balance.”

In Greene County, Sheriff Brian Tennant said the two county judges have a secure parking area. He said they have security officers at both public entrances to the courthouse, as well as X-ray machines and metal detectors.

Tennant said that while he doesn’t plan on making any changes to their courthouse security in light of the Jefferson County shooting, they will “remain vigilant” and possibly increase foot patrols at the courthouse.

“That was obviously close to home and unsettling,” he said about the shooting. “Our main concern is the safety and security of the courthouse.”

Tennant said that aside from an occasional disruptive person yelling or causing a scene, they haven’t had a major security incident or problem at the courthouse.

“Greene County is a nice place, but bad things can happen here, too,” Tennant said.