PORT ANGELES — Gary Gorss flung open his top desk drawer to reveal scores of knives and other sharp objects he has confiscated from Clallam County court patrons.
Gorss, the county’s lone courtroom-courthouse security deputy, has been calling for enhanced security at the courthouse in Port Angeles for years.
“Sometimes I have five or six courts going at once, and I get called to be in two or three places at once,” Gorss said.
The issue was fresh on the minds of county officials one week after Steven D. Kravetz, 34, allegedly shot a sheriff’s deputy with her own gun and stabbed a Superior Court judge at the Grays Harbor County Courthouse in Montesano on March 8.
Deputy Polly Davin confronted Kravetz in a courthouse stairwell last Friday after witnesses said he had been acting strangely. Superior Court Judge David Edwards was stabbed in the neck and upper shoulder while intervening in the attack on the deputy.
Davin and Edwards were not seriously hurt.
Kravetz was arrested Saturday at his mother’s home in Olympia, where Davin’s gun was recovered.
“The deputy was there in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Gorss said.
“Grays Harbor had less security than we do. Clallam County has me. That’s it.”
In a perfect world, Clallam County would have more security guards and security equipment at the courthouse to protect employees and the public, officials said.
County Administrator Jim Jones said the county simply can’t afford to hire more security deputies.
“We just don’t have the money,” he said.
“We just have to do the best we can to be vigilant.”
Clallam County laid off 15 employees and implemented 16 unpaid furlough days in 2012 to balance the latest budget.
Sheriff’s Bill Benedict, whose office is responsible for securing the halls of the courthouse and its five courtrooms, said he is “satisfied” with the security “given our budget constraints.”
Clallam County employes a walk-through metal detector for high-profile trials and court hearings.
There are bulletproof-glass windows in some offices and security cameras in the courtrooms.
But Gorss said more security is needed.
Superior Court Judge Ken Williams agreed.
“It comes down to a question of priorities on where you’re going to spend money,” Williams said.
“In most counties in this state, having adequate courthouse security is a priority, and they are willing to spend money on it.
“That’s a decision the commissioners need to make.”
Every year, Williams and his fellow judges ask commissioners for more money to fund security, support staff and other county functions.
Superior courts are state courts funded by the Legislature as well as local lawmakers.
Washington ranks last out of 50 states on how much it spends on its courts, Williams said.
Under the current budget scenarios in Olympia, that support is likely to decrease, Williams wrote in a Wednesday letter addressing the history of Clallam County Courthouse security.
Williams, who was elected to the bench in 1992 and took office in 1993, said county sheriffs are required by statute to have a deputy attend each session of court.
“Jefferson County complies with this statute,” Williams wrote.
“Clallam County does not.”
Grays Harbor Superior Court judges filed a lawsuit against their commissioners earlier this year claiming in part that their county had the worst security of any multi-judge jurisdiction in the state, Williams noted.
“Clallam County can rightfully claim second place in that ‘worst security’ category,” he wrote.
In a follow-up interview, Williams described a courtroom as a “place that is set up for catastrophe” without adequate security.
“I’m glad we have Gary,” he added.
“It’s better than nothing.”
Benedict said he and Jones discussed courthouse security in the wake of the Grays Harbor incident.
“Mostly we looked at the cost,” Benedict said.
“If we were to have security like what they have in King County . . . it would be cost-prohibitive.”
A 1995 double homicide at the King County Courthouse ended up costing that county $1.6 million in a lawsuit, Gorss said.
“There was metal detectors and people set up the very next day,” he said.
Gorss declined to comment on how to pay for more security, but he urged a single-point entrance to the courthouse with two armed security guards monitoring a metal detector and X-ray machine at the entrance, and two more officers roving the courtrooms and halls upstairs.
“I’m sorry, security is not convenient,” Gorss said.
“I could set up security for this place real easy if I had the people. I’ve got some of the equipment already.”
The Clallam County Courthouse has a no-weapons policy for the second floor, where the courtrooms, court administration, court clerks and Prosecuting Attorney’s Office are located.
As Gorss’ desk drawer shows, some people don’t follow the rules.
According to a 2011 security report, Gorss made 215 arrests and responded to 74 courthouse “incidents” last year. He was asked to provide a security presence on 162 occasions.
Although there have been no Grays Harbor-like shootings or stabbings in the Clallam County Courthouse, Gorss said it’s only a matter of time.
“It is not a question of if something bad is going to happen but rather when something bad will happen,” he said.
Gorss, who worked as a corrections deputy in the Clallam County jail for 21 years before moving to courthouse security six years ago, has had plenty of run-ins with boisterous characters.
A couple of years ago, a young man who had just been released from custody allegedly walked out of the courtroom and kicked a hole in the lobby wall.
Gorss arrested him for investigation of malicious mischief.
More recently, Gross confronted a young man who was yelling and screaming at court clerks over a traffic ticket he received from the State Patrol — and a young woman who was yelling at her boyfriend for filing no-contact paperwork against her — and ordered them to leave.
“Courtrooms can be, and often are, emotionally-charged environments,” Gorss wrote in his report.
“By the very nature of the courts, our most vulnerable are put into close proximity with our most violent citizens. Security here is essential.”
Williams echoed those sentiments in his own letter:
“Daily we bring into the courthouse the mentally ill, convicted criminals and those charged with crime, persons high on drugs, estranged spouses, those seeking protection orders, and the like,” Williams wrote.
“These often include opposing parties, who come here at times of great stress, and often with great anger, who must then confront one another in court.”
The county’s senior judge concluded his letter by saying: “There is a cost to providing courthouse security.
“There may be a greater cost in not providing courthouse security.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.