In The Press : Miscellaneous Cases
Securty Stepped Up For Teens' Hearing
The Gettysburg Times
Wednesday April 12, 2006
By John Messeder
Times Staff Writer
An expected crowd of family and friends caused a preliminary hearing to be moved to Adams County Courthouse and security procedures to be increased.
The hearing, for two youths accused of shooting a storeowner during a failed robbery last month, could not be held in District Magisterial Judge Thomas Carr’s Middle Street courtroom in Gettysburg because there was insufficient room.
News reporters were told to stay outside the courthouse with their cameras.
An area in front of the courthouse was taped off, providing a place for interviews; interviews were banned inside the courthouse.
Justin Raub, a cameraman for WHTM-TV27, said he was told he could not stand near the prisoners’ entrance, where he wanted to try for a picture of the boys as they entered or left the courthouse.
Courthouse Security Director Blaise Raville acknowledged media was asked to not block sheriff’s vehicles as they transported the prisoners, but said reporters and photographers were not banned from the alley where the prisoners’ entrance was located.
At 9 a.m., the door to Courtroom One was locked. No one was allowed in or out during a joint preliminary hearing for Tyler Lee, 15, of Gettysburg, and Joseph Elliot Miller, 16, of Littlestown.
The boys have been charged as adults with attempted homicide during a robbery in which Lee shot Michael Farley, owner of Lincoln Trading Post, at 1865 York Road, Straban Township.
“It’s a procedure to be used in cases that have more notoriety,” President Judge John Kuhn said of the stepped up security. “There’s always a potential that family would react.”
He said the courtroom door was not intended to be locked, but there was an intention to keep people from moving in and out during the hearing.
The courtroom was, indeed, full, but the crowd of more than 100 people was quiet, except for occasional sounds of crying from some.
Kuhn said the event would be reviewed.
“With any type event like this, you have to sit down after and see how did it go,” he said.
He noted that the entire courthouse security system is being upgraded. Plans include an airport-style x-ray machine and additional personnel.
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