Man charged with courthouse
threat
By Nathan Dean
Editor in
Chief
A Lafayette man has been charged with false informing
in connection with bomb threats made to the Tippecanoe County courthouse
Tuesday.
According to Sheriff David Murtaugh, Danny K. Bryant,
43, Lafayette, phoned in two bomb threats Tuesday morning and two last
week, one in which he said everything moving outside the courthouse would
be killed.
Bryant is currently being held in the Tippecanoe
County jail under $100,000 bond.
The courthouse, which was evacuated after a suspicious
bag was found, was opened after no bomb was found.
Around 8 a.m. Tuesday, Bryant allegedly phoned the
Lafayette police department stating that there were bombs in the courthouse,
the municipal building and the county jail.
Bailiffs on the second floor of the courthouse noticed,
25 minutes later, a suspicious character leaving a plastic bag on the
floor. When questioned, the person, identified as Corey Gneiting, 18,
tried to flee the area. Bailiffs restrained him and took him into custody.
"He didn't talk that much and was very suspicious,"
said Murtaugh.
After the bag was visually inspected, the special
bomb unit x-rayed the bag to find electronic items inside. Among the items
was a boom box and electrical wires. Police then sprayed the bag with
a water cannon to open the contents. No bomb materials were found.
Gneiting was charged with public intoxication and
police say that he is not connected with the threats that occurred both
Tuesday and last week.
"We have no reason to suspect that he was connected
to him (Bryant) and the threats," said Murtaugh.
The courthouse has come under numerous bomb threats
since a pickup truck loaded with fuel drums was driven into the courthouse
in June of 1999. The criminals are still being sought for that crime,
and have not been apprehended.
Murtaugh said that security at the courthouse was
not increased after this last threat and that the security will remain
the same in the future.
If convicted, Bryant faces up to two years in prison.
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