Several courthouses in the northern part of the state do not regularly screen visitors for weapons, a review by The Badger Project found. Adding scanning machines would cost these counties hundreds of thousands of dollars.
By Wyatt Massey for THE BADGER PROJECT
Several courthouses in north-central Wisconsin do not screen people coming into the building for weapons, an investigation by The Badger Project has found. A firearm discovered recently in one of them is highlighting that lack of security in public buildings in rural counties, and also a reticence by elected officials to pass the high costs of upgrades on to taxpayers.
A courthouse cleaner found a gun in the Langlade County Courthouse in Antigo just after 5 a.m. on Thursday, July 16, according to a criminal complaint from the Langlade County Sheriff’s Office. The firearm, which had been stashed behind a toilet in the third-floor men’s bathroom, sat on top of a handwritten note containing the name of a jail inmate who’d recently testified in an attempted homicide trial. The day the gun was found, the Langlade County Sheriff’s Office arrested Harout Hosepian, who faces seven charges, including carrying a firearm in a public building and carrying a concealed knife.
Hosepian was seen on camera in the courthouse on July 15 and entered the bathroom, as well as the offices of the county clerk and district attorney, according to the complaint. That day, Hosepian carried a backpack and a cane. Authorities later discovered the cane concealed a serrated sword.
Hosepian remains in custody and is not yet represented by an attorney. He is a Chicago resident with multiple convictions, including aggravated battery and other felonies in 2016, according to the criminal complaint filed in Langlade County. In 2021, Hosepian was charged in Antigo with physically abusing a child, resisting an officer, and disorderly conduct. That case is ongoing due, in part, to struggles finding an attorney. Hosepian is eligible for a public defender.
The criminal complaint claims Hosepian told investigators that he had a personal connection to the attempted homicide trial, the one for which a witness’s name was found on the piece of paper under the gun in the courthouse.
The finding of the firearm has spurred conversations among local leaders about how to improve security at public buildings around the county. Langlade County’s courthouse, built in 1905, uses a single point of entry, but typically no one screens individuals entering the structure. A review by The Badger Project of other counties’ safety measures, which courthouse employees submitted to the county’s public safety committee, suggests Langlade County is not an outlier among other rural counties. Neighboring Lincoln and Shawano counties also do not screen people who enter their courthouses. However, earlier this year, Shawano County approved spending up to $121 million to build a new courthouse and jail building.
Marathon County – with an estimated population of 139,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau – features the most intensive form of courthouse security in north central Wisconsin, including metal detectors and an X-ray machine. This system, installed in 2017, cost more than $300,000, along with additional employee costs to operate the station, according to the Wausau Pilot & Review.
The costs of security equipment, space, and staffing can be off-putting for local governments in rural municipalities like Langlade County, population 19,500. Residents like their taxes low, Circuit Court Judge John Rhode said during the Langlade County Public Safety Committee meeting on Sept. 10, and bolstering courthouse security would require “horrendous amounts of money.”
“If we do millions of dollars on upgrades to our security, it’s going to raise taxes,” Rhode said. “It’s not a popular thing. But I think we have to have the courage to say, we have to properly protect and care for our people and provide the services that we need. We can’t just keep wishing and hoping and being relieved that nothing bad is going to happen.”
Langlade County Sheriff Mark Westen told the committee he’d proposed security upgrades to the courthouse about eight years ago, but the county board scrapped the plans over the estimated costs. Westen suggested using a single point of entry with a screening checkpoint operated by two law enforcement officers. A machine to scan someone’s belongings will cost between $80,000 and $100,000, Westen said, and two full-time employees to operate the station will cost around $130,000 a year. The county may need to spend more to build a structure for the screening area so people are not waiting outside to enter the building.
The safety committee asked Westen for a written proposal to consider. The group’s next meeting is scheduled for Oct. 1. The county board, which is in control of budgeting, would have to make the final determination on any changes to courthouse security.
In 1988, a 19-year-old man walked into the City-County Building in Madison and shot multiple people, killing two. That led the city and Dane County to enhance security at the building.
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