Court was back in session Feb. 15, one day after Santa Clara County Sheriff’s deputies cleared the South County Courthouse due to a “suspicious package” identified by officers.
The package arrived into the courthouse about 11:30 a.m. Feb. 14 and was ran through a metal detector, according to Sgt. Rich Glennon. Officers viewing the package’s contents as it passed through thought it to be “highly suspicious and immediately took it out of the building,” Glennon said.
Officers then evacuated the building and called the sheriff’s bomb squad. Later on, they decided to cancel court for the rest of the day “so they could take time to properly evaluate the package and keep people out of harm’s way,” Glennon continued.
Using a robot to analyze the package and then open it to view the contents, it was “quickly determined to have no explosive material and nothing fashioned to look like explosive material,” according to Glennon.
The bomb squad was on site for most of Tuesday and Diana Ave west of Butterfield Boulevard was blocked off by deputies while they investigated the suspicious package.
With the sheriff’s office leading the investigation, members of the Morgan Hill Police Department, South Santa Clara County Fire Department, and Emergency Medical Services ambulance were also on scene.
“There was nothing dangerous inside the package,” Glennon detailed.
However, by 4 p.m. Feb. 14, officers were taking down the yellow barrier tape at Diana Avenue and in the main parking lot before leaving the scene or re-entering the courthouse.
“Morgan Hill South County Courthouse suspicious package incident is over,” reads a Valentine’s Day tweet by the sheriff’s office on their twitter handle @SCCoSheriff.
