Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS — Visitors to three suburban courthouses in Hennepin County will pass through new security checkpoints beginning Monday.
Courthouses at Brookdale, Ridgedale and Southdale are now equipped with X-ray machines and walk-through metal detectors.
The county board recently voted to install the additional equipment after Judge Lloyd Zimmerman refused to hear cases in the suburbs because of lax security. Zimmerman’s concerns were raised several weeks after the shooting in Grand Marais where a prosecutor and witness were critically wounded.
Minnesota Public Radio News says walk-through metal detectors have been installed at the Ridgedale court in Minnetonka and Brookdale in Brooklyn Center. Visitors to the Southdale court in Edina will be screened with handheld wands because of the cost to rebuild the entryway to accommodate a walk-through detector.