Obstructions at RJC aren’t limited to surveillance cameras

Some judges at the Regional Justice Center aren’t responding kindly to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s story on flaws in the surveillance camera system.

These judges don’t seem to have a knack for asking the right questions.

In emails to their colleagues, they’re questioning how the Review-Journal uncovered the camera obstructions last week, rather than why courthouse officials haven’t corrected something that effects their safety and the safety of the public.

One judge can’t believe that the newspaper was allowed to go inside the building’s control room to see the various camera angles that show trees and bushes blocking some views for marshals.

County spokesman Dan Kulin says top county and courthouse officials discussed the Review-Journal story after it was published and "came up with a mutually agreed upon solution."

But Kulin wouldn’t say what that solution is. Nobody, it seems, likes to talk publicly about security issues at the courthouse.

Keeping the public further in the dark is Court Executive Officer Steve Grierson, who now says he doesn’t even "agree" that there are camera obstructions at the courthouse.

Grierson, who refused to be interviewed for last week’s Review-Journal story, wouldn’t explain why he has come to that conclusion.

His position, frankly, is bizarre.

Grierson wasn’t in the control room when the Review-Journal saw the blocked camera angles.

Those who were on hand — District Judge Susan Johnson, who chairs the courthouse’s security committee; Lt. George Glasper, who oversees security; and Michael Sommermeyer, the court’s outgoing public information officer — all saw what the Review-Journal saw.

Obstructions.