Johnson keeping order in the court

Five Questions is a chance to highlight community members who are often seen but rarely heard. The feature seeks to bring out the personal side of these individuals with details about their work and home lives. Ask your own questions online at www.bonnercountydailybee.com.

Mark Johnson has been a Bonner County courts bailiff for 25 years. For about half that time he’s been chief bailiff. Here are some of his experiences:

1: What is the most bizarre event you’ve witnessed during a court proceeding?

We had a woman dress up as a man. She wore a suit and tie that didn’t fit and had shoes that were about five sizes too big. The odd thing was that she had cut the back of her hair with scissors and made a flour-type paste and made a mustache and beard. It didn’t look very real. When her case was called, she didn’t respond. The judge recognized what was going on and passed the case to the end of the docket and took it up at the end.

2: Has any criminal defendant tried to bolt out of the building before, during or after a hearing? If so, how far did they get?

There have been a few that I can recall, before, during and after court. The one case that I recall most was of a juvenile who ran out from the courthouse down behind the Power House building and jumped the fence to the docks. I was upstairs and when I got to the back parking lot, an employee at the Powerhouse told me of a kid who jumped the fence and was hiding behind the gas pump house. I was let in and as I was walking to the pump house, the young man pops up and starts jogging towards me. I had water on both sides of the dock, and figured that if he tried to run past me, he was going in for a swim. Fortunately, he stopped and surrendered.

3: What is the most inspiring or touching thing you’ve seen in court?

I would have to say the adoptions where it involves multiple children or a group of brothers and sisters being adopted to keep the siblings together.  That will warm the heart.

4. What do bailiffs like about their job?

No two days are the same. We like to interact with the public. Working with the other court staff and court clerks makes things much nicer — super people!

5. What is the most bizarre case you’ve heard in court?

It was a small claims case where a person had gotten a loan from the bank and had given the money to their friend. The plan was for the friend to go and purchase some narcotics and repackage the drugs and resell them. Then they were going to pay off the loan and have some party money to spend.

However, the friend was caught and arrested and the drugs and money were seized.

The first person was wanting their money back and tried to bring this action to court to recover the lost money. It didn’t work — the case was thrown out.

Bonus Question: What have been some unusual items recovered at the X-ray machine or the metal detector?

We had a dog go through the X-ray machine in a lady’s purse. There was a time when a defendant was coming through the metal detector and it went off. He was making an appearance for a drug possession charge. As he was emptying his pockets of change and other metal objects, his bindle of methamphetamine fell out of his pants pocket. Not a good day for him.