Delaware judge orders changes after gun prank at court

A prank involving two prosecutors, a courthouse bailiff and a pointed gun has led a judge to revoke the ability of bailiffs statewide to carry firearms when working in courtrooms.

The incident occurred the week of Feb. 2 on the second floor of the Sussex County Courthouse, where the county's Superior Court is housed. A person who works in the courthouse said the prank involved the courthouse's chief bailiff, Delbert Garrison, opening the door to a side room where lawyers work and pointing his service weapon at a deputy attorney general in the room.

The bailiff was coaxed into the prank by a second prosecutor, Adam Gelof, according to several people who regularly work in the courthouse. The people who described the events to The News Journal spoke on the condition they not be named because the incident is under investigation by the Delaware Capitol Police, who are charged with overseeing security at the state's court buildings, and investigators would discourage anyone from discussing it.

The sources said Gelof had been suspended by the Department of Justice and that Garrison, employed by the courts, also was suspended.

Carl Kanefsky, a spokesman for the department, said Monday that "a deputy attorney general has been suspended with pay pending an ongoing investigation. If a criminal charge is filed, that will be made public. The Department of Justice will not comment further because it is a personnel issue."

Gelof, in a text message, said he had "involved a bailiff in a practical joke in response" to a practical joke that had been played on him.

"I knew this was going to be received as intended as just a practical joke," Gelof said in the message. "Obviously I am professionally and personally embarrassed for all involved that my actions have resulted in this matter going this far."

Garrison could not be reached for comment. An attorney representing him did not immediately return a call for comment.

"Because this involves a personnel matter, we cannot comment on this specific situation," Sean O'Sullivan, a spokesman for the court system, said in response to questions about the prank. "However, we take any matter concerning the safety of our employees and the public very seriously and will take appropriate action."

The courthouse sources who discussed the prank said a detective for the Delaware State Police also was in the room when the bailiff entered. The detective, the sources said, was unaware he was seeing something intended to be a prank, and drew his own service weapon before reporting the incident to superiors.

In the wake of the prank, Superior Court President Judge Jan Jurden made a decision to disallow bailiffs from carrying firearms, two sources told The News Journal. The decision was conveyed to attorneys and courthouse staff Wednesday.

The change does not apply to Delaware Capitol Police, who staff courthouse security checkpoints and often are armed.

Bailiffs, who are posted in courtrooms, report to the judiciary. Whether bailiffs carry firearms varies from county to county. Lawyers say most bailiffs in Kent and New Castle counties don't carry weapons. In Sussex County, the chief bailiff, at a minimum, traditionally carries a firearm.

"When firearms were issued to bailiffs, there was not the Capitol Police deployment in the numbers that there now are in Sussex County," said John Brady, a Georgetown attorney who has practiced law there since the early 1990s.

O'Sullivan, asked about the reported policy change disallowing bailiffs from having guns, said: "This involves matters of internal security and we do not comment on such matters as a matter of policy."

The Capitol Police did not respond to a request for comment.

Contact James Fisher at (302) 983-6772, on Twitter @JamesFisherTNJ or jfisher@delawareonline.com.