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Courthouse evacuated after bomb threat

Andrea Johnson/MDN Ward County employees exit the Ward County office building shortly after 10 a.m. The court house and the office building were both ordered evacuated for about two hours Thursday after a bomb threat was called in to the courthouse. No bomb was found and Sheriff Bob Barnard gave the all clear for people to return to work shortly before noon on Thursday.

The Ward County Courthouse and office building was evacuated after a bomb threat was made Thursday morning.

Sheriff Bob Barnard said a call came in to an office in the courthouse shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday. A bomb squad including people from the Minot Police Department and Ward County Sheriff’s Office, along with a bomb detection dog from MInot Air Force Base, spent about two hours searching the buildings before the all clear was given for employees to return.

“No devices were found,” said Barnard.

Barnard said his office is now investigating who made the call. Because it is an active investigation, Barnard declined to say whether the caller was male or female.

The bomb threat caused disruption and inconvenience to many on Thursday morning and will mean an already tight judicial calendar will have to be rearranged.

At 10 a.m. on Thursday, defendant Cody McCauley was in the middle of changing his pleas in multiple theft and burglary cases before Judge Gary Lee. Then a deputy entered the courtroom and told the judge that the courthouse had to be evacuated. The judge, lawyers, defendants, witnesses and those in the gallery smoothly exited from the courtroom. Barnard said defendants had to be returned to the jail and staff will have to bring them back to court for rescheduled hearings.

He said it was a potentially hazardous situation.

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