DATE: Tuesday, May 13, 1997                 TAG: 9705130274

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY SUSIE STOUGHTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   67 lines

BOMB THREAT CLOSES COURTS, SCHOOL OFFICES AND BUSINESSES NOTHING TURNED UP, BUT THE INVESTIGATION CLEARED DOWNTOWN SUFFOLK UNTIL AFTERNOON.

A telephoned bomb threat Monday morning closed two courts, school administrative offices and businesses at the city's busiest intersection and blocked traffic along a 10-block commercial strip of Main Street until afternoon.

No bomb was found.

The call came about 10:45 a.m. to the General District Court. The caller said a bomb would go off in two hours and that the blast would be as large as the one in Oklahoma City in April 1995, said Lt. Jeff Messinger, fire department spokesman.

General District Judge G. Blair Harry ordered the two-story building evacuated. Within minutes, police, fire and rescue personnel surrounded the site at North Main Street and Constance Road, diverting traffic and helping evacuate nearly 200 people.

The threat also closed the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court and the School Board offices on the first floor. From the parking lot, Harry announced that court was canceled for the day.

Prisoners in holding cells in the jail behind the court house were returned to Western Tidewater Regional Jail.

For most involved, the interruption was a frustration. Detective Stephanie Burch had been in court for a two-year-old case. ``My poor victims,'' she said. ``They were in the middle of testifying.''

School Superintendent Joyce H. Trump waited outside with about 30 employees. ``It's a major-league disruption,'' she said.

Fire officials also evacuated adjacent buildings: Historic Riddick's Folly, Rite Aid, the Colonial Building and McDonald's.

Strings of vehicles wound through Constant's Wharf along the Nansemond River to avoid the intersection.

Police officers prevented traffic from entering Main Street and Constance Road by blocking off the streets nearby. Bicycling community service officers patrolled, and officers set up barricades at Finney Avenue just south of the site and at Suffolk Plaza Shopping Center to the north.

Traffic heading to the northern part of the city was diverted onto either Pitchkettle or Wilroy roads, both about a mile from Main Street. Main Street carries about 30,000 vehicles a day over the main Nansemond River crossing.

No one could return to the building until the state police bomb disposal unit gave the all-clear signal at 1:15 p.m.

While police dogs sniffed for a bomb in the building, Larry Bresnahan walked to the empty Post Office from about half a block away. ``Everything I wanted to get done today is right here,'' he said. ``At least it's not crowded at the Post Office.'' But he would have to return at another time to get his prescription refilled at the drug store, said Bresnahan, a mechanical engineer.

Rite Aid manager Penny Downey and cashier Linda Edwards complained about lost business as they sat in lawn chairs they had grabbed before leaving the store.

``When you close down Main Street, you close down Suffolk,'' Edwards said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II/The Virginian-Pilot

Suffolk police Monday prevented traffic from entering Main Street

and Constance Road after a bomb threat was phoned into General

District Court.

Graphic

Map: Area Shown: Courthouse Bomb Threat KEYWORDS: BOMB THREAT SUFFOLK POLICE DEPARTMENT

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