Envelope with suspicious substance triggered Spokane County Courthouse evacuation

The Spokane County Courthouse annex was evacuated just before noon Friday due to a suspicious substance found in an envelope.

By early afternoon the white powdery substance had been determined to be inert. The powder appeared to be a writing correction fluid, said Spokane police Officer Ben Maplethorpe.

A court clerk processing mail opened the letter and a white powder came out of the envelope.

“The substance did get on the employee,” according Maplethorpe.

The building was evacuated and the Spokane Fire Department responded to the scene. Several firefighters donned hazardous materials suits a short time after their arrival and headed inside the building to investigate the substance.

Four employees were isolated after the evacuation but never developed any symptoms, Maplethorpe said.

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Department and U.S. Postal Service inspectors assisted with the investigation.

The situation at the courthouse Friday was reminiscent of two incidents that happened last summer.

On July 7, 2016, the courthouse was evacuated after a letter was opened and several employees experienced a range of symptoms including scratchy throats and chest pains. On July 20 four letters arrived at the offices of the county clerk, prosecutor and a Superior Court judge. One letter was opened and an employee reported feeling sick.

In both cases the employees who reported feeling sickened after the letters were opened had their symptoms wear off within minutes of leaving their offices.

The FBI later reported in both cases that no hazardous materials were found in any of the suspicious letters, which Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich dubbed a form of terrorism. The tactic of sending letters to government employees, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, is known as “paper terrorism.”

In both cases last summer the letters were traced to Christopher A. Cain and his wife, who admitted sending the letters. Cain, who was in jail at the time on a drive-by shooting charge, claimed to be a “sovereign citizen” who believed he was immune from obligations like paying taxes or getting driver’s licenses.

Cain was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree assault in December, but he’s still being held in the Spokane County Jail on a U.S. marshal’s hold.