Sheriff's office investigating gun brought into Toledo Municipal Court

2/27/2014

Editor's note: This version corrects that the woman was located near the city prosecutor's office.

The Lucas County Sheriff’s Office is investigating how a small handgun got through security screening at Toledo Municipal Court earlier this month.

Rob Sarahman, an investigator with the sheriff’s internal affairs unit, said today that the incident occurred about 2:30 p.m. Feb. 10.

“Fortunately no one was threatened or injured with the gun,” he said.

Det. Sarahman said Deputy Barry Disalle was working at the front entrance security area when he became distracted and inadvertently allowed a woman’s purse with a small, semi-automatic handgun inside to pass through the screening area.

Deputy Disalle later saw the image of what appeared to be a gun on the X-ray machine and located the woman with the gun in her purse near the city prosecutor's office. According to sheriff’s reports, her companion, who has a concealed-carry permit, had stored it in her purse the night before and forgotten it was there.

Deputy Disalle, who was hired by the sheriff’s office in 1994, has been reassigned to the records bureau, Detective Sarahman said. He has a disciplinary hearing March 10.