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Posted by W von Papineäu on August 09, 2002 at 15:29:45:
DECATUR DAILY (Alabama) 08 August 02 Snake scares judge's staff, bites trusty (Clyde Stancil)
Moulton: A Lawrence County Jail inmate got a chance to dispense justice Wednesday at the County Court- house where he pronounced a death sentence on a slick offender. The crime: frightening the district court staff.
The offender was a 4-foot rat snake. It found its way into a third-floor restroom, and sent District Judge Randel Mullican's staff scrambling for the elevated safety of desks and chairs.
The incident brought an abrupt end to the usual office calm. The first sign that something was amiss came when office administrator Joyce Austin went into the cramped restroom and noticed a large cup on the floor.
"I said, 'Now who would knock this cup down and not pick it up?' " she said.
Unaware that an intruder was lurking on the bookshelf, she put the cup back on one of the shelves and left the restroom.
Another office worker went into the restroom after Austin. A minute or so later she spied the snake on the bookshelf.
But the woman was undaunted. She thought it was a toy, the handiwork of a prankish housekeeper.
Her misconception changed when the snake flicked its tongue.
The woman ran out of the restroom screaming, and her co-workers left their offices and scattered for common area.
A call to the Lawrence County Commission office brought the county's maintenance crew and jail trusty Ricky Waldrep.
Waldrep said the snake's pointed tail marked it as a non-poisonous species.
"I tried to get him, and he nipped me on the finger," Waldrep said. "I knocked him off the shelf with a paper plate and put him in a plastic bag."
But he teased the women with the snake-in-a-bag for a little while before disposing of it in a trash bin outside the courthouse.
Waldrep said he thought he broke the snake's neck before dropping it in the bag.
Two hours later, the judge's staff members wanted to see the snake, so Waldrep retrieved the bag from the trash bin. He put it on the ground and untied it.
"He (the snake) jumped out of the bag and started sliding away," Waldrep said.
"All the girls almost had a fit."
Waldrep said he caught the snake and cut off its head. But the office workers said they wonder if that will be the last encounter with a snake this year.
Only time will tell.
A staff member researched the species on the Internet and saw that it mates between April and June.
The snake lays its eggs in late June and July and they hatch in seven to 15 weeks.
They fear the snake might have lain its eggs in courthouse walls.
