NORMAN, Okla – A Norman woman was arrested after authorities say she brought a handgun inside the Cleveland County Courthouse.
Monday afternoon, 52-year-old Cynthia Bodnar walked into the courthouse and began making her way through security.
Officials say the x-ray machine showed an object that appeared to be a handgun inside Bodnar’s purse.
When asked, she told deputies she did not have a gun.
However, a deputy said she could see a zippered handgun case, which contained a .22 caliber Taurus PT-22 semiautomatic handgun.
The gun was loaded with one bullet in the chamber and a magazine with seven more rounds was also found.
Bodnar told deputies she didn’t have a permit for the gun and that her boyfriend must have put it in her purse.
She also said that her grandchildren were taken from her custody the previous evening and she was attending a court hearing.
Bodnar was arrested on a complaint of unlawfully carrying a firearm in a courthouse.
“Deputies assigned to the courthouse division have the task of keeping the hundreds of people who are conducting business inside the building safe from harm,” Sheriff Joe Lester, with the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office, said. “It is not an easy job and I appreciate their hard work and effort to protect citizens every day.”
