Prosecutor’s office, courts closed after ‘bad mold’ found in Monroe County justice building

Signs posted on the entrance to the Monroe County justice building at 7th Street and College Avenue in downtown Bloomington say that no initial hearings and no traffic court will be held today (Friday, Aug. 22). That’s an indication that the county prosecutor’s office is closed.

Administrator for the county commissioners, Angie Purdie, confirmed in a text message to The B Square that Friday’s closure is related to the preliminary analysis of testing for mold based on 76 samples that were taken on Wednesday. She said the county government had received oral communication that two instances of “the bad mold” had been found in an office different from one where it had been previously found and treated.

Based on a briefing from VET Environmental Engineering given on Thursday, the “bad mold” is likely Stachybotrys, which is a black mold known for producing toxins and linked to respiratory problems.

Purdie continued, writing, “The recommendation was for that person to stay out of that office and the adjacent offices.” She added, “The area between that office and the secretarial pool had no evidence of the bad mold.”

The information about the outcome of the testing was shared with the prosecutor’s office, Purdie indicated. She wrote, “I received a call later from the prosecutor stating they were going to close the prosecutor’s office and the criminal courts today.” According to Purdie, the civil courts and the clerk’s office are supposed to be open. Responding to a text message from The B Square, county clerk Nicole Browne indicated the clerk’s office is open today.

[Added at 9:45 a.m. on Aug. 22, 2025: Deputy prosecutor Jeff Kehr confirmed the office closure by email. “We were notified late yesterday afternoon of another positive test for Stachybotrys in a different area (north end) of our office. Out of concern for our employees’ health, we closed the office today. We are hopeful that the chemical fogging scheduled for tonight and this weekend will alleviate any health hazard going forward.”]

[Added on Aug. 25, 2025: Monroe County government has issued a news release that highlights overall mold leves, stating: “On Aug. 20, VET Environmental collected 76 samples across five floors; 100% of the samples tested within an acceptable range for total fungi, suggesting mold levels overall are comparable to outside air and at reasonable levels.”]

About the results from the extensive testing that was done on Wednesday, Purdie indicated that VET Environmental Engineering is still working through the data, so there is no official finding yet. Overall, Purdie indicated that she believes that the information coming from the testing is “good” except for the one area that prompted the closure of the prosecutor’s office.

On Wednesday, after treating specific areas, replacing ceiling tiles, and scrubbing the air with HEPA filters, VET Environmental Engineering took a total of 76 air samples in the building. The 76 samples covered all five floors, which includes the jail on the top two stories of the building.

Those samples were driven to a laboratory in Indianapolis, which were to be analyzed starting Thursday on a three-hour turnaround time, according to Sara Hamidovic, founder of VET Environmental Engineering, who gave a briefing about the mold clean up work on Thursday to at least 70 county government employees who packed into Courtroom 313 to hear the presentation.

The mold clean up work started on Aug. 6 after a complaint was filed with IOSHA.

On Tuesday, the clean up work, which involved the replacement of several ceiling tiles, became so disruptive to the employees in the building that they were sent home late morning that day.

[The section below about the prohibition on plants was added at 4:49 p.m. on Aug. 22, 2025]

Plants banned at justice center building

In an email message sent on Friday at 2:38 p.m. to various justice center building employees by Angie Purdie, who is the administrator for the county commissioners, Purdie announced that plants are no longer allowed in the justice building. The email subject line reads: “Subject: Plants – must be removed.”

Purdie was relaying a decision of the county commissioners—Julie Thomas, Lee Jones, and Jody Madeira. The decision appears like it might be based on remarks by Sara Hamidovic, founder of VET Environmental Engineering, who gave a briefing about the mold clean up work on Thursday to at least 70 county government employees who packed into Courtroom 313 to hear a briefing on the mold clean up at the building.

At the Thursday briefing, Hamidovic did not make an explicit recommendation that employees could not have plants, but did talk about the dangers of overwatering, noting that plants are a source of mold. About plants, Hamidovic said on Thursday:

Do not overwater plants—that’s a big one. And I am not dogging house plants. … I have a lot of plants. I love plants. But if you overwater them, that is a mold source. You’re contributing to humidity, and the soil is a substrate. And you know, anyone who’s big on house plants knows that you get the little mycelium and things growing in your plant, you’re like, “Oh, that’s exciting. My soil is happy!” But it’s mold, and soil is a mold source. And so if we are, you know, worried about mold, house plants are absolutely a big source of mold. So yeah, try not to overwater. If you’re getting fungus gnats, that means you’re over watering. So try to water less.

Reached by The B Square, commissioner Madeira said she did not attend Thursday’s meeting but understood from the presentation that Hamidovic established that plants were a source of mold. Madeira called it “just common sense” that plants should be removed.

Madeira said, “Right now, given the humidity of the outside air, given that this is the most humid weather we’ve had in decades, given that right now, we have gone through really so much effort to eradicate this mold and repeated testing on a very expedited schedule, we want to remove every potential source for mold to grow in this building.” Madeira also noted that for the same reason it’s important to remove dehumidifier drawers at the end of every day.

Thomas responded by text message to a B Square question by writing, "It is a ‘for now’ policy.” She added, “We are doing this out of an abundance of caution.”

The text of the email says, “Commissioners are requiring all plants (including those put in place by the Commissioners) to be removed from the Justice Building. The plants that are located in the hallway will be removed and available for you to pick up outside the building…” The plants installed by commissioners appear to be free for the taking by employees. The email reads: “[I]f you would like to take one home, just pick it up.”

The email underscores the requirement that all plants have to be removed: “Please have all plants removed by end of day. If you are unable to meet that by day’s end, all plants will have to be removed by end of next week.”

The email message concludes: “Immunologically compromised people are not to be around plants or flowers, so as we continue to address the environment of the Justice Building, we need to start with known issues.”