Police investigate powder scare at 2 temples

By Ben Winslow

Deseret News
Published: Friday, Nov. 14, 2008

Authorities are investigating a suspicious substance mailed to the headquarters of the LDS Church that prompted a hazardous materials response to Temple Square.

A similar scare was reported at the church's temple in Los Angeles, which closed its grounds for a few hours on Thursday, a church spokesman confirmed. A printing plant belonging to the Knights of Columbus in Windsor Locks, Conn., also received a white powder scare Thursday.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Catholic-affiliated fraternal organization are both major backers of the controversial Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California. However, the FBI cautioned on Thursday that there is no evidence to link the threats to Prop. 8 opponents.

"We've got to follow the evidence and at this point we have not received anything that would lead us to believe the opponents of Prop. 8 are behind any kind of terroristic activity," FBI Special Agent Juan Becerra said from the agency's Salt Lake City office. "It would be irresponsible to say that at this point."

LDS Church security officials called Salt Lake police and firefighters about 4 p.m. Thursday when an employee in the recorder's office inside the Salt Lake Temple annex building opened a manila envelope.

"When the employee opened it up and looked inside it, there was actually another white envelope inside that had a white powdery substance in it," Salt Lake Fire spokesman Scott Freitag said.

The employee who opened it got some of the white powder on his hand, authorities said. He immediately set the envelope down and called church security officials, who came over wearing a respirator and plastic gloves. They sealed the envelope inside a plastic bag, Freitag said.

Three employees in the room at the time were quarantined. Security denied access to the room and shut off the air vents.

"They are not complaining of any injury or illness," Freitag said, adding that they did not have to undergo a decontamination process.

Hazardous materials teams sanitized the substance to ensure it was not a biological agent like anthrax.

On the Main Street plaza, missionaries and other church employees were allowed to come and go. A lone LDS security official stood behind the temple gates. He opened the gate for firefighters, then closed and locked it behind them.

A pair of FBI agents left Temple Square with the envelope in a black plastic bag. The envelope was taken to a lab to be tested.

"We are working to find out what it is and hopefully it's harmless," Becerra told the Deseret News.

Firefighters said they did not see anything of a threatening nature with the envelope.

Because the annex is a separate building, the temple itself was not evacuated. However, church security did not allow anyone to come or go while hazmat teams were there.

"At first, we thought it was maybe picketing again," said Poulsen Udall, who was inside the temple at the time.

He was referring to mass protests outside Temple Square last week against the LDS Church's backing of Proposition 8.

"It's a sad thing that all of this is going on," said Udall's wife, Pauline.

At the LDS Church's temple in Westwood, Calif., the grounds were closed after an employee opened an envelope similar to the one at church headquarters in Salt Lake City.

"They received an envelope with a suspicious white powdery substance," Los Angeles police officer Karen Smith told the Deseret News. "It's been cleared and there was no hazardous material."

In New Haven, Conn., workers at a printing plant discovered an envelope containing white powder. Hazardous materials crews responded and the powder was taken for testing, authorities said. The plant later re-opened. A call to a spokesman for the Knights of Columbus was not immediately returned late Thursday.

"We're working with local law enforcement and the FBI," LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter said.

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com

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