A brand-new courthouse in Martinsville, Indiana has sat empty for more than a week after dozens of Morgan County government workers fell ill with headaches, nausea and drowsiness, and at least 12 of them needed supplemental oxygen at local emergency rooms. Sixty-one people have now filed workers compensation claims tied to the scare at the Morgan County Judicial Campus, even as the building's own carbon monoxide monitors have not detected the elevated readings that sent employees to the hospital.
The Judicial Campus at 180 S. Main Street closed on July 28, according to the Indianapolis Star, after employees across multiple court offices and judicial chambers reported the same flu-like symptoms. Morgan County Chief Deputy Clerk Courtney Payne was among those who ended up in the emergency room, telling WTHR she suffered severe fatigue, headaches and nausea before requiring treatment on oxygen. In all, WTHR reported that at least 12 workers were transported or sought care at local emergency rooms for carbon monoxide exposure symptoms.
The building, which consolidated multiple municipal and judicial offices when it opened in the summer of 2025, is barely a year old, according to the same WTHR report — a detail that has investigators looking at design and mechanical issues rather than the wear and tear typically blamed for gas leaks in older structures. It is not the campus's first brush with a gas scare. The building had a confirmed gas leak in late June that was traced to its boilers, and employees reported becoming sick during that earlier incident as well, per the Indianapolis Star. Detectors sounded during the June leak and the building was evacuated, but investigators have not identified a cause of the more recent potential carbon monoxide leak.
Testing Turns Up Nothing, But Blood Tests Tell a Different Story
CenterPoint Energy and the Martinsville Fire Department conducted immediate testing at the building on July 28 but detected no active gas leaks or elevated carbon monoxide readings, according to a county press release posted on IN.gov. That gap between what monitors show and what happened to workers' bodies is the central puzzle of the case. Newly installed detectors and professional-grade monitors placed on all three floors of the Judicial Campus have not sounded alarms since testing began, the Indianapolis Star reported, even as employees kept arriving at hospitals with elevated carbon monoxide levels.
The discrepancy may come down to biology rather than a false alarm. Because carboxyhemoglobin levels in the blood can decline rapidly once a person breathes fresh air or receives oxygen, hospital blood tests can confirm past exposure even after ambient air readings return to normal, according to clinical guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also notes that unintentional carbon monoxide poisoning causes more than 100,000 emergency department visits nationally every year, with early symptoms — headaches, dizziness, nausea — often mistaken for the flu. Under Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, workplace air is not supposed to exceed 50 parts per million of carbon monoxide averaged over an eight-hour shift, a threshold investigators are working to determine whether the building ever crossed.
Morgan County ran its own informal test to try to bridge that gap, organizing four volunteers to have their blood carbon monoxide levels checked before and after time inside the building. The experiment did not identify the cause of the problem, according to the Indianapolis Star. The local fire department has visited the campus multiple times since the closure began.
State Hazmat Teams and Consultants Join the Search
Morgan County Commissioner Bryan Collier announced on July 29 that the county would keep the Judicial Campus closed until environmental testing teams and state hazmat specialists could fully evaluate the building, according to the county's press release on IN.gov. Beyond state health and fire marshal personnel, the county brought in specialists from the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, the release said. The Indianapolis Star reported that Morgan County has also enlisted the Indiana Fire Marshal, the Indiana Department of Health and Clark County Emergency Management, and has hired two outside consulting firms to help pin down what is making people sick.
Despite the extensive involvement, a cause has not been identified, and the Judicial Campus will remain closed at least through the end of the week, per the Indianapolis Star's reporting.
Court Business Moves to Zoom, Services Scatter Across Martinsville
With the building shuttered, county government has had to improvise. Court hearings are being conducted over Zoom while the campus remains closed, and Martinsville City Hall has taken in the Morgan County Clerk's Office along with some court services, according to the Indianapolis Star. Kyle Swalls is working to establish mobile offices for county staff, and has said more satellite locations will be set up if the closure drags on beyond the week.
The Morgan County Health Department has temporarily relocated its public administrative, vital records, septic permit and nursing operations to the basement of the Morgan County Public Library branch at 110 S. Jefferson Street, according to county updates. For now, the county's newest and most modern government building — built to bring services together under one roof — sits closed and empty while officials chase an invisible gas that keeps making people sick without leaving a trace behind.
