JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A man sentenced to just one day in jail five years ago is accused of taking an attorney hostage Wednesday, then called the mayor to demand that a judge resign or he would blow up the 13th floor of the Riverplace Tower.

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Suspect Delivers Video Statement, Promises To 'Make News' Sheriff, Mayor Describe Hostage Situation Suspect Gave 90 Minutes Deadline For Judge Tanner To Resign WJXT Cooperates In Resignation Hoax Hundreds Confused But Calm As They Evacuate High-Rise Slideshow Of Evacuation, Resignation, Surrender

Police said John Knight used a fake ID to get a into the Southbank building just before 11:30 a.m.

Confirming that an attorney with Rogers-Towers Attorneys At Law was being held hostage and that the man claimed to have a pipe bomb, police ordered the evacuation of the 28-story building. Minutes later, dozens of SWAT team and bomb squad officers entered the building.

Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton said that while he knew the hostage, now identified as Rogers-Towers attorney Chris Hazelip, he said the suspect called him because he was the highest ranking official in the city.

"I was on the phone with this suspect for 45 minutes, trying to keep him on the phone and keep him calm," Peyton said.

Sheriff John Rutherford said the suspect demanded that Duval County Judge Sharon Tanner go on live television and resign within 90 minutes "or there would be consequences."

This was his only demand.

"Judge Tanner was contacted and graciously agreed to do this in an effort to save lives," Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Chief Mark Bowen said.

"Effective immediately, I do hereby resign my position as county judge," Tanner said live on Channel 4 about 1 p.m.

The city's General Counsel told Channel 4 the resignation was not binding, and police later said Tanner was brought in to cooperate with police negotiators in an effort to save lives.

"The city would at no time actually force the resignation from any official under these circumstances," Bowen said.

Rutherford said that Knight actually released Hazelip and gave up shortly before Tanner made the TV announcement.

Knight was taken into custody, but it wasn't immediately known what charges he would face. A loaded 9 mm handgun was found at the scene, but there was no evidence of a bomb.

Channel 4 learned that Knight appeared before Tanner in 1999 on a charge of domestic battery. Although he was convicted of a lesser misdemeanor charge of fighting and served a total of one day in jail, he told Peyton he lost his job as a result.

Police said they did not know why Hazelip or the law firm was targeted. No attorney appeared with Knight when he appeared before Tanner in 1999.

In a DVD Knight delivered to the WJXT newsroom Wednesday, he claims "I had a woman judge discriminate against me for no better reason than I'm a man, then she went out of her way to cruelly and unusually punish me."

He called Tanner a liar.

"Life's tough enough as it is. I don't need a judge picking on me just because she can," Knight said. "What Judge Tanner did to me changed my life forever."

The Evacuation

Everyone inside what many know as the Southtrust building heard an announcement on the public address system just before noon: Police ordering everyone out of the building, but warned people not to use the elevators.

A manager with Southtrust bank told Channel 4's Bruce Hamilton that everyone was asked to leave "as quickly as possible."

"My boss called from outside the building ... and said, 'Have you heard the word?'" one woman told Channel 4.

Several hundred people, including children from a day-care center, were evacuated. The children were taken into the Radisson Hotel, about two blocks away.

"My daughter is in the building, so I ran down and got her," another said.

Police diverted traffic from Riverplace Boulevard, which runs by the building, and asked the media to back up from the area. Construction workers at an adjoining work site were also asked to leave.

Channel 4's Scott Johnson said people coming out of the building were confused about why they were leaving but were calm. He said that as the children were leaving, they passed SWAT team members wearing armor and carrying machine guns headed toward the building.

Just after 2 p.m., the bomb squad finished sweeping the building for explosive devices and police reopened the building, but many of the people who work inside had gone home for the day.