A South Point couple who were arrested in connection with a bomb threat phoned into the Lawrence County Jail opted Wednesday to bypass the grand jury and pleaded guilty on a bill of information under an agreement with the Lawrence County Prosecutor’s Office.

James Christopher Brown, 22, of 103 Columbus St., pleaded guilty to one count of making a false alarm. As per the plea agreement, Lawrence County Common Pleas Judge Charles Cooper sentenced Brown to four years community controlled sanctions and ordered him to continue mental health counseling.

James Brown’s attorney, Warren Morford, told Cooper the bomb threat was the result of his client’s “mental health issues” and that he was thankful the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office and Ironton Police Department were agreeable to James Brown’s sentence.

“I believe this agreement is in the public’s best interest and it is in this young man’s best interest,” Morford said. “His wife has arranged counseling. My client has indicated he wants medication and he wants to continue treatment. This young man got off his medication; he didn’t mean to cause a problem. He certainly didn’t mean to harm anybody. I don’t think we’ll see him in here again.”

When asked if he had anything to say, Brown said he apologized for what had happened.

His wife, Summer Brown, 18, pleaded guilty to making false alarms. Cooper sentenced her to four years community controlled sanctions as well.

On July 1, a man phoned in a bomb threat to the jail and Lawrence County 911 dispatchers traced the telephone call to a pay phone near the Pine Tree carryout on State Route 93 in Pedro.

While Ironton police searched the perimeter of the jail for a bomb, sheriff’s deputies went to the area around the carryout in search of the culprit who phoned in the threat.

Once there, witnesses told authorities they had seen a white male wearing a bathrobe and a towel over his head just run into the woods near an ATV trail close to the carryout only a few minutes before then. James Brown was apprehended shortly thereafter and the bathrobe and towel were confiscated. His wife was apprehended in a vehicle parked in the area.