Man Who Called In Bomb Threats To Waukesha Courthouse Sentenced

WAUKESHA, WI— Jeffrey Ferrick,55, the person accused of calling in a phony bomb threat in the Waukesha County Courthouse, was sentenced on Tuesday to 18 months in prison.

The Delafield man also must serve two years of extended supervision and also imposed but stayed a second prison sentence in favor of Ferrick serving five years of probation.

A count of felony bail jumping was dismissed but read into the court record as part of a plea agreement, according to online court records.

According to court records, Ferrick pleaded guilty to two counts of felony bomb scares in June.

Waukesha County Sheriff Eric Severson said he first learned of the tip at just before 9 a.m. Monday, Jan. 6 when a then-anonymous tipster contacted a local television station about the threat. The station then alerted Severson of the threat. Authorities say a second call was received at 9:10 a.m. by Waukesha County Communications from a second then-anonymous tipster, who provided similar information to the first call.

"We had about eight minutes to do an analysis. I made the determination that discretion was the better part here," Severson said. "I'm satisfied we took the safest course of action."

Severson said the then-anonymous tipster warned that there were a total of five bombs planted in the building with the first one set to go off at 9 a.m. No bombs ever went off, nor were found.

As part of their investigation, Waukesha Sheriff's officials released a photo of Ferrick after he was spotted at a local hospital that same day. Authorities said the surveillance photo was taken at the Aurora Medical Center in Summit. The second phone call was traced back to the Waukesha Memorial Hospital.

A Waukesha County Sheriff's photo shows Ferrick during the course of the investigation.

Authorities said Ferrick was arrested that afternoon at his home in Delafield.

Scott Anderson, Patch Staff, contributed to this report.