Woman accused of threatening to blow up Leetonia school campus gets jail time, house arrest

LISBON -- The woman accused of threatening to blow up the Leetonia K-12 school in January must serve three days in jail, 15 days house arrest and pay a $1,000 fine plus other costs for an amended charge of inducing panic.

Erin M. McGuire, 37, Chestnut Street, Leetonia, appeared Wednesday afternoon for a pretrial and motions hearing which turned into a plea and sentencing before Columbiana County Municipal Court Judge Danielle Menning.

Accompanied by her defense attorney, Bruce Williams, McGuire entered a no contest plea to the first-degree misdemeanor charge of inducing panic and was found guilty. She had been indicted for a first-degree misdemeanor of aggravated menacing through the county grand jury, with the case referred back to Municipal Court since it was a misdemeanor.

When the incident first happened, McGuire was originally charged with a first-degree felony of making terrorist threats.

When McGuire addressed the court, she said things didn't go the way they were painted to be. She said she never got out of her car, the school was closed and she didn't know the students were there. She commented that she was angered with the busing situation at the school.

"I'm not guilty of inducing panic on anybody," McGuire said.

She also mentioned the kids bullying her child.

Williams called what happened a very unfortunate situation. He didn't file a motion in the case because of what he called the "evolution of discovery," dealing with the evidence and there was a last ditch effort made to resolve the case and it worked. He said his client understood the rights she was giving up with a plea.

"This is going to be a hardship for her, but she understands," he said.

Based on the comments McGuire made, Menning questioned if she was still going forward with the plea and if that was what she wanted to do.

"I can't afford to have a jury find me guilty," McGuire said, adding she can't afford to miss work,

County Assistant Prosecutor Florence Turner relayed the plea agreement and said Leetonia Schools were active participants, along with the other victims, with all cooperative. Turner said she spoke with them Wednesday and they were pleased with the outcome. The jail time and house arrest were negotiated.

Menning sentenced McGuire to 180 days in jail, with 170 days suspended and credit for seven days already served, leaving a balance of three days to serve in jail, with an agreement to report to jail on Sept. 24. She was fined $1,000 and placed on three years probation.

She was told to have no contact with Leetonia Schools outside of school purposes related to her children, such as picking up and dropping off, attending their sporting events and parent-teacher conferences.

She must have a mental health evaluation, complete 75 hours of community service and serve 15 days of electronically-monitored house arrest at her expense. There's a $400 fee just to turn the equipment on, plus a daily fee, with the total coming to nearly $1,000, according to Turner.

The judge told her they want her to be successful on probation. She said everybody has a bad day, but "saying these kind of things in the current climate is not okay, even if you don't think somebody heard."

An affidavit previously filed by Leetonia Police alleged that on Jan. 13, McGuire "did advise two students in front of the school that she was gonna blow up the school."

She then drove off, and through their investigation, Leetonia police officers located her at her home.

According to the police report, the two students were waiting in front of the school for the doors to be unlocked when a black car pulled up and into a parking spot. The driver, a woman, opened her door and was yelling and cursing about the buses and teachers and said she was going to blow up the school, then left the school grounds in the car.

The students reported the incident to the high school principal Tim Fairfield and reviewed video footage with Fairfield and Dan Favazzo, Director of Transportation and Building and Grounds, both identifying the vehicle in question. Officers were able to determine the address and found the vehicle at McGuire's residence on Chestnut Street.