Mom gets jail for threats Mailings closed schools for day

BANGOR – A Hampden housewife and mother of four with a long history of mental illness was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court to two years in federal prison for writing and mailing bomb threats that shut down three area schools last year.

Jodi Lynn Holmes, 46, faced up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 per count for sending the threats in March to Hampden Academy, Bangor Christian Schools and John Bapst Memorial High School that shut down the schools for a day.

Under the federal sentencing guidelines, the recommended sentence for mailing bomb threats was between 18 and 24 months.

She is expected to receive treatment for her mental health conditions while incarcerated.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock also sentenced Holmes to three years of supervised release but determined she could not afford to pay a fine.

“I readily confess that I do not know who the real Jodi Lynn Holmes is,” the judge said in imposing sentence. “Whether this is one episode and the fact that society has imposed punishment and treatment will be enough or whether this is an artful manipulation of the court remains to be seen.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney James McCarthy, who prosecuted the case, recommended Holmes serve 24 months. Defense attorney Bruce Mallonee of Bangor recommended she be incarcerated for 18 months.

Holmes, who has a history of mental illness, remained calm and showed no emotion at the hearing even when talking about her own children’s reactions to her crime and incarceration. Although Holmes said she regretted that young children had been frightened by her threats, she did not apologize to the school communities or broader Bangor community.

“Why did I send them is a question I have to answer every day in jail,” she said. “I’ll be honest, I don’t know all the reasons. Originally, I said I did it to terrorize but it was more of an attention-getting thing.

“We were at the point of almost losing our home,” she continued. “It made me feel more in control and powerful.”

She has been held without bail since her arrest in May.

Holmes said that while she was being held at the Penobscot County Jail over a portion of the past nine months, she has apologized to the parents of the other inmates whose children were upset over the threats. She said that she did not realize that Bangor Christian Schools has children from preschool through 12th grade when she sent the threats.

“I figured I’d get my frustration out and they’d get a free day,” Holmes told the judge.

She admitted in November when she pleaded guilty that she mailed three nearly identical bomb threats to the schools on March 23. All three included the sentence, “The first bomb will go off at 1:45 p.m. on March 28th.” They were signed “Radar,” according to court documents.

Each letter said one section of each school would be safe. For Hampden Academy, it was the “portable”; for John Bapst, the auditorium; and for Bangor Christian, the gym.

“The week of March 23rd I was feeling angry feelings of terrorizing,” Holmes said in a written statement filed in federal court. “Either bomb threats or threatening phone calls to hospitals or schools.”

She wrote the bomb threat letters while her husband and children were sleeping, according to court documents, and took precautions to keep from being detected. She admitted wearing latex gloves and sealing the envelopes with a wet cloth.

In warning Holmes not to commit other crimes, Woodcock referred to her comments to police that when she heard the schools had been shut down as a result of her threats, she was happy she’d succeeded.

“If you cause other people harm,” he said, “you’ll be sent to a place where you will not be so happy.”

Schools did not request restitution, McCarthy said after the sentencing.

Administrators at Hampden Academy in May placed their costs for the shutdown at about $22,400.

Richard Lyons, superintendent of SAD 22, declined to comment on the sentencing.

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

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