Man pleads guilty to bomb threat made to thwart traffic stop

CARTHAGE, Mo. – A Missouri man accused of calling in a bomb threat to a high school to try to get out of a traffic stop has pleaded guilty in the case.

Robert Ritter of Carthage in southwestern Missouri entered the plea Monday to a charge of making a false bomb threat. The Joplin Globe reports that Ritter was given a four-year suspended sentence as part of his plea deal and placed on five years of supervised probation.

The 44-year-old Ritter was a passenger in a car that a Jasper County deputy pulled over in November for having expired plates that did not match the vehicle. Authorities said Ritter called in the bomb threat to try to get the deputy to leave the traffic stop and report to the high school.

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Information from: The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, http://www.joplinglobe.com