18 year-old Melissa Kruger from De Smet entered a guilty plea to two Class One misdemeanors of making a threat through facebook. Kruger originally faced a felony charge of making terroristic threats along with the misdemeanor charges. The felony charge has been dropped. Kruger was arrested on January 18th after authorities were tipped off that she made numerous threats through Facebook. One of the Facebook posts includes Kruger saying she’ll bring a gun to school and naming the students she would harm. In February she plead not guilty to the charges. However, Monday evening both parties agreed to a plea bargain… which dropped the felony charge. Now she faces two misdemeanors. Each one requires a maximum of one year jail and two thousand dollar fine. A sentencing trial is scheduled for August 3rd. Earlier this year Third Circuit Court Judge David Gienapp placed Kruger on house arrest and banned her from using a computer and facebook. Now, Judge Gienapp lifted the conditions of house arrest and no use of a computer. But Gienapp says he’s maintaing the ban on facebook until sentencing.
(courtesy Travis Burg South Dakota Public Broadcasting)