Iowa Man Gets 53 Months for Tipton Jail Bomb Threat

Jermaine Dickerson, 41, of Ankeny, Iowa — formerly of Brighton, Tennessee — is headed to federal prison for 53 months after pleading guilty to phoning in a bomb threat to the Tipton County Jail in March 2016. The call, made from Iowa to the jail at 1801 South College Street in Covington, Tennessee, triggered a full-scale lockdown and emergency response, wasting critical law enforcement resources on a hoax.

Dickerson dialed the jail on March 6, 2016, threatening staff and demanding inmates be released or he would blow up the facility. The threat was serious enough to prompt immediate deployment of emergency response teams, who swept the grounds for explosives. No device was found. The investigation quickly traced the call to a phone registered to Dickerson, who admitted to FBI agents he made the call but claimed he didn’t know why and meant no harm. Records show he’d been booked into the same jail over 40 times before.

In a sharp escalation, Dickerson failed to appear for his scheduled sentencing on October 19, 2017, before U.S. District Judge Sheryl H. Lipman. That no-show triggered a new federal charge. U.S. Marshals tracked him down and arrested him in Iowa on November 6, 2017. His criminal conduct only deepened the case against him, stacking another count onto his record for failure to appear.

On February 8, 2018, Judge Lipman handed down a 53-month sentence, followed by three years of supervised release. The judge emphasized the danger false bomb threats pose to public safety and the burden they place on stretched emergency services. Dickerson’s history with the Tipton County Jail raised questions about motive, though none was ever clearly established.

“This office, along with our federal and local law enforcement partners, are vigilant to protect and prevent attacks on any critical infrastructure sites in West Tennessee, including correctional facilities,” said U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant. “False reports of explosives cause law enforcement agencies to unnecessarily expend scarce and valuable government resources to respond, at the expense of taxpayers.”

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the Tipton County Sheriff’s Office, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Hall prosecuting. The conviction stands as a stark warning: even empty threats carry real prison time.

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