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UNION — A Union man arrested in April for bringing a homemade bomb to Wallace Thomson Hospital was sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty in General Sessions Court this past week.

Jeffrey Glenn Rash, 51, 130 Stepp Road, Union, pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a destructive device and was sentenced by Judge Lee S. Alford of York to two years in prison suspended upon 18 months with credit for time served (one day), sentences to run concurrently.

Rash was arrested on April 13 after nurses and security personnel at the hospital found a homemade bomb in a bag he’d brought with him when he was admitted to the hospital two days earlier. The bomb was taken outside the hospital where a SLED explosives technician neutralized it. In a briefing to the media, Union County Sheriff David Taylor said that while the bomb was small in size, if it had been detonated it would have destroyed the third floor of the hospital because of all the oxygen systems in use.

After the bomb was discovered, the hospital was swept by deputies, SLED agents and personnel and bomb-sniffing dogs from the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office Bomb Squad for any other explosive devices but none were found. A search of Rash’s home, however, turned up seven pipe bombs in a dresser. The bombs, which were a mixture of metal pipes and PVC pipes, were taken to the Union County Firing Range where five were safely detonated by SLED agents and the bomb squad while the other two were dismantled and kept as evidence along with the bomb found at the hospital.

Shortly after his arrest, Rash, who was initially allowed to remain in the hospital under guard while he received medical treatment, said he’d meant no harm and had brought the bomb to the hospital by mistake. He declined, however, to reveal to authorities his motives for building the bombs.

After being released from the hospital, Rash was transported to the Union County Jail where Union County Magistrate Jimmy Crocker set his bond at $20,000, ordered him to wear an electronic monitoring device, and placed him under house arrest.

Editor Charles Warner can be reached at 864-427-1234, ext. 14, or by email at cwarner@civitasmedia.com.