The former Bainbridge High School security guard blamed for causing an island-wide school lockdown last year after placing a phony 911 call about a student with a gun reached an agreement in court earlier this week to avoid a trial and jail time in exchange for a promise of good behavior.

The long-awaited finale of the high-profile case concluded a full year of investigation, deliberation and anticipation on the part of Bainbridge authorities and residents.

Facing a misdemeanor charge of false reporting, Michael Alexander Krysinski, 50, signed a pre-trial diversion agreement and an updated no-contact order in Bainbridge Island Municipal Court Monday, March 20.

Per the agreement, Krysinksi is to have no contact, direct or indirect, with any Bainbridge Island School District employees or students. He was also ordered to stay away from school district property for the next two years.

Krysinski is also prohibited from obtaining or possessing a firearm or other dangerous weapons and is prohibited from obtaining a concealed pistol license. He must also stay out of legal trouble for two years.

Firearms that Krysinksi did own are being held by the Bainbridge Island Police Department until completion or dismissal of the agreement, though he may legally sell them through a licensed dealer if he chooses.

Additionally, Krysinkski has been ordered to pay $1,500 in restitution to the Bainbridge Island Police Department by way of reimbursement after an officer was reportedly injured during the emergency response at BHS.

Krysinski was arrested April 15, 2016, just two days after an anonymous 911 call prompted an emergency lock-down of BHS at lunchtime.

A dozen or so units from Bainbridge, Poulsbo and Kitsap County quickly converged on campus as students were warned over the school’s intercom that it was not a drill. Two adjoining schools — Commodore Options and Ordway Elementary — were also put on lockdown after the call.

No one was injured and no gun was found after a roughly 30-minute sweep of the sprawling high school campus by multiple police officers in tactical gear, some carrying assault rifles at the ready.

The call was quickly ascertained as having come from inside the school. An anonymous caller was recorded claiming a student had a gun and had just walked into the cafeteria before then quickly hanging up.

Police soon identified Krysinski as the person who allegedly made the call after they got a copy of the 911 recording and it was played to administrators and other school employees at BHS.

The case was presented Monday to Judge Sara L. McColloch by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Alexander Takos, with Paul Cullen representing Krysinski.

Takos noted that the short 911 call left room for doubt, and prosecutors would have difficulty proving it was Krysinski’s voice if the case were to go to trial.

“The city believes this is an appropriate resolution to the case,” Takos said. “While the allegations and the police report are certainly very concerning and very serious, I think they report potential proof issues if this were to ever go to trial.

“I think mainly, for both sides, the case was based on, as Mr. Cullen put it, ‘ear-witness’ testimony identifying the defendant’s voice and that is the essentially sole basis for the city’s case,” he explained. “It’s not a lock-down case, so I do think this is an appropriate resolution.”

Cullen said he was in agreement, saying there existed enough uncertainty to make a trial ill-advised for all involved.

“The nature of the pre-trial diversion agreement is balanced by both party’s concerns,” Cullen said, adding that Krysinski had no previous criminal record and had worked in the security field for 25 years.

“This case was extensively investigated,” Cullen said. “It’s frustrating, frankly, that there’s no science that can listen to 12 words and tell us what we want to know, and that’s from the FBI. We can’t do that and really there’s a variety of countervailing issues and circumstances.”

The gun scare was harmful to students, staff and others, according to those who submitted letters to the judge before Monday’s hearing.

“This was an extremely traumatic situation for students, staff, and many parents,” Bainbridge Island School District Superintendent Peter Bang-Knudsen wrote in a letter to the Kitsap County Prosecutor’s Office. “The fear and insecurity resulting from the situation were significant and long lasting.”

As Krysinski was employed as a security guard, Bang-Knudsen said, his actions “constitute a particularly egregious breach of trust.”

At least one parent also was moved to put feelings in writing. A Bainbridge woman with children enrolled in two island schools, and a third who recently graduated, wrote: “He abused [his] position and put hundreds of children at risk. Misdemeanor charges are much too low for the traumatic experiences Bainbridge Island as a community had to go through.”

She encouraged authorities to prosecute Krysinski to “the full extent of the law.”

McColloch acknowledged both the impact on Bainbridge and the uncertainty of the evidence in her final remarks.

“I am aware of the fear that this incident inflicted on the community,” the judge said.

“Only you know whether or not you perpetrated this incident or not,” she told Krysinkski. “I think it’s important to be reflective about what happened here and the harm that was inflicted through the call and the culture of fear that it allowed to continue because of the high-profile incidents that have happened all around the country.”