HAMMOND | After three tours of heavy action in Iraq, Thomas Slapnicker was treated at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., for bipolar disorder, Slapnicker and his lawyer said Thursday.

When he came home to suburban Cleveland and found his wife was seeing another man, Slapnicker snapped into a pattern of "aberrant behavior," said his lawyer, Bryan Truitt.

Slapnicker admitted in Hammond federal court Thursday, per a plea agreement, that his behavior included threatening to kill Lake Station City Judge Christopher Anderson, his wife's new "intimate partner," as he is described in court records.

Slapnicker, 27, pleaded guilty to making the threatening phone call to his wife in February. He faces as many as five years in prison, but Truitt hopes his client will be sentenced to time already served since February.

"He realizes how ridiculous his actions were for this very short period of time," Truitt said.

Truitt said Slapnicker, who has a young daughter with his wife, has limited hearing in one ear because of machine gun fire in Iraq. Slapnicker, short and muscular, was wounded with shrapnel, and he rode in a vehicle that was blown up, killing others aboard, Truitt said. Records released to The Times by the Army confirm Slapnicker served from October 2002 to August 2007. Slapnicker was placed on temporary disability status after he retired, according to the records. Slapnicker was awarded seven medals and badges, including the Combat Action Badge.

Slapnicker told Senior Judge Rudy Lozano he was prescribed the antidepressant Celexa for his bipolar disorder. He said he remains on the medication.

The federal investigation into Slapnicker, who is jailed in Chicago, started when someone set fire to Anderson's 2006 Nissan Altima early one morning in late January or early February, Lake Station Police Chief Mike Stills has said. Anderson told police Slapnicker had been harassing and threatening him, and Anderson suggested Slapnicker as a suspect in the fire, Stills has said. Slapnicker has not been charged in the fire.

On Feb. 12, a Hammond federal judge authorized use of a "trap and trace" device that led federal agents to Slapnicker's phone, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Trumbull-Harris said. Slapnicker called his wife that night, and the call was recorded. Trumbull-Harris read the transcript aloud in court Thursday, and Slapnicker agreed the reading was accurate.

Slapnicker was recorded pointedly and profanely asking whether his wife would see Anderson that night. When she refused to say if she planned to see Anderson, Slapnicker threatened to beat Anderson.

In one of the transcript's only profanity-free sentences, Slapnicker ended his diatribe with, "He's dead."

In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors have pledged to drop charges Slapnicker used a MySpace page and other sites to invite people to his wife's home for sexual favors. Prosecutors also claimed Slapnicker also posed online as Anderson, aiming to make the judge look like a racist pedophile and inviting people to the judge's correct home address.

Anderson could not be reached for comment Thursday.

A psychiatric evaluation found Slapnicker fit for trial.

Prosecutors have agreed to ask Lozano for a sentence at the low end of sentencing range calculated by the federal probation department under congressional guidelines. Truitt said he hopes his client is sentenced to time served before Christmas. Lozano repeatedly reminded Slapnicker the judge decides the sentence.

"I have the final say," Lozano said.