A Lawrence man charged with threatening to shoot a Douglas County Sheriff’s deputy has reached a diversion agreement.

Rob W. Phillips, 61, a booster of Old West tourism who formerly owned the Eldridge Hotel, 701 Mass., was charged with making a criminal threat and battering a law-enforcement officer on Jan. 23, 2005. Prosecutors claimed Phillips threatened and battered Deputy Clark Rials, who was dispatched to Phillips’ home after his wife called 911 saying she thought her husband was suicidal.

In an agreement reached earlier this month, Dist. Atty. Charles Branson’s office agreed to suspend prosecution of Phillips and to give him diversion.

A standard diversion agreement is for prosecutors to drop charges against someone if they meet a set of requirements and stay out of trouble for a given time period.