National Roundup . . .

Tennessee
Lawmaker gets threats for AR-15 giveaway
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee lawmaker says his office has received threats for planning to give away the same type of semi-automatic rifle used by a gunman in the massacre of 49 people at an Orlando nightclub.

Republican state Rep. Andy Holt is a staunch gun rights supporter. Before the shootings happened, he had offered the AR-15 as a door prize at a fundraiser scheduled for later this month. When he was heavily criticized following Sunday’s shootings, he said he would give away a second one as well.

State Democratic Party Chair Mary Mancini on Monday remarked that the winner of the raffle could be “the next mass shooter.”
Holt said his office was contacted repeatedly by an anonymous caller who said he was armed and threatened to pay him a visit.

Connecticut
Newtown parents offer to settle  for $5.5M apiece
DANBURY, Conn. (AP) — The parents of two children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting massacre are offering to settle their wrongful death lawsuit against Newtown, Connecticut, and its school system for $5.5 million apiece.

The parents of Jesse Lewis and Noah Pozner filed the settlement offers Monday in Danbury Superior Court. A lawyer for the town and the school board declined to comment Tuesday.

The lawsuit alleges security measures at the school weren’t adequate when Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 first-graders and six educators in 2012. The other victims’ parents aren’t part of the lawsuit.

In another lawsuit, the families of nine victims and a teacher who survived are suing Madison, North Carolina-based Remington Arms, the parent company of Bushmaster Firearms, which made the semi-automatic rifle used in the shootings.

Florida
Baby sitter accused of ­teaching boy to set off bombs
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a Florida man faces multiple charges after he was apparently showing a 10-year-old boy he was babysitting how to set off acid bombs.

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter says in a news release that a deputy working an off-duty detail in a subdivision heard a loud explosion Monday. He went to a nearby park and saw 30-year-old Joshua Stephen Lapin-Bertone setting off acid bombs.

An arrest report says Lapin-Bertone “had the juvenile” throwing the bombs. Investigators found additional chemicals used to make acid bombs in the babysitter’s car.

Carter says the child’s mother took custody of her son.

Lapin-Bertone was released on bond. He’s charged with four counts of making/placing/discharging a destructive device and four counts of child neglect.
Jail records show he doesn’t have a lawyer.

Illinois
Chicago-area mosques receive threats after Orlando shootings
CHICAGO (AP) — Muslim mosques in and around Chicago report receiving threats in the wake of the weekend shootings in an Orlando nightclub that left 49 people dead.

As a result of the threats, Hani Atassi of the Mecca Center in Willowbrook says the center is reinstalling a security fence around the facility. Atassi says the barrier was removed two weeks ago. However, hostile emails and “a lot of fearful members of our community” have prompted its return.

Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago chairman Mohammed Kaiseruddin and others offered condolences to those killed by Omar Mateen. The 29-year-old U.S. citizen professed his allegiance to the Islamic State in calls to 911 during the attack at Pulse nightclub.

Kaiseruddin said the emailed threats resulting from the shooting early Sunday were forwarded to the FBI.

Maine
Man charged in woman’s fatal heart attack pleads not guilty
ALFRED, Maine (AP) — A man accused of causing a Maine woman’s fatal heart attack by knocking on her door and windows during a 2015 attempted burglary has pleaded not guilty to felony murder.

The Portland Press Herald reports 24-year-old Carlton Young entered the plea Monday in Alfred in the death of 62-year-old Connie Loucks. He had previously pleaded not guilty to multiple burglary charges.

The Sanford man was initially accused of being part of a burglary ring in southern Maine. Authorities say he and at least one other person broke into Loucks’ home when she wasn’t there on March 21, 2015 and returned the following day to break in again.

Prosecutors brought the murder charge after Young backed out of a scheduled plea and sentencing hearing May 10 to the burglary charges.

Arkansas
Judge’s lawyers want case ­dismissed in son’s hot car death
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) — Attorneys for a suspended Garland County circuit judge charged in the death of his toddler son, who was left in a hot car, have asked for the case’s dismissal after prosecutors released a detailed timeline of the day the child died.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports that prosecutors filed the sequence of events in court Monday. Defense attorneys argued the documents lacked adequate evidence for a conviction and asked that the case be dismissed.

Judge Wade Naramore has pleaded not guilty to negligent homicide in the July 24 death of his 18-month-old son, Thomas. His attorneys have said that the incident was “a tragedy but not a crime.”

In the documents filed Monday, prosecutors said Naramore drove to his office and left the toddler in the back seat, instead of following his daily routine of dropping his son off at day care, located two blocks from the courthouse.

Naramore took a voluntary leave of absence several days after his son’s death, but he was suspended with pay by the Arkansas Supreme Court in February at the recommendation of the Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission.

The judge’s trial had been delayed earlier this month. A hearing was set for Tuesday to schedule a trial date.

The case is being handled by a special prosecutor and a special judge after local officials recused themselves, citing their work with Naramore in the Garland County Circuit Court.
If convicted, Naramore faces up to a year in jail and a fine of $2,500.