National Roundup

California
FBI: Man harassed ­Parkland families via Instagram
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A California man is accused of using Instagram to “harass and intimidate” the families of students killed in a mass shooting at a Florida high school.

A criminal complaint filed in federal court says Brandon Fleury of Santa Ana, California, began the taunts Dec. 22 using different accounts which were traced to an IP address in Santa Ana, where Fleury lives with his father and brother. He was arrested Friday.

Special Agent Cameron McDowell wrote in a 12-page report filed Friday that Fleury showed no remorse when questioned Jan. 16. He admitted to fascination with the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Fleury’s father, Patrick Fleury, told the SunSentinel it was a “bunch of nonsense” and declined to say whether his son has a lawyer.

Nevada
DA clears Reno school officer in wounding of ­student in 2016
RENO, Nev. (AP) — The top prosecutor in Reno has cleared a campus police officer in the shooting of a teenager who slashed one student and waved knives at others in a high school courtyard in December 2016.

Washoe County District Attorney Chris Hicks issued a report Tuesday finding that Officer Cory Coombes was justified in wounding then-14-year-old Logan Clark during the incident at Hug High School.

Clark was arrested on an unrelated firearm charge, but he was sent to a treatment center in Texas after a psychological evaluation determined he wasn’t competent for trial.

Hicks says more than 100 witnesses were interviewed, and investigators viewed cellphone video as part of his prosecutorial review.

He says Coombes encountered a “grim situation” with people in danger and wounded Clark with one gunshot after Clark refused multiple commands to drop the knives.

Arizona
Nurse arrested in case of ­incapacitated woman who gave birth
PHOENIX (AP) — Phoenix police say a licensed practical nurse has been arrested on a charge of sexual assault in the impregnation of an incapacitated woman who gave birth last month at a long-term health care facility.

Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams said Wednesday that investigators arrested 36-year-old Nathan Sutherland on one count of sexual assault and one count of vulnerable adult abuse.

Williams says Sutherland worked at the Hacienda HealthCare facility where the woman lived and had been providing care to her.

The 29-year-old victim has been incapacitated since the age of 3 and gave birth to a boy at the facility on Dec. 29.

Employees said they had no idea she was pregnant. Court records say her last known physical was in April.

Florida
Judge: No ­contempt for sheriff over school shooting records
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida judge has denied an effort by defense attorneys to hold the Broward Sheriff’s Office in contempt of court for releasing suspect Nikolas Cruz’s medical records to a state investigative commission.

The order dated Tuesday by Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer says the records release was limited, not done in bad faith and was an isolated incident. Scherer also says the sheriff’s office may not have been aware of restrictions she had placed on the records.

Cruz’s medical records were provided last summer to the commission created to investigate the February 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in which 17 people were killed. They have not been made public.
Defense lawyers wanted Scherer to hold a hearing on whether the sheriff’s office should be found in contempt of court for a violating her previous order limiting release of the records.

Cruz, 20, faces the death penalty. His lawyers have offered a guilty plea in return for life in prison.

Meanwhile, a California man is accused of using Instagram to “harass and intimidate” the families of students killed in the shooting.

A criminal complaint filed in federal court says Brandon Fleury of Santa Ana, California, began the taunts Dec. 22 using different accounts which were traced to an IP address in Santa Ana, where Fleury lives with his father and brother. He was arrested Friday.

Special Agent Cameron McDowell wrote in a 12-page report filed Friday that Fleury showed no remorse when questioned Jan. 16 and that he admitted to fascination with the mass shooting.

Fleury’s father, Patrick Fleury, told the SunSentinel it was a “bunch of nonsense” and declined to say whether his son has a lawyer.

Pennsylvania
Coroner: Couple found dead stabbed each other in ­altercation
WILLIAMSBURG, Pa. (AP) — A coroner has ruled that a Pennsylvania couple found dead earlier this week inflicted fatal knife wounds on each other.

The (Altoona) Mirror reports that the Blair County coroner ruled the deaths of 49-year-old Sheldon Appleman and 30-year-old Cassandra Appleman a double homicide. State police said the two were found dead Monday at the Woodbury Township home.

Coroner Patty Ross said it’s unclear how the altercation that led to the couple’s deaths began. She said the man’s wounds couldn’t have been self-inflicted because of the angle of the knife entry, and an autopsy indicated that the woman likely had the knife first and used it on him. Then, Ross said, the man apparently took the knife and turned it on the woman, who had defensive wounds on her arms.

Nebraska
Man in fraud case told to pay more than $130K in restitution
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A 61-year-old Hastings man has been sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for committing health care fraud.

Federal court records say Randy Kirby was sentenced last week and ordered to pay restitution of more than $130,000.

Prosecutors say Kirby operated a mental health practice called Transitions Counseling. Prosecutors say that between September 2013 and September 2016, Kirby submitted to Nebraska Medicaid false claims for reimbursement for services that he couldn’t show he’d rendered.

He pleaded guilty last October.