National Roundup

Massachusetts
Man who dragged hotel worker under truck gets a year in jail
DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts man who ran over a hotel worker and dragged her more than 3 miles to her death has been sentenced to a year behind bars.

The Sun Chronicle reports that 25-year-old Moses Acloque also was sentenced this week in Norfolk Superior Court to three years’ probation.

The Norwood man was convicted last month of charges including motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of a fatal accident in the 2013 death of 58-year-old Kanchanben Patel.

Authorities say Acloque was squatting in a vacant room at Arbor Inn on U.S. Route 1 in Wrentham and was confronted by management. When he fled in a pickup truck, he struck Patel, who became lodged under the vehicle.

Acloque eventually pulled over behind a restaurant in Foxborough, where he was arrested.

Georgia
TSA worker fired after missing loaded gun in bag at airport
ATLANTA (AP) — A Transportation Security Administration screener has been fired after authorities say she missed a loaded handgun in a passenger’s carry-on bag at Atlanta’s airport.

WSB-TV reported Thursday that Atlanta police say passenger Katrina Jackson of Hoover, Alabama, was looking for her passport inside her purse and noticed her .38-caliber handgun Sunday while at the gate at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Jackson told officers, who confiscated her gun and bag.

TSA officials said in a statement that the worker who failed to see the handgun already was on probation and was fired.

Police say Jackson told officers she had a permit from Alabama to carry the gun, but didn’t have it on her. Jackson was arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a handgun.

Pennsylvania
Norman Rockwell painting stolen in 1976 recovered
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The FBI has recovered a 1919 Norman Rockwell painting stolen more than 40 years ago from a New Jersey home.

The painting, sometimes called “Lazybones” or “Boy Asleep with Hoe,” graced the cover of the Sept. 6, 1919, edition of the Saturday Evening Post. The oil-on-canvas piece was among several items taken during a 1976 break-in in Cherry Hill, a Philadelphia suburb.

Susan Murta tells The Philadelphia Inquirer the FBI did a great job. She last saw the painting in her parents’ home in 1976. Her parents are now deceased.

An Inquirer story last year said the owner forked over $75 for it after accidentally damaging the painting with a pool cue in 1954. It’s now believed worth more than $1 million.

It’s unclear how the painting was recovered.

Florida
Police: Mom beats up daughter’s rival at school
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — A mother faces multiple charges after police said she went to a South Florida high school during dismissal and knocked the cellphone out of the hand of her daughter’s rival, while hitting the girl several times.

But the Monday afternoon confrontation didn’t end there, police said in an arrest report for Ernstlatta LaFrance, 30. When the Carol City High School student went to LaFrance’s nearby townhome to get her phone, the woman broke the teen’s middle finger and destroyed her car with an ax.

LaFrance’s partner, Erlisa Evans, 28, stepped outside the home and fired a gun into the air three times, according to an arrest report. She’s now facing charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and firing a gun into the air.

The Miami Herald reports the incident was sparked by an earlier fight between LaFrance’s daughter and a group of girls at the Miami-Dade County Fair & Exposition.

LaFrance also posted a video of the fight on Facebook, warning “those messing with her daughter to be aware,” the report said.

“The defendant also bragged on Facebook telling the victim that suffering two black eyes was not the end and she would use a gun,” the officer wrote in the arrest report.

LaFrance now faces a number of charges including strong-armed robbery, child abuse and aggravated battery and is being held on a $38,000 bond. Jail records don’t list an attorney for LaFrance or Evans.

Tennessee
Proposal to name God as source of liberty resurrected
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A previously defeated proposal to amend the state constitution to say that God is the source of Tennesseans’ liberties has been resurrected in the House.

The measure sponsored by Republican Rep. Micah Van Huss of Jonesborough failed on a 3-3 vote in the House Civil Justice Subcommittee earlier this month. But the panel agreed to a motion to reconsider the bill made by Republican Rep. Martin Daniel of Knoxville.

The resolution is scheduled to be reheard April 5.

The proposed addition to the Tennessee Constitution would read: “We recognize that our liberties do not come from governments, but from almighty God.”

Amending the state constitution is a lengthy process in Tennessee. Proposed changes must pass during one successive General Assemblies and then be approved by voters in a gubernatorial election year.

California
Court clerk pleads guilty in California case-fixing scheme
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A former California Superior Court clerk has pleaded guilty in a bribery scheme in which more than 1,000 cases were illegally fixed without knowledge of prosecutors or judges.

In a plea agreement filed last week, Jose Lopez Jr. admitted that he was at the center of a scheme in which co-conspirators paid him as much as $8,000 in bribes.

He entered his plea Wednesday and sentencing was set for Sept. 22.

Ten other defendants from Orange County have also pleaded guilty or are expected to.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says Lopez received hundreds of thousands of dollars to illegally resolve tickets for people charged with drunken driving or other traffic offenses.

People who paid the bribes were solicited directly by Lopez or by the other defendants.