National Roundup

South Carolina
Nursing home sued over woman killed by alligator
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — A nursing home in South Carolina is being sued after a 90-year-old woman walked away from the facility last year and was killed by an alligator.

The Post and Courier of Charleston reports the lawsuit filed this week seeks damages of more than $10,000. The lawsuit says Bonnie Walker walked away from Brookdale Senior Living center shortly after midnight July 27, but employees didn’t discover that she was missing until seven hours later.

Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten says investigators think Walker slipped or fell into a pond and an alligator attacked her.

The suit was filed by Walker’s granddaughter, Stephanie Walker Weaver. It says Brookdale failed to adequately monitor Walker or conduct a timely search.

Illinois
Man charged with threatening to assassinate President Trump
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois man has been charged after posting online several times that he wants to assassinate President Donald Trump.

Joseph Lynn Pickett of Edwardsville was charged June 15 with threatening the president of the United States, the Belleville News-Democrat reported.

U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Vincent Pescitelli said in a criminal complaint that Pickett “did knowingly and willfully make a threat to take the life of, to kidnap, and to inflict bodily harm” against Trump on Facebook.

The posts included frequent profanity as well as detailed death threats to the president.

After making the online threats, Pickett also posted several times that he was “still waiting” for the Secret Service to come arrest him.

The complaint said two of Pickett’s co-workers at Lowes contacted the Secret Service indicating that Pickett had posted threatening messages against Trump on Facebook.

Pickett also bragged about having weapons.

“Please call the Cops on me now so I have an,excuse to use my firepower .... AR 15, AK 47, s and w 40, Sig sauer 9 mm. Oh I’m so afraid of the police now..,” he wrote.

Pickett will be detained until a trial because the court can’t ensure the safety of other people in the community due to “mental instability,” according to court documents.

New York
Diocese sets up   compensation program for sex abuse victims
NEW YORK (AP) — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn announced Thursday it is setting up a compensation program for victims of past sexual abuse by priests, modeled after a program the larger New York archdiocese started last year.

“I am well aware that no amount of money will ever heal the scars of abuse, but this program is a concrete expression of our contrition and our desire to make amends, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzo said.

DiMarzo said the diocese will take out a loan to pay the claims and will not use money intended to support parishes, schools or charitable works. He did not specify the loan amount.

The program will be administered by Kenneth Feinberg and Camille Biros, who are also running the New York archdiocese program. They will review claims and determine how much money to offer.

Under the first phase of the program, the diocese is contacting about 235 people who previously reported being abused when they were minors and explaining how to file a claim. The deadline for filing a claim under Phase 1 will be Sept. 30.

People with claims of abuse not previously reported will be eligible to apply for compensation under the second phase.

Carolyn Erstad, a spokeswoman for the diocese, said previously reported abuse allegations go back as far as 1934. She said families can apply for compensation if the victim is deceased.

Feinberg also served as administrator of the compensation funds for Sept. 11 victims’ families and victims of the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The New York archdiocese program that he and Biros have been running since October 2016 has paid 120 claims so far, with no claimants rejecting their offers, Biros said.

DiMarzo said the diocese has referred all claims of sexual misconduct against a minor to the appropriate district attorney. But New York’s statute of limitations makes most of them impossible to prosecute.

The state Senate declined this week to take up a bill to extend the statute of limitations in child sex abuse cases.

The Brooklyn diocese includes the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The New York archdiocese includes Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island and seven counties north of the city.


Missouri
Man charged with giving 7-year-old girl gum to pose nude
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Kansas City, Missouri, man is charged with child pornography after prosecutors say he gave a 7-year-old girl a pack of gum to pose for nude photos.

The Kansas City Star reports 44-year-old Dennis Everette is charged in federal court with production of child pornography. His attorney with the Federal Public Defender’s office didn’t immediately return a phone message from The Associated Press.

Court documents say someone discovered the pictures after borrowing Everette’s cellphone and called the girl’s mother. The mother then contacted police.

The girl told investigators Everette told her that if she took some pictures, he would give her a surprise and that the surprise was a pack of gum. He is accused of having her take off her clothes and telling her how to pose.

Arkansas
Worker bitten in tussle over stripper pole
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Police in Little Rock say a mall worker wrestled away a stripper pole from a would-be thief who bit the employee during the struggle.

According to police, a woman entered a Spencer’s store in Little Rock’s Park Plaza Mall at midday Wednesday and tried to return an item. A police report says that the woman became frustrated when she was refused money and tried to leave with a stripper pole instead.

Little Rock television station KATV reports that the woman bit the worker’s arm during a struggle. But police say the employee was able to take back the stripper pole, valued at $40, and the woman ran away.

Police say no arrests have been made.