DAVENPORT, Iowa – A defense attorney argued Thursday that a teen boy brought a loaded gun to school did so in a bid for attention, not to cause any physical harm.

Eight witnesses testified in court as 13-year-old Luke Andrews sat beside his lawyers inside the Scott County Courthouse.

North Scott Junior High School counselor Holly Leinhauser was emotional as she remembered the moments that she worked with another teacher to grab the gun out of the then-12-year-old’s hands.

“Then I asked, ‘What was the intent? What were you trying to do?’ And he said, ‘To end it and end anything’ that got in his way,” Leinhauser told the jury when asked about August 31, 2018.

That’s the day police say Andrews brought a .22 caliber pistol to school.

He is accused of walking into a classroom, telling his peers to get down, pointing the gun at a teacher and pulling the trigger. The safety was reportedly on, preventing the gun from firing.

The boy’s defense attorneys said Andrews never intended to kill anyone.

“What Luke did was attention-seeking behavior,” said defense attorney Meenakshi Brandt. “Not intent to commit murder.”

In an opening statement, Brandt told the jury, “He did bring a gun to school. He did bring it into a classroom. Luke owns that fact.”

The school resource officer held the gun up in court and identified it.

Andrews is on trial in adult court and is charged as a youthful offender.

Prosecutors used their opening statement to remind the jury of the job they have to do to give Andrews a fair trial.

“I will ask you to put aside your sympathy, your bias, and I will ask you to follow the law,” said Julie Walton, Assistant Attorney in Scott County, Iowa.

Court resumes Friday at 9:00 a.m. at the Scott County Courthouse.

via: https://fox2now.com/2019/07/11/teen-who-brought-loaded-gun-to-iowa-school-just-wanted-attention-attorney-says/

Photo Credit: fox2now.com

The reason for her ouster is far more stimulating than any sermon this pastor could have delivered.

The Rev. Dr. Amy Butler, the first woman to lead Manhattan’s famed Riverside Church, lost her lofty post amid complaints that she brought ministers and a congregant on a sex toy shopping spree and then gave one of them an unwanted vibrator as a birthday gift, The Post has learned.

On May 15, Butler allegedly took two Riverside assistant ministers and a female congregant to a sex shop in Minneapolis called the Smitten Kitten, during a religious conference, according to sources familiar with the out-of-town shopping excursion.

At the store, the pastor bought a $200 bunny-shaped blue vibrator called a Beaded Rabbit for one minister — a single mom of two who was celebrating her 40th birthday — as well as more pleasure gadgets for the congregant and herself, sources said.

The female minister didn’t want the sex toy, but accepted it because she was scared not to, sources said.

Butler also offered to buy a toy for the second minister — a gay man in a committed relationship — but he declined, sources said.

Butler, who is known as “Pastor Amy,” and the others were visiting Minneapolis for the 27th annual Festival of Homiletics, a week-long conference at which the 49-year-old pastor presided over the closing worship service.

Neither assistant minister wanted to go to the raunchy store and the male minister repeatedly told Butler they were uncomfortable. Butler said they didn’t have to go, but they “felt pressured” and feared professional retaliation, sources said.

At the register, Butler quipped, “Is this a church business expense?” and “pulled out the church credit card” — although it’s unclear if she actually used it to make the purchase, the source said.

A formal harassment claim was filed days later, prompting the church’s lawyer to hire a third-party investigator who interviewed both assistant ministers and substantiated the claims, sources said.

Butler did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In a New York Times article published online Thursday — after The Post began making calls for this story — her supporters claimed she was let go because she spoke up against harassment and sexism.

But a source familiar with the investigation said Butler and the church mutually parted ways when her position became untenable amid accusations of misconduct — adding that the sex-toy incident was one of “several concerns that the Riverside Church Council had about Amy’s judgement.”

Both parties realized Butler’s position became unworkable after the Minneapolis complaint and they mutually parted ways, the source said.

Trouble started brewing during the previous year, after Butler penned an essay titled“From #MeToo to #ChurchToo to #NeverAtChurch,” that claimed a male “lay leader” at Riverside had behaved “inappropriately” toward her and other female staffers.

In Butler’s opinion piece for the Baptist News Global website, the reverend said she initially stayed silent about the sexist mistreatment, but reported it to church officials after “witnessing another exchange I found unprofessional and uncomfortable.”

“Here at Riverside we are striving to model what a faith community should be: a safe place for everyone,” she wrote.

“Harmful and abusive behavior must be exposed and confronted; this means disciplining employees and community leaders who violate those policies.”

Butler was hired in 2014 as the seventh senior minister of Riverside Church — a massive Gothic cathedral in Morningside Heights known as a bastion of inter-denominational liberalism that was led during the late 1970s and ’80s by the late anti-war activist the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr.

Butler’s cushy five-year contract, which expired June 30, paid her a $250,000 annual salary, an $8,000-a-month housing allowance and more than $55,000 in yearly pension contributions, according to documents obtained by The Post.

Even before the vibrator incident, the two parties were “far apart on negotiations,” as Butler had hired a lawyer to help her try to score a $100,000-a-year raise, a source said.

Butler’s successor, interim Senior Minister Michael Livingston, broke the news of her departure during his sermon at a Sunday worship service on July 7.

A congregant who was present — and aware of the allegations against Butler — said several of the Biblical readings “seemed to allude to the current turmoil,” most notably Galatians 6:7, which says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.”

A lawyer for the church provided The Post with a joint statement from Butler and Church Council chairwoman Marilyn Mitchell that was previously posted on Riverside’s website.

“Rev. Dr. Amy Butler and the Riverside Church Council are announcing that after five years of leadership, Pastor Amy will not be renewing her contract as Senior Minister,” the statement said.

“The Council thanks Pastor Amy for her leadership and asks all congregants to pray for her continued ministry as a leader in the progressive Christian world.”

via: https://nypost.com/2019/07/11/pastor-out-at-famed-riverside-church-after-sex-toy-harassment-accusations/

Photo Credit: Dan Herrick

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) – Authorities say a Michigan woman killed herself and twin daughters by driving into a river after trying to poison the children.

Kalamazoo police released reports saying 44-year-old Ineza McClinton tried to make 9-year-old twins, Angel and Faith, drink juice with added antifreeze in the spring. McClinton’s mother told investigators about the plan, which included Ineza McClinton’s attempt to die by overdosing on pills. Relatives told police they intervened in McClinton’s suicide attempt and discovered her unsuccessful effort to poison the girls.

Police say information about the attempted poisoning wasn’t reported to officers in Grand Rapids, where McClinton and her daughters lived.

McClinton drove into the Kalamazoo River on June 17 after letting out two granddaughters. Relatives say she sought help for depression and took prescription drugs for mental illnesses.

via: https://www.kmov.com/news/police-mom-who-drove-girls-into-michigan-river-tried-poison/article_621912c8-a3f7-11e9-9c7c-770351360a28.html

Photo Credit: kmov.com

A Florida Dunkin’ Donuts manager was busted for hiring a “fictitious” employee — and pocketing all of the checks that worker received, according to new reports.

Markia Nelson, 29, who works at the franchise’s location in Largo, a city in Pinellas County, hired the fake worker on May 15, WFLA reported.

From May 16 straight through Saturday, Nelson did all she could to keep up the image that the employee was showing up for work every day — clocking in and out for the “worker,” logging a total of 235 hours, according to an arrest report obtained by the outlet.

The “employee” earned $8.65 an hour — for a total of $1,610.84, the station reported.

Nelson direct deposited all of the funds into her account, admitting that she used the dough for “life expenses,” according to the arrest report.

The company that owns the location was tipped off to the scam and launched its own investigation, FOX 13 reported. Once word reached the Pinellas Park Police Department, it was a relatively open-and-shut case — and Nelson was arrested Monday, according to the report.

“The employee never actually showed up to do any work, and when they researched the employee’s clock-in and clock-out times, they saw that it was her inputting it each time,” Pinellas Park police Sgt. Lonnie Lancto told the outlet.

Nelson has so far only been charged with grand theft, but could face other charges, including identity theft, for the phony employee, according to Lancto.

“She had the information [for the phony worker] who she said … was a friend of hers, so the information for the person was an actual person,” the sergeant told the outlet.

Nelson declined to comment to the outlet this week.

via: https://nypost.com/2019/07/11/dunkin-donuts-manager-allegedly-hired-fake-employee-pocketed-checks/

Photo Credit: Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office

The general manager of a Burger King restaurant in Florida was told by a customer to “go back to Mexico” if he wanted to keep speaking Spanish.

The exchange, captured in a video that was later posted on social media, shows Ricardo Castillo, who is of Puerto Rican descent, being berated by two unidentified women as they are eating in the restaurant in Eustis, 40 miles north of Orlando.

“You’re in America, you should speak American English,” one woman can be heard saying, to which Castillo replies “No ma’am, I don’t.”

“Yeah, yeah, go back to Mexico if you want to keep speaking Spanish, go back to your Mexican country, your state, your country,” the woman goes on.

Customer Neyzha Borrero, who recorded the heated exchange on July 6 and posted it on Facebook, told CNN the women complained to the manager because he spoke Spanish in front of them.

Before Borrero started recording the video, Castillo was doing some paperwork on a table when one of his employees came in and spoke with him in Spanish, Borrero said.

“The two ladies were next to the manager, and after the employee left, they told Castillo they wanted to complain.”

Thinking it was about the meal, the manager offered to give them credit or a free dessert, Borrero said. But instead, they said that he shouldn’t be speaking Spanish in public because “we are in the USA.”

Borrero, who was at the Burger King with her boyfriend Oni Martinez, started recording from her seat before moving closer to the three.

After being told to go back to Mexico, Castillo can be heard saying, “Guess what ma’am, I’m not Mexican, I’m not Mexican but you’re being very prejudiced and I want you out of my restaurant, right now.”

He threatened to call police when one woman said she would only leave after finishing her meal.

“People like you, so ignorant and disrespectful,” the manager goes on.

The video ends with the two women leaving the restaurant. CNN has not been able to identify the women in order to seek comment from them.

The Eustis Police Department told CNN in an emailed statement that it was not involved with the incident. “No officers responded and we were not notified,” a police spokeswoman said.

When contacted for comment, Castillo referred CNN to Burger King.

A spokeswoman for Burger King said in a statement to CNN: “There is no place for discrimination in our restaurants. We expect employees and guests to treat each other with respect. This incident took place at a franchised restaurant and the owner is looking into the matter.”

Borrero said the women didn’t come back and the manager was calm after the exchange. “We applauded him because he never disrespected them at all. He was very professional,” Borrero said.

She added that it’s not the first time she has witnessed this kind of episode. “Sadly, it’s something that happens every single day,” she said.

“I have witnessed many similar situations. It’s even happened to me,” Borrero, who is from Puerto Rico, said.

via: https://pix11.com/2019/07/11/a-burger-king-manager-was-told-to-go-back-to-mexico-for-speaking-spanish-in-the-fast-food-restaurant/

Photo Credit: pix11.com