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Florida woman charged in Sandy Hook parent threat a court no-show

Posted at 3:40 PM, Mar 29, 2017
and last updated 2019-03-26 23:55:36-04

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) - A Florida woman charged with threatening the parent of a boy killed in the 2012 mass shooting at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, was a no-show at change-of-plea hearing.

The lawyer for 57-year-old Lucy Richards told a federal judge Wednesday that she refused to come to court. The judge issued a warrant for her arrest.

Richards lives in Brandon, about four hours from the Fort Lauderdale courthouse.

She was set to plead guilty to a charge of interstate transmission of a threat to injure.

Prosecutors say she believed the Sandy Hook mass shooting was a hoax.

She previously pleaded not guilty to threatening Lenny Pozner, father of 6-year-old Noah Pozner.

Others linked to the Sandy Hook massacre have reported harassment by conspiracy theorists who argue it was staged to erode support for Second Amendment gun rights.