$100 Million Lawsuit Withdrawn in Newtown School Shooting - East Idaho News
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$100 Million Lawsuit Withdrawn in Newtown School Shooting

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121412 NewtownShooting81?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1357120687736DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images(NEWTOWN, Conn.) — A Connecticut lawyer has withdrawn a lawsuit filing in the case of the school shooting in Newtown that critics complained was inappropriate.

Attorney Irving Pinsky had initially sued the state of Connecticut for $100 million on behalf of a 6-year-old girl named “Jill Doe” who survived the Dec. 14 rampage when gunman Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School before turning the gun on himself.  Earlier that morning, Lanza had also killed his mother at home.

In his filing last week, Pinsky claimed the potential lawsuit was not about money, adding, “My main concern here is to stop this from happening again and we’ve had a lot of mass murders in America.  We’re trying to get school security upgraded in Connecticut and nationally.”

However, an outcry that Pinsky and the girl’s family were trying to profit from the tragedy became so great, particularly on the lawyer’s Facebook page, that he decided on Tuesday to, “take (the request) off the table for now,” suggesting he reserved the right to revisit the matter.

One person wrote that if it wasn’t about the money, he wanted to know from Pinsky what steps were taken prior to the lawsuit to protect school children.

Pinsky also wrote that “nervousness” among Newtown residents factored into his decision to drop the suit against Connecticut, which has immunity anyway unless permission is granted for a claim.

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