Official guilty of taking $24K from child-support fund Man playing with gun kills himself

Lake County, Ind., Coroner Thomas Philpot sat impassively Friday afternoon as a federal court official rattled off five guilty counts, convicting him of three counts of mail fraud and two theft counts for taking bonuses from a federal child-support fund while he served as Lake County clerk.

A career Lake County politician who served three terms as coroner and two as county clerk, Philpot now faces prison and hefty fines.

The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for about three hours before reaching the guilty verdicts in the U.S. District courtroom of Judge James Moody.

The jury found that Philpot took more than $24,000 in bonuses from the childsupport fund he supervised as county clerk. A state law forbids elected officials from enriching their salaries with

A Chicago Heights man died early Friday morning after accidentally shooting himself in the head, police said.

Larry McNeal, 21, died after the shooting in the 500 block of West 16th Place in Chicago Heights, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office.

He was pronounced dead at St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights at 3:27 a.m., the medical examiner’s office said.

Detective Sgt. Joe Bruni said McNeal was playing with a Smith and Wesson .350 revolver at 2 a.m.

The three people McNeal was with said that he put the gun up to his head, pulled the trigger and the gun didn’t go off. He pulled the trigger a second time and the weapon fired.

“Everyone we talked to said he was messing around with his gun,” Bruni said.