Man accused of threatening House Speaker faces July trial

(Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday set a mid-July start for the trial of an Ohio bartender accused of threatening to kill U.S. House Speaker John Boehner.

Michael Hoyt, who was indicted in January, is scheduled to stand trial on July 13 in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati under an order entered by Judge Timothy Black. Hoyt's trial had earlier been set for June 30.

In April, Black found Hoyt competent to stand trial on the charge of threatening to murder a U.S. official. Hoyt has chosen to allow the judge to determine his guilt or innocence rather than face a jury.

Hoyt is suspected of wanting to poison Boehner and threatening to shoot the Republican politician who represents a district north of Cincinnati, Ohio. He has pleaded not guilty, and his attorneys have said they plan to pursue an insanity defense.

According to a criminal complaint filed in November, Hoyt had been fired in October from a West Chester, Ohio, country club where Boehner is a member and later sent the speaker's wife an email asking to meet with him.

Hoyt told police he owned a handgun and wanted to kill Boehner because the speaker had been mean to him at the club and because Boehner was responsible for the Ebola virus, the complaint said.

Hoyt checked into a hospital for a psychiatric test after talking with police and while there told FBI agents he had experienced a mental health episode about two years before, the complaint said.

(Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Susan Heavey)