Utah | InsideOjodu https://www.insideojodu.com ...conecting the community Thu, 05 Dec 2019 22:48:11 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.9.10 http://www.insideojodu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/favicon.ico Utah | InsideOjodu https://www.insideojodu.com 32 32 McDonald’s customer arrested for punching workers https://www.insideojodu.com/mcdonalds-customer-arrested-for-punching-workers/ https://www.insideojodu.com/mcdonalds-customer-arrested-for-punching-workers/#respond Thu, 05 Dec 2019 22:48:11 +0000 https://www.insideojodu.com/?p=9219 There are better ways to handle a mistake with a food order. An angry…

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There are better ways to handle a mistake with a food order.

An angry customer in Utah allegedly assaulted multiple McDonald’s workers last month after claiming they screwed up his fast-food order. Authorities later arrested the man, who faces charges of burglary and two counts of assault.

The incident took place on Nov. 7 at a McDonald’s inside a Walmart in Layton, Utah, KUTV reported. After leaving with his food, Victor Jimmy Castro allegedly returned to the restaurant and forced his way behind the counter.

According to the arrest affidavit, which was released by The Smoking Gun, Castro punched the employee working behind the register in the face. He then went back into the kitchen and punched another worker in the face, per the affidavit.

“You got my order wrong,” Castro said during the attack, according to witnesses.

Authorities used surveillance footage of the incident to identify Castro and recently took him into custody.

In related news, other McDonald’s workers across the country have also reported being the victims of violence.

In November, a group of McDonald’s workers in Chicago filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming that their employer has failed to protect them from a pattern of violence. The 17 employees work at 13 different McDonald’s restaurants across the city.

The workers said Chicago police respond to more than twenty 911 calls to the city’s McDonald’s locations on a daily basis, The Associated Press reported. They also cited various instances of violence, which included physical assault and sexual harassment.

“McDonald’s has failed, at a systemic level, to protect its workers from violence in the workplace,” David Rosenthal, an attorney for the workers, told The Associated Press. “Throughout the country, McDonald’s workers are regularly threatened, assaulted and injured by customers.”

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Missing Utah CEO found dead in car, family says https://www.insideojodu.com/missing-utah-ceo-found-dead-in-car-family-says/ https://www.insideojodu.com/missing-utah-ceo-found-dead-in-car-family-says/#respond Sun, 13 Oct 2019 21:18:28 +0000 https://www.insideojodu.com/?p=8073 The missing Utah woman who police said disappeared voluntarily has been found dead in…

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The missing Utah woman who police said disappeared voluntarily has been found dead in her car, according to her family.

Erin Valenti, a 33-year-old CEO of Tinker Ventures, a Salt Lake City-based tech company, was discovered “deceased in her vehicle in San Jose” on Saturday. Before she was reported missing, Valenti was reportedly on her way to the San Jose International Airport in California to head home to Utah on Monday.

“Erin has been found. Please call off the search,” her family said in a statement, posted to Facebook by Missing Pieces Network. “We all greatly appreciate the effort and support people have provided. The family will release more information as they are able to.”

In the “Help Find Erin Valenti” Facebook group, the family continued: “Many of you have seen that the search for Erin has been called off. While we were praying for a different outcome, we are so appreciative for the help and support you have given.”

“Please remember Erin as the beautiful, smart, funny woman that she was. I don’t have any details that have not been in the media. I’m sure that Harrison will thank you himself when he is able, but please be patient,” the post read.

Valenti’s husband, Harrison Weinstein, pleaded online Wednesday for help finding his wife. He said she was last seen in Palo Alto, Calif., on Monday afternoon, “but never returned her rental car or made it on her flight home to Utah.”

“Her phone has been off since Monday night. If you have seen or heard from her please let me know,” her husband wrote. “Any information to her whereabouts is much appreciated and can be directed to me, her family, or the San Jose Police Department.”

On Friday, San Jose Police Sgt. Enrique Garcia told KSTU investigators were “treating this case as a voluntary missing person.” However, Valenti’s family says she seemed to be distraught on the night she disappeared. Weinstein and Valenti’s parents told the station that they spoke to her on the phone Monday and she seemed manic, though she has no history of mental illness.

“I get that people have the right to disappear, but that’s not this,” Weinstein told KTVU. “Everything she said, she was planning on coming home. She was trying to get to the airport. She’s not thinking clearly.”

A San Jose police officer made contact with Valenti by phone Monday night, the East Bay Timesreported. Weinstein told the outlet: “The officer said she wasn’t making any sense. They drove around looking for her on Monday night and never found her.”

Valenti’s mother, Whitey Valenti, said she spoke with her daughter “for hours on and off” on Monday night.

“Her thoughts were disconnected. She talked a mile a minute. She’d say I’m coming home for Thanksgiving, then in the next she was saying she’s in the Matrix.”

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Dispute on whether Utah tech CEO’s disappearance was voluntary https://www.insideojodu.com/dispute-on-whether-utah-tech-ceos-disappearance-was-voluntary/ https://www.insideojodu.com/dispute-on-whether-utah-tech-ceos-disappearance-was-voluntary/#respond Sat, 12 Oct 2019 22:41:42 +0000 https://www.insideojodu.com/?p=8059 The family of a missing Utah woman who was last seen Monday say that…

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The family of a missing Utah woman who was last seen Monday say that police in California incorrectly described her disappearance as voluntary.

Family members say Erin Valenti, CEO of Salt-Lake City-based app developer Tinker Ventures, was last seen in Palo Alto, Calif. She was supposedly on her way to the San Jose airport to head home to Salt Lake City.

Valenti’s husband Harrison Weinstein wrote on Facebook that phone activity suggested Valenti was driving in San Jose. She never returned her rental car or made it on her flight back to Utah, and she’s had no phone or credit card activity since Monday.

San Jose police spokesman Sgt. Enrique Garcia told Fox 13 Friday that “at this time, we are treating this case as a voluntary missing person.” However, Valenti’s family says she seemed to be distraught on the night she disappeared. Weinstein and Valenti’s parents told the station that they spoke to her on the phone Monday and she seemed manic, though she has no history of mental illness.

“I get that people have the right to disappear, but that’s not this,” Weinstein told KTVU. “Everything she said she was planning on coming home. She was trying to get to the airport. She’s not thinking clearly.”

“She seemed confused. We said, ‘Did you drink anything?  Did anybody give you anything?’ and she said, ‘No,'” her mother Agnes Valenti said, “But my daughter is so smart and she is such a strong independent lady and this has never happened before.”

Valenti is described as 5-foot-4 with blond hair. She was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and jeans.

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At least 4 dead, up to 15 critically hurt in Utah tour bus crash near Bryce Canyon National Park https://www.insideojodu.com/at-least-4-dead-up-to-15-critically-hurt-in-utah-tour-bus-crash-near-bryce-canyon-national-park/ https://www.insideojodu.com/at-least-4-dead-up-to-15-critically-hurt-in-utah-tour-bus-crash-near-bryce-canyon-national-park/#respond Fri, 20 Sep 2019 22:31:19 +0000 https://www.insideojodu.com/?p=7646 At least four people were killed and up to 15 others were critically injured…

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At least four people were killed and up to 15 others were critically injured Friday after a tour bus crashed near Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah, authorities said.

Utah Highway Patrol

✔@UTHighwayPatrol

At least four fatalities are confirmed in the #SR12BusCrash. Multiple critical injuries. UHP PIO is enroute from Salt Lake and will be on scene as soon as possible.

The bus slammed into a guard rail and rolled onto its side, KUTV reported. The crash happened at around 11:30 a.m. near a highway rest stop about 7 miles from the park entrance.

Photos from the Garfield County Sheriff’s Officeshow the top of a white bus smashed in and one side peeling away as it rests mostly off the side of a road near a sign for restrooms. Authorities were tending to people on the road, and others stood around covered in shiny blankets, the photos show.

Four people are dead and dozens more were injured after bus crashed near Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.

All 30 people on board, including the driver, sustained injuries and at least 7 are considered in critical condition, Garfield County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Denise Dastrup told Fox News. The Utah Highway Patrol tweeted that between 12 and 15 people had suffered “very critical injuries” and that the tourists on the bus were “Chinese-speaking.” Another 10 people suffered “minor to serious” injuries.

Utah, Fox News, Denise Dastrup, Department, National Park, Canyon, Utah Highway Patrol

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Polygamy debate returns to Utah capital, as lawmaker looks to reduce penalties https://www.insideojodu.com/polygamy-debate-returns-to-utah-capital-as-lawmaker-looks-to-reduce-penalties/ https://www.insideojodu.com/polygamy-debate-returns-to-utah-capital-as-lawmaker-looks-to-reduce-penalties/#respond Sun, 08 Sep 2019 22:25:01 +0000 https://www.insideojodu.com/?p=7385 Utah has enacted tough penalties for polygamy in recent years, in a bid to…

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Utah has enacted tough penalties for polygamy in recent years, in a bid to move past the state’s complicated history with the practice. But a state senator now wants to reverse the crackdown and make polygamy a low-level offense on par with a traffic ticket.

Utah state Sen. Deidre Henderson, a Republican representing Spanish Fork, plans to file a bill when the state legislature goes back in session in January that would reduce the penalties against polygamists.

While the move may seem odd for a state that for decades has battled with how to handle polygamy among the more fundamentalist sects of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – and where in 2017 the practice was made a felony punishable by up to five years in prison – proponents of the legislation say easing penalties would help members of plural families come forward to report abuse and fraud.

“The general intent behind it is to make sure we are not continuing to create a situation where the victims and witnesses of crimes are afraid to report it because of the lifestyle that they’ve lived,” Henderson told The Salt Lake City Tribune.

Legal scholars, however, are skeptical that reducing the penalties for polygamy will encourage more people in abusive situations to come forward to report the crimes.

“I’m not sure that redoing the law to make polygamy less of an offense will have the intended effect they hope for,” Casey Faucon, an assistant professor at the University of Alabama Law School, told Fox News. “It takes more than just changing a law to get people to come forward and report abusive situations.”

While Henderson did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment, other proponents of the bill have suggested it would not just lower the general penalty for polygamy from a felony to misdemeanor but strengthen the ability to prosecute polygamists found to have committed crimes such as abuse, human smuggling or fraud.

Along with the other changes to the law in 2017, legislators had added penalties of up to 15 years in prison for polygamists found guilty of those crimes. Connor Boyack, president of the libertarian-leaning Libertas Institute, said the new legislation would make it so prosecutors don’t have to prove polygamy and a secondary crime in order to file charges, just that polygamy was a factor in the other crime.

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