Editor’s note • Those who are experiencing intimate partner violence, or know someone who is, are urged to call the Utah Domestic Violence Link Line, 1-800-897-LINK (5465), or the Utah Rape and Sexual Assault Crisis Line, 1-888-421-1100.
When Lara Wilson met her now-ex-boyfriend on a dating app in 2016, she said, “he seemed like he was perfect.”
“Our first months together were wonderful,” the Layton resident said. “At that time, I had no reason to suspect that he had a history of violence.”
That later changed, she told state lawmakers Tuesday. He began shoving her, and she eventually learned about his previous domestic violence conviction. Shortly after that, Wilson said, he fractured both of her eye sockets, just before she became pregnant.
Deseret News
The pandemic has pitted justice against public health
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Amanda Hunt poses for a photograph while visiting a permanent memorial for her niece, Brelynne “Breezy” Otteson, and Otteson’s boyfriend, Riley Powell, near the Tintic Standard Mine No. 2 near Eureka, Juab County, on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021. Otteson and Powell were brutally murdered and their bodies were found dumped in the mine shaft in 2018. Davis visited the memorial with Powell’s father, Bill Powell, and Bill Powell’s girlfriend, Debbie Rosenbaum.
Steve Griffin, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY On what would have been her niece’s 21st birthday, Amanda Hunt learned there’s no telling when a trial for the man accused of killing Brelynne “Breezy” Otteson and her boyfriend will take place.
SALT LAKE CITY Defense attorneys should be first in the legal world to get a COVID-19 vaccine, some Utah judges said Monday. Frankly, these aren t our employees, but if you ask me who really needed vaccination on my team, I would say it s the public defenders, 2nd District Judge David Connors told fellow members of the Utah Judicial Council.
Connors said the lawyers, who represent many in jail, are facing real serious questions about whether they can interact with their clients.
Utah s inmates, for their part, are not set to be inoculated in mass until March.
The coronavirus has spread rapidly in several of the state s county jails, where defense lawyers typically visit defendants to discuss their cases and prepare a defense. Although jailers have restricted the meetings, many continue to take place within the facilities, with glass separating attorneys from their clients.