Paighten Harkins

Reporter

Paighten covers breaking news and the criminal justice system for the Salt Lake Tribune. Before starting at the Tribune in October 2017, she lived and worked in Oklahoma. She has a dog named Major, who's objectively very cute.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Nomi Health COVID-19 testing site in the parking lot of Amazon Friday, June 10, 2022 in Salt Lake City. Thirteen more Utahns died of COVID-19 in the past week as case counts and hospitalizations throughout the state declined.

Utah COVID-19 case counts, hospitalizations decline as state reports 13 deaths

By Paighten Harkins | August 18, 2022, 9:13 p.m.

(West Jordan Police Department) West Jordan officers respond to Michael Glad stealing one of their police trucks on May 28, 2018. Two officers fired on Glad, which resulted in his death.

‘Win for the public’: Utah judge grants access to police shooting records West Jordan fought to keep secret

By Paighten Harkins | August 16, 2022, 6:39 p.m.

(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gov. Spencer Cox pilots the Zoofari Express Train at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2022. The event kicked off the Zoo’s east-side expansion project to create an all Utah-native animal exhibit, called Aline W. Skaggs Wild Utah.

Native Utah wildlife including mountain lions, bighorns to be showcased in $22M Hogle Zoo expansion

By Paighten Harkins | August 11, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Security guards check patrons before entering Echo nightclub, on Pierpont Avenue, on Friday, July 22, 2022.

An inside look at one stretch of downtown Salt Lake City, where police, clubs work together to curb violence

By Paighten Harkins | August 8, 2022, 3:44 p.m.

(Rick Bowmer | AP) Protesters are tackled by Cottonwood Heights police officers during a march Sunday, Aug. 2, 2020, in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. The protest was a "March for Justice" focused largely around Zane James, who was fatally shot by police in Cottonwood Heights in 2018.

Cottonwood Heights officials schemed to break up 2020 police protest, lawsuit alleges

By Paighten Harkins | August 5, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown speaks during a news conference announcing the opening of a police substation at Smith's Ballpark, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022.

New Ballpark police substation will help curb crime, officials say. Some residents remain skeptical.

By Paighten Harkins | August 4, 2022, 8:07 p.m.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) A registered nurse and a clinical assistant get nasal swabs and information from a family of four at the Nomi Health COVID-19 testing site in the parking lot of Amazon on Friday, June 10, 2022 in Salt Lake City.

Utah reports 5,800 new COVID-19 cases and 16 deaths, including Salt Lake County child

By Paighten Harkins | July 28, 2022, 9:30 p.m.

(FOX13) Ogden Police Lt. Will Farr addresses reporters at a July 11, 2022, news conference, following the arrest of a 28-year-old man accused of killing a man in Spanish Fork, then another in Ogden.

Utah man faces 2nd murder charge in ‘purge’ killings; attacks were random, prosecutors say

By Paighten Harkins | July 27, 2022, 10:25 p.m.

Heather Ashton Miller, in an undated photo provided to The Salt Lake Tribune. A federal jury in Utah on Friday awarded $10 million in damages to her family after a lawsuit alleged that Miller died from a fall in her Davis County Jail cell after a jail nurse brushed off her injuries.

Jury awards $10M to family of Utah woman fatally injured in Davis County Jail fall

By Paighten Harkins | July 27, 2022, 7:52 p.m.

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Salt Lake City K-9 police officer Nickolas Pearce appears before Third District Court Judge William K. Kendall, Tuesday, July 26, 2022, during his preliminary hearing on assault charges related to K-9 attacks.

1 of 2 felony charges dismissed against Salt Lake City officer accused in K-9 attacks

By Paighten Harkins | July 27, 2022, 1:20 a.m.