Addy BairdA confrontation between a state senator and an ABC4 journalist who was reporting on a protest of the senator’s plant nursery is being investigated by the Layton Police Department.
The protest of J&J Nursery and Garden Center, owned by Layton Republican Sen. Jerry Stevenson, was the result of Stevenson’s role on Utah’s Military Installation Development Authorities, which recently approved the development of a massive — and highly contentious — data center project in Box Elder County.
ABC4 reported Wednesday evening that Stevenson allegedly smacked the phone out of the hand of their reporter and anchor, Bayan Wang, while Wang was in the parking lot of the nursery. Stevenson alleged that Wang and his photographer were trespassing on private property.
“KTVX/KUCW stand on the story we aired and posted on ABC4.com. We presented the events of Bayan Wang’s interaction with Senator Jerry Stevenson completely and accurately,” Nancy Bauer, the station’s news director, said in a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune.
“ABC4 arrived on the property after communicating with J&J management. It was not our intention to interview Senator Stevenson after the state informed us he was unavailable,” Bauer said in the statement. “What you see on video was an unplanned encounter after Stevenson approached our team in the parking lot.”
Reached by text message Thursday, Stevenson declined to be interviewed and said he had no comment on the confrontation.
In response to a public records request for the police report filed Thursday morning, a Layton Police Department records specialist said the department’s “investigation of the incident … is ongoing” and denied access to the police report. Later Thursday, Lt. Clint Bobrowski with Layton Police shared a police report summary — which is a public record even when an investigation is open — over the phone.
The confrontation allegedly occurred Wednesday afternoon, just prior to 3:30 p.m., according to Bobrowski.
According to ABC4, Wang went to the garden center to follow up on a statement from the business saying their employees were being harassed due to Stevenson’s role on the Military Installation Development Authority board.
The development authority passed a series of resolutions last month to allow for the massive data center backed by celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary of “Shark Tank” fame to move forward — and, among other things, to receive significant tax breaks.
“While Wang was in his vehicle in the nursery’s parking lot, he noticed a man screaming at his photographer, who was outside his news vehicle without a camera in hand,” ABC4 reported. The reporter then approached the videographer and Stevenson, who was wearing a Utah Senate jacket.
In a video from ABC4, Stevenson can be heard saying, “You know this whole thing is just a bunch of baloney.”
“Just get your butt out of here,” Stevenson tells the reporter.
When asked by Wang why he was being hostile, Stevenson says in the video, “Because I’m tired of ya,” before swinging his hand toward Wang. Then the video ends. ABC4 reported that the lawmaker hit Wang’s hand and phone.
According to Bobrowski, someone the police believe to be an employee of the garden center saw the alleged confrontation and called law enforcement.
“The employee reported that the owner of the business and two individuals from a local news broadcasting company were in a verbal argument,” Bobrowski said. “The individual reported that one of the males, believed to be from the news broadcasting station, may have been pushing.”
The person who called the police said the two people from the station got into a vehicle, which police said belongs to the television station.
When police arrived, they “collected both sides of the story,” Bobrowski said, and the journalists and Stevenson decided not to press charges.
As the garden center is on private property, Stevenson asked law enforcement to issue a trespassing notice against Wang and the photographer. Such a notice is not a charge or a citation, Bobrowski said, but a warning that if they return, they could face criminal charges.
According to ABC4’s reporting, an officer told Wang that Stevenson was sorry for the confrontation in the parking lot. Bauer said Wang accepted the lawmaker’s apology.
As both parties have agreed not to press charges, Bobrowski said it was “only technically still under investigation” as law enforcement is trying to get the video surveillance footage of the confrontation from the nursery.
He also said law enforcement requested to see the video footage from Wang, and that while the reporter showed the video to police, he refused to provide a copy to law enforcement.
There are, Bobrowski said, criminal cases where law enforcement will pursue charges even if the parties involved chose not to — for example, he said, in cases of domestic violence. In this instance, he said, “At most, we’re dealing with a potential trespassing violation for the news people and a potential disorderly conduct for the business owner.”
He added, again, “Potential. I don’t know if the probable cause exists.”
In the case of trespassing and disorderly conduct, he said, “We wouldn’t push the case forward if neither party wanted to pursue charges.”
“This is a pretty run-of-the-mill situation,” the law enforcement officer added.
