BYU groper
A judge ruled on Thursday that there is enough evidence for Nathan Eric Fletcher to stand trial in the BYU groping case.
Fletcher faces two class A misdemeanor charges of sexual battery. He has been banned from Brigham Young University’s campus and kicked out of school.
Fletcher has been charged in two groping incidents, though there were more 16 that BYU police have said were committed by the same man between January and mid-March.
The trial date hasn’t been set.
Police standoff
A standoff with police in Lindon ended Thursday with a man shooting himself and later dying at a hospital. The man had been threatening suicide and refused to get out of his car in a parking lot near 1250 West and 300 South. After about seven hours of talking to police and others, he shot himself.
Business robbery
On Sunday afternoon, a man walked into Hungry Howie’s Pizza in Orem, threatened employees with a knife and demanded money. He got the cash and left. The suspect is described as a white man, 5 feet 11 inches and thin. He was wearing a white long-sleeve shirt, dark pants and a gray RVCA hat.
Anyone with information about the suspect should call police at (801) 229-7070.
Phone scam
Several people in the Highland/Alpine area have fallen for a phone scam this week, losing thousands of dollars. In the cases, a caller claims to be from the Treasury Department or IRS and states that if the person doesn’t immediately pay a specified amount, they’ll be arrested.
Police are reminding residents not to give anyone money over the phone or access to personal information. You can also report this activity to the U.S. Treasury Department at treasury.gov/tigta/contact_report_scam.shtml, CallerCenter.com and at fcc.gov, under the file a consumer complaint menu.
Not guilty plea in rape case
The 26-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl on her way to school in February pleaded not guilty on Monday.
Police say Jayson Quade Johnson approached the girl, who was walking to Cherry Hill Elementary School in Orem, forced her to walk to a church parking lot and assaulted her there. She got away and ran to school, where she told her teacher what happened.
Johnson is charged with child kidnapping, sodomy on a child, aggravated sexual abuse of a child and tampering with a witness. He had a preliminary hearing earlier this month, after which the judge ruled there was enough evidence for him to stand trial on the charges. He’ll be back in court on Oct. 20 for a pretrial conference.