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Dancing Man Has Court Date Scheduled

Is this dancing man a criminal?

by

Richard Markosian

|

Holladay City Court—A large crowd residents of Holladay were in attendance at Holladay City Court on October 14th, to show their support for Mr. Unger.

Steven Unger is known as a dancing, waving happy man in . In Cottonwood Heights he is a criminal charged with disorderly conduct.

What a difference between two neighboring cities in the manner in which they treat pedestrians.

dancing holladay man-2 holladay dancer 2 media attending dancing holladay court 2 scaled

Unger is a fit 68-year-old man who loves to walk and get out into his community to stay in shape.  Unger is well known in Holladay for his long walks where at certain points he dances and waves to motorists and neighbors along his way.

Well on this occasion he was all the way up Van Winkle and Highland Drive when he chose to stop dance and waive. Apparently a motorists called Cottonwood Heights Police Department and complained.

Unger was asked to present his ID, he denied any wrongdoing and he did not produce his ID, he continued walking until another Cottonwood Heights officer handcuffed Unger and detained him in his patrol car. He was cited with three charges: disorderly conduct, failure to disclose identity and interference with an arresting officer.

Utah Stories spoke to Cottonwood Heights Police Chief Robbie Russo who was in attendance at the pretrial hearing. When asked what he has to say about the claims that his officers are “too heavy handed in handling residents and innocent pedestrians,” Russo said, “They are trying to uphold the law and our officers did the right thing in this case.”

When his name was announced by Judge Augusts G. Chin a round of applause was given outside of the courtroom from around thirty people gathered.

His attorney asked for a jury trial. Which will occur on November 18th at 10:30.

After the scheduling of the pretrial conference Mr. Unger addressed the media saying that he was grateful for the outpouring of support. And that he was happy that he could represent his case in court for all of those who cases had less attention than his case has received.

Utah Stories has been purview to many stories in which the Cottonwood Heights Police Department has been the subject of over-the-top or heavy handed  treatment of law abiding residents.

 

Richard Markosian

I am a story teller and journalist. I have a passion for farmers, local craftspeople, and folks who aspire to create, build and grow their business in the local marketplace. Why local? By supporting locally-owned businesses we create more opportunity for entrepreneurs, and we claim our sovereignty to shape our communities how we want to see them. I aspire to build Utah Stories Magazine into a household Utah name, and assist Utah businesses and makers with marketing. On the journalism side of things my passion is investigative journalism that offers true insight into issues. I believe strongly in the forth estate: strong, meaningful, insightful journalism is essential to a free market Democracy.

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