The mayor of Orem, Utah, was allegedly spit on and punched by the adult daughter of a newspaper reporter he allegedly disparaged during a city council meeting this week.
Linnea Pugmire, 31, was arrested Tuesday evening by Orem police after Pugmire confronted Mayor David Young in a heated skirmish caught on video.
The face-off unfolded after Young spent about 20 minutes at Tuesday’s city council meeting discussing articles about himself and the council by reporter Genelle Pugmire in the local newspaper, Daily Herald, dismissing them as “off the rails” and “overly ridiculous.”
Video of the confrontation, shared by a witness with NBC affiliate KSL of Salt Lake City, showed the moment Pugmire said “How dare you” to Young who quipped, “How dare you? Get out of my face!” and Pugmire spat at him.
Pugmire is seen charging towards Young and throwing a punch towards his face and swinging towards other people around him. At one point Pugmire points and says, “Don’t talk about my mother.”
“I’m sick of being pushed around by your mother,” Young said to Pugmire in the clip.
Pugmire was booked into jail on charges of disorderly conduct, assault, propelling a bodily substance and threatening elected officials, and was released Wednesday, according to Utah County booking records.
The police booking affidavit obtained by KSL said Pugmire “admitted to being upset at the mayor over personal concerns with family.”
“While speaking with the victims and witnesses of this incident, officers also learned there was a second victim who had been hit and spit on,” the report said. It did not identify the second person hit.
Pugmire declined to comment on the incident Thursday. NBC News has reached out to the Daily Herald for comment.
During Tuesday council meeting, Young spoke at length about the Daily Herald reports concerning himself and the council.
“I wouldn’t make a big deal about this but it just keeps happening and happening and this keeps coming out of this paper and we just have to keep going along and it’s just not right. I want to give a few examples to help us understand that this is not an isolated occurrence,” he said.
He pointed to one headline that centered on rising fees in the annual budget. “That sounds kind of ominous doesn’t it? Of the options available … this could have been ‘Orem State Council Adopts Balanced Budget,'” Young said.
Young went through several articles reading out headlines and criticizing the content, often dismissing it as a stretch and painting the council in a bad light.
He also complained about a story about a $1 million fraud lawsuit in Alabama that the mayor was named in last year. He said on that report: “It’s just mind-blowing — the disconnect — what’s going on in this newspaper versus what’s going on in reality.”
In a statement Wednesday, Young said: “My intention in bringing to light the long-standing issues with the Daily Herald’s reporting was to encourage people to rise above the divineness and misinformation that is overshadowing the amazing work of the City Council.”
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