Utah Mom Accused Of Kidnapping Her Son’s Alleged Bully To Force Him To Apologize

A Utah female faces criminal charges aft allegedly snatching an 11-year-old boy who was riding his bike, driving him to her location and making him apologize to her boy for expected bullying, according to a criminal complaint.

Shannon Tufuga, a 40-year-old from Provo, was charged Monday pinch kid kidnapping and aggravated kid maltreatment successful relationship pinch nan incident, which happened past year, according to nan Utah County Attorney's criminal complaint.

Tufuga drove astir successful hunt of nan 11-year-old, identified successful nan title arsenic KB, and recovered him arsenic he was riding his motorcycle connected Sept. 17, according to nan complaint.

"The suspect was driving astir looking for KB wanting to face him astir bullying her child," it says. "When nan suspect recovered KB she stopped her conveyance successful beforehand of KB’s motorcycle and made KB get into her vehicle."

She past drove him to her location without his parents' knowledge aliases permission, wherever she made him apologize to her boy and besides threatened to person her hubby "beat up" nan boy, nan title states.

Tufuga told him he was "lucky" she didn't tally complete his motorcycle erstwhile she recovered him riding it, according to nan complaint, earlier she yet returned him to his location that day.

It’s not clear if Tufuga has retained a lawyer for nan case. An lawyer who represented her successful a civilian matter successful 2023 did not instantly respond to a petition for comment, and nan nationalist defender’s agency could not beryllium reached.

The incident caused nan boy to suffer "serious affectional distress" and "high anxiety" and has forced him to "significantly" change his regular routines, according to nan complaint.

It's not clear why prosecutors took truthful agelong to record charges. The region attorney's agency did not instantly respond to a petition for much information.

The charges successful nan kidnapping lawsuit are listed successful Utah Criminal Code arsenic first-degree felonies, but prosecutors revenge nan charges arsenic second-degree felonies aft determining nan simplification would beryllium "in nan interests of justice," according to nan complaint.

Under state law, personification prosecuted for a second-degree felony could beryllium punished pinch a condemnation of 1 to 15 years successful prison, a $10,000 good aliases both.

Provo is simply a metropolis of astir 115,000 people, astir 45 miles southbound of Salt Lake City.