Utah
Dr. Kirk Moore ‘completely stunned’ over Attorney General’s decision to drop COVID vaccine scheme charges
SALT LAKE CITY — Saturday morning, Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to dismiss the charges in the case of Dr. Kirk Moore, who was facing charges of running a fraudulent COVID-19 vaccination card scheme out of the Plastic Surgery Institute of Utah during the pandemic.
“My initial reaction was, I was just completely stunned. Wasn’t expecting it,” Moore said. “I didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to do. I don’t think I spoke for a good two and a half minutes.“
The trial came two years after a federal grand jury indicted him, claiming Moore and others destroyed legitimate vaccine doses, distributed fake COVID-19 cards, and administered saline shots to minors.
During the trial, two of Moore’s co-defendants took the stand for the prosecution. One claimed that when she was hired, Moore said her job would be to give out vaccine cards without administering the vaccine. Another claimed people were urged to give donations for the vaccine cards and said she felt like what they were doing was wrong.
Kathy Nester, Moore’s attorney, spoke to the public on Saturday about the decision.
“The Attorney General’s decision to dismiss all the charges before the trial concluded reflects what the evidence has shown all along: our clients did not commit a crime. They honored the personal medical choices of their patients. They never received a dollar in return, and no unexpired vaccines were ever destroyed,” Nester said.
When asked about his decisions, Moore said he went with what his gut was telling him.
“I just did what was right. I just did what my patients wanted. I talked to them about full informed consent. You can’t have informed consent with people when you don’t know what you’re injecting in them,” Moore said.
FOX 13 News reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for a comment but did not receive a response.
Utah
Here’s who will lead Utah Valley University as its next president
Jon Anderson will be charged with moving the Orem school forward following the death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on campus last year.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Incoming UVU President Jon Anderson poses for a photo with his family after an event announcing his selection at Utah Valley University in Orem on Friday, July 17, 2026.
Utah
Beaver County residents set up thousands of sandbags ahead of flashfloods
BEAVER COUNTY, Utah — A massive community effort is underway as volunteers and Beaver County crews distribute thousands of sandbags to protect homes from the potential path of floodwaters.
After the Cottonwood Fires, residents have been waiting for weeks for relief to come in the form of rain, though officials now warn it may come all at once with an increased risk of flooding and debris flow.
Emergency Service Director Les Whitney believes that the fire has left plenty of debris to bring trouble for residents.
“We got a lot of water. We’re bringing debris with it, so tree branches, tree limbs, logs, lots of different size firewood, and that’s all in the creeks. We’re worried about that plugging up our bridges and stuff, so we have heavy equipment and excavators located in strategic places so that we can keep those bridges open,” said Whitney.
An estimated 140 homes and condominiums were spared from the flames, but remain in the paths of floodwaters.
Residents can also pick up sandbags at the Beaver County Sheriff’s Office or at the Beaver County Rodeo Fairgrounds.
Utah
Utah man arrested again for allegedly abusing dog twice in three months
EAGLE MOUNTAIN — An Eagle Mountain man currently on pretrial release in 4th District Court who is accused of abusing his dog has been arrested again for allegedly punching the same animal.
Keith Reaves Davis, 43, was booked into the Utah County Jail on Wednesday for investigation of aggravated cruelty to an animal.
Utah County sheriff’s deputies were called Wednesday afternoon to a grocery store on a report that a man was beating his dog after it had gotten off its leash and was stopped by a bystander, according to a police booking affidavit.
“I reviewed security camera footage from the grocery store, and an individual matching the description of the suspect was seen holding the dog in the air by one paw and repeatedly striking the dog on the right hind leg area. I observed the male strike the dog several times before dropping the dog from approximately 1-2 feet. The strikes appeared to be as hard as the male could hit,” the arresting deputy wrote in the affidavit. “The dog did not cry out or whimper as if the dog was accustomed to the abuse.”
When questioned, Davis “admitted to striking the dog because it was not behaving,” the affidavit states.
An animal control officer who responded to the scene to take custody of the dog noted it was the same dog he had taken from Davis exactly three months earlier during another animal abuse investigation.
In that case, Davis was charged in 4th District Court with aggravated cruelty to an animal, a class A misdemeanor; and public intoxication, a class C misdemeanor, after deputies received a tip from a neighbor that a dog was being abused at Davis’ home, according to charging documents. When questioned, Davis “acknowledged hitting his dog as punishment,” the charges state.
Deputies also reviewed videos that the neighbor had filmed. The neighbor told investigators “there was blood from the dog on the ground of the garage and (the neighbor) can hear the dog screaming as if it’s being hurt. Deputies got the videos from the (neighbor) and you can hear very loudly the dog screaming and crying with a lot of loud banging noises. In one of the videos, you can hear the dog sounding like it is being choked by a collar and is grasping for air,” a police booking affidavit states.
Davis’ next court hearing in the April case is scheduled for July 28.
In their latest booking report, sheriff’s deputies note that they “believe further harm will be inflicted on this dog if it is released back to the male a second time,” and have recommended the dog not be returned to Davis.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
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