Residents cited after physical altercation over data center discussion in Utah County meeting

SALT LAKE CITY — A tense meeting in Utah County over a change in data center plan policy ended in an altercation between protesters and law enforcement.

Video obtained by KSL shows a woman sitting in the meeting speaking with deputies who were asking her to leave. After some back-and-forth, four of the deputies can be seen in the video approaching her to remove her from the meeting and the subsequent incident is then caught on camera.

The signs shown in the protest implied the group was there in opposition to a just-passed ordinance, which created a process for approving or denying new data centers on unincorporated land.

KSL contacted the group behind the protest and spoke with the woman at the center of the video, who identified herself as Aspen Azalea.

Azalea, 27, told KSL she suffered a concussion during the incident.

According to a press release from the Utah County Sheriff's Office, Azalea struck the officer when he initially attempted to remove her from the meeting.

"The deputy was struck in the groin by the female, and two other persons did grab ahold of the female to prevent her from being removed," the release states. "The group of three were removed from the chambers and taken to the lobby where Utah County Sheriff's Office deputies began to separate the parties. In that process, the female, who struck the deputy, and the deputy went to the ground."

Azalea was booked on investigation of assault on a peace officer, disrupting a meeting and interfering with a police officer, according to a police booking affidavit.

"Despite being asked and ordered several times by law enforcement officers to remove herself from the meeting she did not. I grabbed ahold of her arm and stood her up to remove her from the area, as I was pulling her out of the row of chairs, it felt like she attempted to go limp and dump her body weight on me. When I pulled her out of the row of chairs and into the aisle I felt a sharp pain in my groin," the affidavit said.

Two other people then latched onto Azalea and also had to be physically removed from the commission chambers, police wrote in the affidavit.

"The individuals were told to stop resisting and separate from each other; they did not and had to be physically separated from one another," the affidavit states.

The two people were released and given citations, according to the sheriff's office.

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