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Cafe Sabor Owner Charged With Forging Payments, Expected To Plead Guilty

Ken Lund F
/
flickr

A northern Utah businessman charged with forging payments to employees is expected to plead guilty this week in Salt Lake City. The criminal case against 40-year-old Justin R. Hamilton was filed in March in U.S. District Court related to the payment of back wages from a 2016 U.S. Department of Labor Investigation.

The Utah Attorney General’s Office, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wages and Hours Division opened the investigation into business practices at Cafe Sabor’s Bear Lake location. Wage and hour violations were also discovered at Hamilton's Layton and Logan restaurants.

Hamilton reportedly entered into a settlement agreement to pay nearly $126,000 in back wages. Charging documents indicate that some employees were not paid and that the canceled checks used as proof of payment had been forged.

He has been charged with impeding administration of the law, a third-degree felony, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

At 14-years-old, Kerry began working as a reporter for KVEL “The Hot One” in Vernal, Utah. Her radio news interests led her to Logan where she became news director for KBLQ while attending Utah State University. She graduated USU with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and spent the next few years working for Utah Public Radio. Leaving UPR in 1993 she spent the next 14 years as the full time mother of four boys before returning in 2007. Kerry and her husband Boyd reside in Nibley.