Update!

We wanted to share some updates regarding Morgan’s assault case for anyone interested.

For those who may have missed it, in October our daughter was randomly, violently attacked while working at her serving job. A vagrant hit her multiple times in the head/face, resulting in bruising, broken glasses, and two very broken front teeth.

It took multiple weeks for the police to get back in touch with Morgan — during that time, she did all the work to obtain security footage of the perpetrator, while also dealing with worker’s comp, dentists + doctors, and so on. A person of interest was finally identified by CPD, and Morgan verified this from a photo line-up.

Because the perpetrator is homeless, he was not located for arrest until November 20. He is being charged with a first class misdeameanor, the maximum time served for this would only be 6 months.

Minimal court proceedings have occurred so far. At a hearing in early December, he was initially going to plead guilty, but then his attorney ordered a competency review. In January, following the results of this review, he was ordered for in-patient competency restoration. No further updates are expected until sometime in March.

Worker’s compensation agreed to pay for Morgan’s dental repairs, as well as about one month worth of lost wages. Any psychological care was denied, and no additional benefits are allowed because there is no “actual” physical injury. She was luckily able to find an alternative solution for counseling services, at least temporarily. Morgan did also apply for unemployment to cover the time between her worker’s comp benefits ending, and her return to full-time work, but was denied as they deemed her leave of absence as voluntary/required.

While finding a new job seems like the obvious solution, it is unfortunately a bit more complicated than that. Firstly, the job market is not excellent currently, and particularly through the holiday season. Secondly, many aspects of Morgan’s life were already changed by this event and she has had so much on her plate — searching for and starting new employment would be incredibly *extra* stressful.

Throughout her leave, she was regularly in contact with her boss; he encouraged her to return, talked about how difficult it was for her hours to be covered, and no new hires were made. It was fully expected and communicated that Morgan would be able to re-integrate into her role and full-time hours. However, she has only been given a total of ~10 hours per week, for multiple weeks now, despite previous conversations and her boss knowing she was no longer receiving WC benefits. Initially, her boss would say he would “see what can be done next week”, but has more recently flipped to saying “I have no hours to give you. I suggest seeking work elsewhere until our business picks up.” To top it off, one of her coworkers is in the process of quitting. Morgan and her boss had discussed that she would get those hours, so imagine our surprise when he suddenly hired somebody new and gave them those hours.

Morgan has worked there as a shift lead for over three years now, and has put up with some serious managerial issues. This is a small business, and the boss himself has frequently described the team as a “family”. There has never been any complaint about Morgan’s work or any other reason for this to be happening. This situation is extremely disappointing and surprising, on top of everything she has already been dealing with.

She is of course putting extra effort into finding new work, and does have some good prospects so is hopeful to be back to working normally within the next week or two. It is very unfortunate that this was not her choice, and to come at an already difficult time. Not knowing when and where your next check is coming from is never a good feeling.

In the meantime, we are sharing her GoFundMe again; even if you are unable to donate, shares are much appreciated. Thank you.

Our daughter, Morgan, was randomly, violently attacked at her work in Columbus, Ohio, while working Friday night.

The vagrant had been standing outside her work, which she said was normal, but she had felt uneasy this time, even asking one of the men to step outside and make his presence known, as to warn them. As she walked out the door to assist diners outside, he jumped at her and immediately started hitting her. He broke her two front teeth, her glasses, and bruised her collarbone. Workman's comp should hopefully cover most of the expenses, but she's already had to pay over $1500 for a temporary fix for her teeth and will need two root canals, estimated at almost $5000 to fix them properly, along with getting new glasses, plus time off work to heal physically and, more importantly, emotionally. Even being off just a few short days, will put a strain on her financially, along with any other dental/medical fees that could arise before workman’s comp is even available. Unfortunately, the attacker was able to flee, but multiple witnesses have provided information to assist in hopefully catching him. If you can donate, great; if you cannot, please just keep her in your thoughts or share! Thank you!