Dispute over money spent by Steven Utash's son at strip club
DETROIT (WJBK) - Witnesses at a strip club in Detroit say Joe Utash spent money from his father's fundraiser on Saturday.
Joe is the son of Steven Utash, the driver who was beaten while stopping to help a boy he had just hit with his vehicle. A fundraiser was held Friday and Saturday night for his family at Winners in Clinton Township.
Joe tells FOX 2's Taryn Asher he didn't receive any of the money from the fundraiser and, therefore, spent his own money at The Coliseum. He does admit to mentioning he was Steven's son.
He also says one of the dancers there stole hundreds of dollars from him.
"I let her hold onto my money ... she wanted to see that I had the money to pay for the dance," Joe says. So, he says he gave her about $400 which was "his money" that he "worked for."
But, according to Joe's family, he doesn't work. He's collecting unemployment and, according to the police report, Joe claimed he had a whole lot of cash.
In the report, Joe says he started with $1,500, spent $275 on lap dances and, when he asked her to hold onto the rest of the cash, she took off with it. The report also says the bouncer searched the dancer's locker and when he explained to Joe his money wasn't in there, Joe apparently threatened to blow the place up.
Joe denies ever making that threat, calling it "ridiculous."
When we asked Joe about the money again, he claims he lied to police and exaggerated about the amount of cash but denied everything else. He adds he got the money from cashing his unemployment check.
"I just went to out blow off steam, and I got robbed. If that [money] was from fundraiser wouldn't have called police," he says.
Asher reports the family is upset about this and says none of the money from the fundraiser is missing. Everything in the online account is also protected and is not accessible at this time.
Meanwhile, Utash's family says on social media Steven could be transferred out of the Intensive Care Unit and into a rehab center as early as Tuesday.