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19-Year-Old Wendy’s Manager Who Allegedly Tied Neurodivergent Employee to Grill Arrested on Multiple Charges

Police said the 19-year-old admitted the act was a TikTok trend, and the restaurant fired her after video of the restraint surfaced.

  • On Thursday, Sept. 19, Murfreesboro Police Department Criminal Investigations Division detectives charged former Wendy's manager Michiko Burton, 19, with misdemeanor simple assault and false imprisonment for tying a neurodivergent employee to a grill.
  • Burton admitted to tying the neurodivergent worker to a workstation at the South Church Street Wendy's on August 30, claiming the act was part of a TikTok trend and intended as a joke.
  • Co-Worker Nicholus Murphy recorded the incident, which an area manager later called 'unacceptable'; Wendy's of Bowling Green confirmed Burton was fired following an internal investigation.
  • Burton was booked into the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center on a $2,000 bond, with a General Sessions Court date set for October 22 before Judge Ben Hall McFarlin III.
  • The employee's family is currently considering whether to pursue further legal action, while Adult Protective Services continues scrutinizing the case after Murphy and the family disputed Burton's 'joke' justification.
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Michiko Burton, 19, was arrested in Tennessee after admitting that she tied a neurodivergent worker to a grill for several minutes.

·Los Angeles, United States
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Former manager of a Wendys restaurant in Tennessee, U.S.A., is prosecuted after attaching a neurodivergent employee to kitchen equipment with garbage bags. She says that it was...

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WSMV Nashville broke the news in Nashville, United States on Friday, September 18, 2026.
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