Attorney: Utah eatery where woman drank toxic tea had previous chemical burn incident

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Dickey\'s Barbecue Pit is shown Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, in South Jordan, Utah. The Utah police agency investigating how iced tea that a woman drank at a restaurant ended up laced with an industrial cleaning solution is forwarding its findings to prosecutors to determine if anybody should be charged. Authorities have said an employee at Dickey\'s Barbecue in South Jordan unintentionally put the heavy-duty cleaner in a sugar bag, and a worker later mistakenly mixed it into the iced tea dispenser. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

SALT LAKE CITY – The attorney for a woman who nearly died after unknowingly drinking toxic iced tea at a Utah restaurant says an employee at the eatery burned herself a month earlier on the same chemical cleaning compound.

Lawyer Paxton Guymon said Thursday the former Dickey’s Barbecue employee burned her tongue July 5. He says she stuck her finger in a sugar container and licked it to see if it contained any of the chemical cleaner.

Guymon says he’s appalled that the South Jordan restaurant didn’t get rid of the sugar container mixed with the chemical lye before it ended up in the tea that Jan Harding drank Aug 10.

Her husband, Jim Harding, says she is recovering well. He says he’s not upset and doesn’t want retribution for what happened.

Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants Inc. has said the customer’s injuries were an isolated incident.

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