A 19-year-old Wendy's manager in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, was arrested and charged with false imprisonment and simple assault after she admitted to tying a neurodivergent employee to a kitchen grill, an act she dismissed as a TikTok joke.
Michiko Burton told police on September 6 that she had restrained the employee, who has not been publicly identified, because she needed him to "stay put" while she handled work in the back office. She also claimed the incident was part of a TikTok trend. A co-worker, Nicholus Murphy, filmed the episode, which the Daily Mail reported lasted roughly seven minutes. The video has since been viewed by millions.
Burton now faces up to a year in jail on the misdemeanor charges. She was booked into the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center on a $2,000 bond and is set to appear in court October 22. The family's attorney says the young man seen in the video is struggling, and the family is weighing legal action against the franchise.
Detectives with the Murfreesboro Police Department's Special Victims Unit investigated the incident after the video surfaced. Burton spoke with officers on September 6 and did not deny what happened. Instead, she offered two explanations: the restraint was a TikTok trend, and it was meant as a joke.
Murphy, the co-worker who recorded the video, rejected that account outright.
"If there was a TikTok trend, then where's the TikTok?"
No such trend has been identified. Murphy told reporters he was shaken by what he witnessed.
"I actually felt sad for him. I actually wanted to cry."
Murphy also told the New York Post that the employee deserved someone in his corner. "They deserve justice," Murphy said. "Doing the right thing is always the right thing to do."
The neurodivergent employee told police he was not upset and had not been injured. But the family's attorney, Isaac Kimes, painted a different picture of the aftermath.
"The young man in the video seen now by millions is not doing well."
Kimes called the incident "an awful traumatic event" and said no reasonable person would view it as acceptable workplace conduct.
"The family thinks, and I think anyone would think, that it's absolutely inappropriate, unsafe, and dehumanizing to tie an employee to a grill."
Wendy's of Bowling Green, the franchisee that owns and operates the Murfreesboro location, issued a statement after the incident came to light. The company called the behavior "inconsistent with our values" and said it had promptly investigated and taken "appropriate action."
That action amounted to firing Burton. An area manager held a recorded meeting with staff, calling what happened "unacceptable" and confirming that Burton was no longer employed at the restaurant. The franchise's general manager separately confirmed the termination.
The franchisee's full statement leaned on corporate language about maintaining "a respectful workplace where all employees are treated with dignity and respect." What it did not address is how a 19-year-old manager was in a position to restrain a vulnerable employee in the first place, or whether any other staff member intervened during the seven minutes the worker was tied up.
Kimes has asked the Murfreesboro Police Department to reopen its investigation. Whether detectives have agreed to do so remains unclear. The case was referred to Adult Protective Services, a step that signals authorities recognized the employee's potential vulnerability, but no further official action beyond Burton's arrest has been publicly disclosed.
The charges Burton faces, simple assault and false imprisonment, are both classified as misdemeanors under Tennessee law. Each carries a maximum sentence of up to a year in jail. For a case involving a neurodivergent worker physically bound to kitchen equipment on the job, the family may view misdemeanor charges as insufficient. Kimes invoked the memory of Wendy's founder to make the point plain.
"Dave Thomas wouldn't approve of chaining an employee to a grill."
Several basic facts remain unresolved. The exact date of the incident has not been publicly confirmed beyond a reference to "last month" relative to the initial reporting. Burton's TikTok explanation has not been substantiated by any identified video or trend. And the neurodivergent employee's specific condition has not been disclosed.
It is also unknown whether Murphy, the co-worker who filmed the incident rather than stopping it, faces any disciplinary action or legal exposure. His decision to record may have been the reason the public learned about the episode at all, but it also means at least one other person in the restaurant watched it happen in real time.
The franchise has not said whether it plans to review its hiring, training, or supervision practices in light of the arrest. A boilerplate statement about "dignity and respect" does not answer how a teenager with a manager's title was left unsupervised long enough to restrain a co-worker and laugh it off as a social media stunt.
When the people trusted to manage a workplace use that authority to restrain the most vulnerable person in the building, a $2,000 bond and a corporate press release are not accountability. They are the bare minimum, and the family knows it.
