Man whose photo was usurped by West Valley mayor wants apology

WEST VALLEY CITY — Peter Burwash says he "doesn't want to be a jerk about it," but he believes West Valley City Mayor Mike Winder owes him an apology.

"The apology should be very sincere. He should have picked up the phone by now. He's got to do something to sort of rectify this," he said.

Burwash, who lives in California, said Friday that his phone had been ringing all day from friends after news broke that the mayor used Burwash's picture without his knowledge to falsely present himself to Deseret Connect as writer Richard Burwash.

Using the fake name, the West Valley mayor has had more than a dozen stories published over a nine-month period in the Oquirrh Times, Deseret News and KSL.com. A photo credited to Burwash also appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune. Winder also pretended to be the fictional Burwash when he communicated over the phone and in emails with editors of Deseret Connect, a freelance contributor network through which stories are submitted to its media partners, including the Deseret News and KSL.

Winder's Burwash picture was never printed with any of his articles, but it was available to view for those with access to the list of Deseret Connect contributors.

The picture that he used when applying for the contributor job with Deseret Connect is actually that of Peter Burwash, a motivational speaker and former pro tennis player who has run a successful company for more than 30 years. He has also published at least 10 books during that time and has a strong presence on the Internet.

Burwash said what Winder did is equivalent to identity theft.

"I'm not surprised. It's hard to find an honest politician these days," he said. "He's got some problems on his hands here. I'm very disappointed someone would do that. I'm not a famous person, but I'm on the Internet a lot. I have a very large international company. This is very serious."

Winder said he was just trying to bring balance to the news coverage because he felt there wasn't enough positive articles about West Valley City in the newspaper. He also wrote about UTOPIA, a former client from his days at the Summit Group marketing company.

As of Friday, Peter Burwash said he had not received a call from Winder. When asked whether he would consider legal action against Winder, he said Friday he didn't know, but it was something he would likely be discussing with his lawyers.

"I understand he's trying to do good for the city, but you do it ethically. The thing that concerns me most is the picture. People recognize my picture," he said.