Utah girl jailed and strip searched for hair-cutting prank

This is really getting out of hand...

A 13-year-old girl in Utah had her ponytail cut off, was jailed for 30 days and was forced to undergo a strip search at the hands of juvenile justice officials, all because she allegedly helped a friend cut another little girl’s hair.

Now, I admit that when I was 13 years old I did some really stupid stuff. However, I was never jailed, or strip-searched for being stupid and doing stupid kid stuff.

Instead, I was made to apologize to whomever I wronged and probably got grounded for a week.

This occurrence just goes way beyond practical. Let's hear what the 13-year old girl did in her own words...

“I was at McDonald’s with my other friend,” the girl, Kaytlen Lopan, told Raw Story. “She ripped her pants on the swing set, so we asked if we could have some scissors. Then we walked across the street to buy some scissors and we cut the strings off her pants.”

“And then she was going to try to cut the net in the [McDonald's] play area, but she couldn’t because it was like wire with plastic,” Lopan explained. “But then she wouldn’t tell me what she was going to do, and she called a little girl over and cut some of her hair off, like just a tiny little piece. I didn’t know what to do, so I helped her hide the hair. Then I called my mom to come get me.”

Okay, that was not cool. So what happened shortly thereafter?

Two weeks later, she was visited at school by a police officer, who said the little girl’s parents were pressing assault charges.

After examining Lopan’s charges, Utah’s 7th District Juvenile Judge Scott Johansen ordered her mother, Valerie Bruno, to “whack that ponytail off,” according to an audio recording taken from inside the courtroom. He also ordered Lopan to spend 30 days in a detention center, pay a $350 fine and serve 276 community work hours, but reduced those hours by 150 because Bruno was willing to cut her daughter’s hair in front of the victim’s parents.

For a minor prank, this judge believed the 13-year old girl deserved jail time, a fine, and the equivalent of SEVEN weeks of full-time labor. At least he cut the community service in half IF the 13-year old's mother cut her daughter's ponytail off in front of the "victim's" parents?

Wow! For real?

Now the 13-year old's mother is looking for justice...

Now the girl’s mother, Valerie Bruno, has filed an official complaint against the judge. In doing so, she’s attracted local media attention to the case. Speaking to Raw Story, Bruno insisted her daughter didn’t actually participate in the hair-cutting, but got the worst of the punishment anyway — including a 30-day term in the Castle Country Youth Center, where she was strip searched upon admittance.

“Now, she won’t even sleep by herself,” Bruno said. “She’s very upset and she [often] cries.”

Is there a history to this judge and his actions? Yup!

While none of the judge’s actions appear to be illegal — Utah state law gives juvenile courts wide authority to use creative sentencing — it’s not the first time Judge Johansen has sparked controversy.

He ordered a local mom in 2007 to either enroll her children in public schools or lose custody, even though she had placed them in a home schooling curriculum. The mother, Denise Mafi, eventually fled the state to avoid losing her children over what she called a paperwork error by the school district. Judge Johansen was also publicly reprimanded in 1997 for physically slapping a 16-year-old boy across the face.

Utah girl jailed and strip searched for hair-cutting prank

Does this judge truly believe this sort of punishment is really going to help this young girl? Perhaps this is a replay of the juvenile judicial scandal from Pennsylvania and this judge is getting bounty money?

Whatever the reason, this is just way over the top in my honest opinion.

So what are your thoughts? Righteous punishment or overly zealous judge?

Common sense has been vanquished from much of our 'modern' society.

I don't condone bullying, or what the girl did but c'mon. Jail time? This judge is whacked.

reply to post by Hessling


Wait what? This has got to be a joke.

I agree. And there are some who think its just fine, and eye for an eye primitive crapola. Lets all go back to the dark ages and join in with SHARIA. Hey, you know what, I smell a SET UP, its probably done to soft peddle the SHARIA in, but we all have to stand up and say NO!

To bad they did not do the same thing to Romney.
He also did the same thing.

wow.... 30 days jail and a fine for cutting someone hair off?....thats way of a overreaction. With the judges other past stuff with minors, seems like he has a vendetta against them, I hope the mom gets her justice against the judge

America scares the hell out of me.

Your judges can order a liitle grls ponytail be cut off? Im guessing these people are poor?

America is a disease.

reply to post by Germanicus


I often wonder what my punishment will be when the police decide to attack me, it's only a matter of time.

Do we have any idea what the real story here is? I mean we have the girls version but. not the victims or anybody elses. They also mention the mother thinks the penalty was so severe because the judge merged it with another case agaist her daughter having to with prank phone calls of some kind. In the end what we have here is clearly more than we are being told and because the girl is under age the legal system will not reveal any of the real details.

I have to tell you...I try my hardest not to let any form of sensationalism brood too much in my mind, but as an American, I honestly and truly feel like if there even ever was some collective sanity to our society, it has been degraded, and completely erased. I never know what to expect when I read headlines anymore. I'm grateful to live in a place where I'm not being bombed, burned alive for stealing potatos, or imprisoned for saying the government sucks, but in the end.... is it worth how utterly crazy we seem to have become?

Maybe in a society that has to struggle to survive to some extent, the populace will be more of a team, and less like a population of insane people. I don't even know what to say anymore to be honest.

The headlines to me are all concocted stories to get people to think in lower frequency retaliation terms and/or they are making cases of things that are minor for Fasiscist agenda

If I was the mother that child would be out, or everyday I would be the loudest and most visible person that judge adn any politician endorsing him and any police carrying this out would see, and I this would be their career destruction.

What that judge did was FAR worse than what that girl is alleged to have done. Surely he's not fit to be a judge??

“And then she was going to try to cut the net in the [McDonald's] play area, but she couldn’t because it was like wire with plastic,” Lopan explained. “But then she wouldn’t tell me what she was going to do, and she called a little girl over and cut some of her hair off, like just a tiny little piece. I didn’t know what to do, so I helped her hide the hair. Then I called my mom to come get me.”

reply to post by Hessling


I don't think you people are getting the fact that this isn't about (or shouldn't be about) the physical act of cutting someone's hair.

A thirteen-year-old girl has it within her to treat another human being like an object, and crazy enough to do it to a helpless child and a total stranger. This isn't pulling a stupid prank on a friend; it's downright criminal. Okay, maybe this Lopan girl didn't do the cutting, but maybe this will teach her to say NO! when other friends try to do something this stupid.

As for the girl that did do the cutting, I am frightened at what atrocities she'll be doing as an adult.

Originally posted by jiggerj
I am frightened at what atrocities she'll be doing as an adult.

I often agree with your posts jigger but not on this occasion.

In your own words "she'll be doing as an adult" and thats the point, she IS NOT AN ADULT she is a child.

The reason we dont let children drive is because we know they are not responsible yet when it comes to punishment we think they should be treated as adults. How hypocritical is that!!

I'm too angry to finnish this grr

Originally posted by VoidHawk

Originally posted by jiggerj
I am frightened at what atrocities she'll be doing as an adult.

I often agree with your posts jigger but not on this occasion.

In your own words "she'll be doing as an adult" and thats the point, she IS NOT AN ADULT she is a child.

The reason we dont let children drive is because we know they are not responsible yet when it comes to punishment we think they should be treated as adults. How hypocritical is that!!

I'm too angry to finnish this grr

edit on 23-6-2012 by VoidHawk because: (no reason given)

Again, this isn't a prank against friends. It's not throwing snowballs at cars. This is looking at another human being in the face and cutting her hair. If this isn't raising a great BIG red flag stating that this girl has a serious mental problem and will only grow more dangerous as she gets older, well, let's just say if society doesn't treat this girl now, then we will be to blame when she decides to use scissors for something more harmful.

Honestly, I get chills just thinking about it.

I'm trying to understand what legitimate purpose strip searching in this case could serve. What would they be looking for?

It sounds to me as though the intent was far more focused on intimidation, than on actually finding anything. Of course, the police would probably claim some BS about marijuana.

reply to post by Germanicus


Its the same disease that Germany contracted in the 1930's that killed your democracy - well, the same thing is happening here.

Originally posted by Germanicus
America scares the hell out of me.

Your judges can order a liitle grls ponytail be cut off? Im guessing these people are poor?

America is a disease.

Dude, you should really spend as much time looking at the crimes of your own Australian Government as you do obsessing over America.

JUDGE SCOTT N. JOHANSEN
JUDGE SCOTT N. JOHANSEN Judge Scott N. Johansen was appointed to the Seventh District Juvenile Court in January 1992 by Gov. Norman H. Bangerter after serving as Emery County attorney since 1979. He serves Carbon, Emery, Grand, and San Juan counties. He received a law degree from the J. Reuben Clark College of Law at Brigham Young University in 1977 and practiced with the Price law firm of Frandsen, Keller & Jensen from 1977 to 1979. He served as city attorney for several cities and towns in Carbon, Emery, and Sanpete counties and is a former president of the Utah Association of Counties. Judge Johansen is a past chair of the Board of Juvenile Court Judges, past chair of the Judicial Council's Policy and Planning Committee, past member of the Sentencing Commission and the Judicial Council. 9/11

www.utcourts.gov...

Judge Scott Johansen is a Tyrant

judgescottjohansenisatyrant.wordpress.com...

JUDGE WHO HIT TEENAGE BOY MAY FACE DISCIPLINE

Originally posted by stanguilles7
JUDGE SCOTT N. JOHANSEN
JUDGE SCOTT N. JOHANSEN Judge Scott N. Johansen was appointed to the Seventh District Juvenile Court in January 1992 by Gov. Norman H. Bangerter after serving as Emery County attorney since 1979. He serves Carbon, Emery, Grand, and San Juan counties. He received a law degree from the J. Reuben Clark College of Law at Brigham Young University in 1977 and practiced with the Price law firm of Frandsen, Keller & Jensen from 1977 to 1979. He served as city attorney for several cities and towns in Carbon, Emery, and Sanpete counties and is a former president of the Utah Association of Counties. Judge Johansen is a past chair of the Board of Juvenile Court Judges, past chair of the Judicial Council's Policy and Planning Committee, past member of the Sentencing Commission and the Judicial Council. 9/11

www.utcourts.gov...

Judge Scott Johansen is a Tyrant

judgescottjohansenisatyrant.wordpress.com...

JUDGE WHO HIT TEENAGE BOY MAY FACE DISCIPLINE

I find it strange this judge went to BYU Mormon university. The same place Mitt Romney went. Mitt Romney did the same thing holding down a guy and cuting his hair off.