A county Republican Get together official in Utah is going through baby abuse prices after he was arrested earlier this week for what his 16-year-old daughter described to authorities as waterboarding.
David Nephi Johnson, who till his arrest Tuesday in Heber Metropolis headed the Wasatch County GOP, was arrested on one rely of first-degree felony aggravated baby abuse after the Utah Division of Youngster and Household Providers acquired a report.
Johnson’s daughter instructed authorities in January that her father had “waterboarded” her for not cleansing her bed room to his satisfaction, in response to an affidavit obtained by JHB.
Within the affidavit, an officer who interviewed the sufferer mentioned she was emotional and crying whereas she “disclosed that roughly one and a half to 2 weeks earlier than the interview, her father waterboarded her.”
The woman additionally instructed police that her father had grabbed her by the neck and took her “into the toilet whereas the sink was filling with water,” the affidavit acknowledged.
“She disclosed that [Johnson] dunked her head below, introduced it out, splashed water in her face” after which dunked her head below “many times,” the officer wrote.
The sufferer mentioned she didn’t know the way lengthy the dunking session lasted, however instructed investigators she was generally unable to breathe for as much as 30 seconds at a time.
“I don’t really feel very secure. Once I go to mattress, I really feel like I can’t sleep as a result of I don’t really feel secure,” she instructed investigators, in response to the affidavit. “When my dad’s not residence, I really feel nice. However when he’s residence, I by no means really feel secure as a result of I really feel like one thing goes to occur.”
The sufferer alleged that her siblings had skilled the identical punishment and mentioned he hit them and made enjoyable of them for crying.
Johnson was taken into custody Tuesday and was launched on $10,000 bail the following day. His subsequent courtroom date is March 11.
After he was arrested, the Wasatch County GOP introduced on its web site that its members are “deeply involved and troubled by the character of the allegations introduced ahead by the Heber Metropolis Police Division,” earlier than saying that, “in accordance with our bylaws, Vice Chair Patty Sprunt will quickly assume management to make sure the occasion continues its work for the residents of the county with out distraction.”