David Johnson (Wasatch County GOP/Facebook).
A disturbing incident has surfaced in Utah involving a county GOP chair, who is accused of subjecting his teenage daughter to a cruel punishment over a seemingly trivial issue. Authorities allege that 54-year-old David Nephi Johnson “waterboarded” his 16-year-old daughter because her bedroom did not meet his stringent cleanliness standards.
Johnson now faces charges of aggravated child abuse. The troubling events came to light when the Heber City Police Department received a report indicating that the girl did not feel safe at home and feared for her life. The allegations are detailed in a probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law&Crime.
In interviews with the authorities, the girl recounted the harrowing experience, becoming visibly emotional as she described it. She explained that the ordeal began after she returned home from spending time with friends. Her father was reportedly upset because her room was not “spotless” as he expected. In response, Johnson allegedly took drastic measures.
The affidavit describes how Johnson purportedly grabbed his daughter by the neck and dragged her to the bathroom, where he was filling the sink with water. He then allegedly forced her head underwater, lifting it only to splash her face before submerging her again. The teenager estimated this terrifying episode lasted long enough for her to struggle to breathe for up to 30 seconds, leaving her with the sensation of drowning.
Following the incident, Johnson reportedly instructed his daughter to clean her room. When investigators inquired about her feelings post-incident, she revealed, “I kind of felt sick afterwards. Like I couldn’t breathe. So it made my stomach feel a little sick.”
“I kind of felt sick afterwards,” she told investigators. “Like I couldn’t breathe. So it made my stomach feel a little sick.”
The victim said Johnson had done the same thing to her now-8-year-old brother a few years ago. She also said Johnson backhanded her in the stomach “because she wasn’t compliant to do something.”
“He made fun of me for crying,” she said.
She went on to say she does not feel safe when her father is home because she thinks something violent may occur.
“When I go to bed, I feel like I can’t sleep because I don’t feel safe,” she told cops.
Authorities removed the girl from the home and placed her with an adult sibling while the two younger kids remain in the care of Johnson and his wife. Cops believe the abuse has been “ongoing” throughout the children’s lives but they were “too fearful to report it.” Johnson “poses a substantial threat to the two younger children,” cops said.
Johnson is the chair of the Wasatch County Republican Party. The vice president will take over the organization as the legal process plays out, the Wasatch County GOP said in a statement.
“The safety and well-being of children are of paramount importance to our party and our community,” the statement also said. “We are deeply troubled by the nature of the allegations brought forward by the Heber City Police Department.”
