Carmen Ghia

Resident Tough Love Advocate

A Utah mother says she felt intimidated in court when a judge told her that he would reduce her 13-year-old daughter’s sentence if she chopped off the girl’s ponytail in court–an offer the mother says she now wishes she hadn’t taken. 

Valerie Bruno, of Price, said she has filed a formal complaint against 7th District Juvenile Judge Scott Johansen with the Utah Judicial Conduct Commission. The teenager and an 11-year-old friend were referred to juvenile court for cutting off the hair of a 3-year-old girl with scissors in March and for harassing another girl in Colorado by telephone.

When the 13-year-old faced Johansen for a hearing in May, he ordered she serve 30 days in detention and to perform 276 hours of community service, but he also offered to take 150 hours of community service off the sentence if her mother cut her ponytail in his courtroom.

Bruno is now expressing regret for not consulting an attorney before taking her daughter into the courtroom.

“I guess I should have went into the courtroom knowing my rights, because I felt very intimidated,” she told the Deseret News. “An eye for an eye, that’s not how you teach kids right from wrong.”

Mindy Moss, mother of the 3-year-old whose hair was cut off, said she approved of the sentence and even spoke up during the hearing when she felt Bruno had not cut off enough of her daughter’s hair. Johansen then directed Bruno to cut the ponytail all the way “to the rubber band.”Moss told The Salt Lake Tribune that she originally called police about the haircut because she worried the girls’ behavior could become more serious.

“I didn’t want them to think they got away with it .. It was malicious,” Moss said.

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Judge Johansen were unsuccessful.

Colin Winchester, executive director of the Utah Judicial Conduct Commission, said the state Constitution bars him from commenting on whether a complaint has been filed against a judge. A complaint only becomes public if disciplinary action is taken against a judge, he said.

Under state law, judges are given discretion in coming up with sanctions for youth that will change their behavior in a positive way.

Johansen ordered the friend of Bruno’s daughter to have her hair cut as short as his. She was allowed to go to a salon to have it done, then return to the courtroom to ensure that the new hairstyle met with the judge’s approval.

Maybe it’s just me, but I’m having a hard time understanding how anyone could cut off the hair of a helpless 3-year-old child and not expect to get punished for it?

If these girls did this and then harassed another girl over the phone for no other reason than they thought it was cute and funny, why shouldn’t they be reprimanded?

Sometimes when someone is forced to taste their own medicine, they realize that it doesn’t taste too good. What other way short of corporal punishment was going to teach these mean girls that being accountable for your actions means learning from them?

I don’t believe that a symbolic slap on the wrist and some detention would have made them seek any atonement. In fact, that type of cruel behavior might have escalated if it had not been nipped in the bud (so to speak).

Bullying has long been a social problem, though it has recently received a lot of media attention. Perhaps fighting fire with fire is the only way to render a bullies powerless, and instill a little contrition in them.