When you’re the parent of a teenager, there are going to be days when you arrive home and perhaps they’ve had a tough day at school and their room is looking a little worse for wear. When asked about it, they might meet you with a bad attitude. Most parents would just chalk that up to normal behavior that’s very typical of teenagers and move along with their day. Unfortunately, that was not the case for a 16-year-old teenage girl in Utah, who was allegedly “waterboarded” by her father, who’s also a GOP chairman in his county, because he thought her bedroom was not cleaned to the standard he expected.
On February 10, 2026, Heber City Police Department posted a news release to social media that stated officers had “arrested a local man following an investigation into allegations of aggravated child abuse involving a juvenile.” ABC 4 reported that the man is 54-year-old David Nephi Johnson, a Wasatch County Republican Party chairman in Utah, who allegedly “waterboarded” his 16-year-old daughter.
A probable cause arrest affidavit obtained by Law & Crime stated that about a week or so earlier, the teen “came home from hanging out with friends” and her father was upset with her because she “didn’t completely clean her room,” and he believed it wasn’t “spotless to his expectations.”
The father “allegedly grabbed his daughter by the neck and pulled her to the bathroom where the sink was filling with water,” Law & Crime reported. He reportedly proceeded to “dunk her head underwater before bringing her out, splashing her face with water and dunking her head again.” According to the arrest affidavit from police, the teen felt like she was “drowning.”
The teen also “disclosed abuse involving other younger family members,” including an incident from several years ago that involved a now 8-year-old who was brought into the bathroom and had “his head forced into a sink of water repeatedly,” ABC 4 reported.
The 16-year-old disclosed to police that she’s been hit by Johnson more than once and he’s been verbally abusive as well as he “made fun of [her] for crying,” per ABC 4. The teen told police that “when he’s home, [she] never [feels] safe because [she feels] like something is going to happen.”
While the teen was being interviewed, Johnson could be seen on an outside surveillance camera yelling, “We have rights!” before getting into his car and slamming the door while children were inside, ABC 4 reported.
The Heber City Police Department expressed in a statement posted on social media that it remains “committed to protecting children and holding offenders accountable.” The teen was temporarily placed with another adult relative and the other children have a safety plan that prohibits the use of “physical discipline,” according to ABC 4.
We just hope that the girl and any other family members who were affected by this horrible abuse can get the help and the care they deserve.
If you suspect child abuse, you can call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 (1-800-4-A-Child) or go to Childhelp.org. The hotline is available 24/7.
