Posted on 06/25/2012 7:02:46 PM PDT by presidio9
Kaytlen Lopan, 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 by juvenile justice officials, because she allegedly helped a friend cut another little girl’s hair.
Lopan's unnamed friend allegedly cut a few inches of hair of a three-year-old girl that they befriended at a local McDonald's.
Lopan said her friend "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.”
KLS5 reports that, two weeks later, Lopan was visited at school by a police officer, who said the little girl’s parents were pressing assault charges.
Utah’s 7th District Juvenile Judge Scott Johansen sentenced Lopan spend 30 days in a detention center, pay a $350 fine and serve 276 community work hours, but reduced those hours by 150 because Lopan's mother, Valerie Bruno, was willing to cut Lopan’s hair in front of the victim’s parents.
Bruno, has filed an official complaint against the judge. Bruno insisted her daughter didn’t actually participate in the hair-cutting, but got a 30-day term in the Castle Country Youth Center, where she was strip searched upon admittance.
Bruno said: “Now, she won’t even sleep by herself. She’s very upset and she [often] cries.”
Judge Johansen sentenced the other little girl to have her hair cut as well, but she was allowed to get it cut at a local salon and was not removed from parental custody. Bruno believes Lopan got a harsher sentence because had done a prank phone before with a friend.
Bruno said: “Kaytlen did not cut her hair. She did not do it. The probation officer talked her into saying she did because she was ‘guilty by association.’ She told her, even if you were just there, you’re just as guilty.”
Sending her to jail was totally unwarranted. It’s as if the justice system wants traumatized kids so the system has new clients.
There is no cure for stupid, but jailtime might help. If you didn't do it, say you didn't do it. As soon as you say "Yeah, I did it" then everything changes. Fool.
“I didn’t know what to do” -
then why did you walk across the street and buy scissors in the first place?
I know walk out of the bathroom and tell your mom, your friend is an idiot.
It certainly sounds bizarre. But the comments after the article paint a very different picture. This sounds like one very troubled kid. A month in custody isn’t the right solution, but I don’t know what is, if there is no father and the mother can’t deal with her daughter’s problems—or maybe is the cause of them.
She went to juvi not jail.
Nether was warranted.
The judge already had her hair cut off plus community service.
Juvi sentence was over kill.
The little angel had a probation officer? Nuff said!!!
Weirdsville, baby.
what a spin. I just read another article yesterday of the same story that is less sympathetic as this article is
Some punk teen cuts my three year old’s hair, they better hope they make it to a judge.
Though perhaps the toddler’s mom should have been watching closer? I can’t imagine letting my kid out of sight at McDonald’s long enough for a haircut...
Another view.....
“...She was also being charged in a separate case where she made months of harassing phone calls to another teen, threatening her with rape and mutilation...”
Juvenile hall is jail for minors.
Juvenile hall, Downey, CA.
Juvenile hall, Sacramento, CA.
“Bruno believes Lopan got a harsher sentence because had done a prank phone before with a friend.”
In other words, your daughter is a repeat offender.
Here is the original article posted yesterday that gives much more information about Miss Lopan. This kid has serious problems. I thought the judge was fair. Read it and see what you think.
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=20946125
The mean judge made me cut my precious baby’s hair! Considering this brat was also making threatening phone calls to another kid over an eight month period, the punishment seems a little light.
Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
I would have said that 6 months ago. Then my kids go caught up in in the "justice system". The courts, judges, defense lawyers (yes, we paid $10K), DAs, cops, probation officers, social workers and a cast of thousands make their living by bringing people into the system and NEVER letting them out.
Yes, they will scare you into coping to just about anything. You think you got them out of your hair, and they just come back to take more.
What an insult to Repeat Offenders; especially when I stand to pee.
Was the three year old traumatized? Was she held down, entrapped, did it hurt? Was she in danger of losing an eye or an ear, or getting permanently scarred, by trying to get away?
Who does this to a three year old? It sounds insanely abusive.
“Bruno believes Lopan got a harsher sentence because had done a prank phone before with a friend.”
In other words, your daughter is a repeat offender.
When I saw ‘30 days in juvi’ my 1st thought was this wasn’t her first offense and it’s time to send this future prison/welfare mom a wakeup call.
Zackly! Coddling the little darlings has got us what? Self-indulgent narcissists who live their lives on Twitter and Facebook and look at parents to be their “friends”, not parents.
The punishment fit the crime, a little tough love might straighten her butt out. Sick of hearing all the BS about this case.
I agree. No permanent harm was done and unless the tot’s mother made a huge fuss in front of the tot, the tot probably didn’t give a hoot about it.
There has to be something else going on here, as this sentence for this ‘crime’ is ridiculous.
Well, you may be right. I posted before I read the details given by other posters.
The whole thing sounds bizarre and pointless and creepy.
If you new more about this perp’s criminal history you’d understand that some day she’ll most likely be one half of a Thelma and Louise team.
Perhaps, but that doesn’t mean you give a punishment out of proportion to the actual harm done.
Fwiw, for those that say that she went to juvie, and not prison, there is a fair bit of sexual abuse happening within the juvenile system as well.
When they go high up in the habitrail area, you can’t see what is going on. I don’t know where the hair cutting took place though. Surprised McDonald’s didn’t get sued as that is usually the more common thing to happen these days when something goes wrong on a big business property.
Brian was found covered with grass and purple weeds. He had been strangled. Nearby, a pair of broken scissors lay in the grass. There were puncture marks on his thighs, and his genitals had been partially skinned. Clumps of his hair were cut away. The wounds were bizarre: "There was a terrible playfulness about it, a terrible gentleness if you like, and somehow the playfulness of it made it more, rather than less, terrifying," said Inspector James Dobson. Brian's belly had been signed "M" with a razor blade. This cut would not be apparent until days later. It appeared that someone had imprinted an "N", and that a fourth mark was added (by a different hand?) to change the "N" into a "M".
If she’d been a wise latina immigrant, none of this ever would have gotten this far.
Maybe the 30 day lock up will teach this girl to respect other people and the rule of law. Sometimes a little taste of prison is all a kid needs to turn their life around. I hope it works for this young lady.
Mother is an idiot. Daughter is a career criminal in the making. NOT because of the judge or jail time, but because her mother is an idiot and les her get away with crap.
In the future, leave other people alone. I wish all young kids could learn how it’s done.
When I was a kid two of my friends turned on me, chasing me down to cut my hair. They were going to tie me up in a chair which somehow they got me into, and were tying me up when, if memory serves me right, and it is quite hazy, someone showed up and stopped them just as they were wielding the scissors. Weird group of kids I grew up with. This was in the 60’s. Those two could have gone to kid prison if they tried that now.
Go sit in a courtroom for a couple of days. This little angel has a mother that uses the criminal justice system to parent her daughter. Normally the juvenile counselor just chews them out, with the kid sitting there with a smirk on their face and the "parent" having a blank, stupid look.
They really ought to start handing the idiot parent a bill for services rendered.
Some of these kids you know will be real clients of the criminal justice system very soon.
More complete article here:
This young girl is guilty of assault and her mother appears to have issues. This won’t be the last time we hear about this mother daughter pair, believe me.
Dollars to donuts the little brat sassed the judge and showed no respect for the law or remorse for her actions.
I didn’t say THE Repeat Offender....she’s not been around long enough to take your place.
I'm just giving you a hard time.
Some people just need to be exterminated like vermin, seriously!
this country is so uneven in its “justice”....we let felons out on bail and they kill others but we’ve apparently got so much freaking time to arrest, jail, charge, and try and imprison 13 yro hair cutting criminals...
Guess you think it’s ok she assaulted a child 10 yrs younger?
I read she was with her grandfather in the play area and it happened in the tube thing which adults can’t get in..
Tell that to the girl she made crank calls on threatening doing horrible stuff to her.
This time it was only a haircut the next kid may not be so lucky
If the child was injured, of course not.
I guess you think it’s ok to send children to institutions where sexual assault is not uncommon, huh?
With this little witch YES she threatened to have another child raped and sliced up THAT is not the actions of a normal teen.
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