Woman slashes her arm in court

OGDEN — A woman apparently upset over being sentenced to prison time for shoplifting pulled out a smuggled razor blade and slashed her arm in a 2nd District Courtroom.

The 48-year-old woman reportedly screamed, "You're sending me to prison for stealing wallpaper?" as she stepped back from the lectern, pulled out the razor blade and slashed one of her arms. A bailiff behind her tackled her, witnesses said.

"The cut on her wrist, it was quite big," said Deputy Weber County Attorney Brenda Beaton, who prosecuted the woman. "There was blood everywhere."

Judge Michael D. Lyon sentenced the woman Thursday to serve up to five years in prison for retail theft, a third-degree felony. A courthouse security videotape of the incident reportedly shows the woman glaring at Beaton. As she was going to be handcuffed by a bailiff, Beaton said she heard the clerk say "She's got something in her hand."

It was then that police said the woman pulled out the razor blade and cut her arm.

"The deputy grabbed her and took her to the ground and she put it (the razor blade) in her mouth," said Weber County Sheriff's Lt. Art Haney. "She said she swallowed it, and we couldn't find it in her mouth."

The woman was loaded into an ambulance and taken to Ogden's McKay-Dee Hospital. On the way there, Haney said the woman pulled the razor blade out again and began slashing at her arms. At the hospital, the woman was treated for her cuts and then taken to the Weber County Jail.

Police described the razor blade as part of a three-blade shaving razor, removed from the plastic and hidden in the woman's dentures. It was about 1 1/4 inches long and 1/8 inch wide.

"She had dentures in the upper portion of her mouth and this razor blade fit into her dentures. She had practiced putting it up into her dentures with her tongue," Haney said.

Reviewing the incident on Friday, the Weber County Sheriff's Office concluded the razor blade was too small to show up on the metal detector at the entrance to the courthouse.

"Barring opening everyone's mouth and looking at it with a dentist's tool, it would never be found because it would never show up on a metal detector," Haney said.

Lyon denied a request by the Deseret Morning News for the courthouse security videotape because the Weber County Attorney's Office was investigating the possibility of more criminal charges against the woman.

"They have opened a criminal investigation into a restricted person carrying a weapon into court," said Tim Shea, a staff attorney for the Administrative Office of the Courts.

Friday, Lyon was back in his courtroom and there was no trace of the previous day's drama.

Beaton said prosecutors in the 2nd District courthouse may change where they sit in proximity to defendants.

"The bailiffs told me she gave me a look," she said Friday. "I haven't had any threats from her prior to this."

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E-mail: bwinslow@desnews.com