Ohio Rep. Bob Young charged with domestic violence, misconduct – Akron Beacon Journal
The leader of the Ohio House is asking State Rep. Bob Young to resign amid multiple criminal charges, including domestic violence, after the Summit County Sheriff’s Office issued a warrant for his arrest Friday.
Messages left Sunday with Young and his attorney, John Greven, were not returned.
Young was charged in Barberton Municipal Court with two misdemeanor counts of first-degree domestic violence and a fourth-degree felony charge of disrupting public service at his home in Green.
The 42-year-old lawmaker appeared with his attorney in court Saturday. A $5,000 bond was set by Judge Todd McKenney. Young paid $520, or 10% plus fees, to secure his release.
A Summit County grand jury will determine whether to indict the two-term state representative on the felony disrupting public service charge, which stems from an alleged domestic violence incident at his home.
And Young, along with the Ohio GOP, is currently facing a defamation lawsuit over 2020 campaign attack ads that claimed his Democratic opponent had committed domestic violence 20 years earlier when a police report at the time stated there was no evidence to support that claim.
The Summit County Sheriff’s Office has not returned numerous calls from the Beacon Journal seeking additional information on the criminal complaint against Young.
But the charges and incident have rattled some members of the local Republican Party who were with Young just hours earlier. Young was with Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens of Lawrence County on Thursday evening at the Tudor House in New Franklin for a joint fundraiser attended by other Republicans from Summit County.
‘Disappointed and shocked to hear what allegedly transpired’
After the event, according to a person familiar with the case and statements made Saturday in court, Young and his wife returned home, where they hosted the speaker and friends.
In a statement to the Beacon Journal, Stephens said he spent a couple hours at Young’s home on Greensburg Road before staying the night at a local hotel.
“I was disappointed and shocked to hear what allegedly transpired sometime after I had left the Young house,” Stephens said of the allegations of domestic violence. “Although I believe that people are innocent until proven guilty, I asked Bob for his resignation as state representative so he can focus on his family at this time.”
Young is alleged to have yelled at someone at his home before slapping another person, the person familiar with the case said.
When someone tried to call the police at about 1 a.m. Friday, Young allegedly threw her phone into the swimming pool, which resulted in the felony charge of disrupting emergency service.According to the charges and statements made in court, Young was involved in a second confrontation at 9 a.m. Friday at another relative’s home in Green that resulted in police being called.
Young was not at the residence, which is also in Green, when deputies arrived. That’s when the warrant was issued Friday.
The first domestic violence charge lists the same address the state lawmaker filed last year with the Summit County Board of Elections when he was reelected to the Ohio House of Representatives from the 32nd District in southern Summit County. Young previously served on Green City Council.
His official House biography says Young “married his Green High School sweetheart, Tina, and they have four school-age children. They have built their life together with their family and reside in the City of Green.”
Young was one of just 22 of the 67 Republicans in the Ohio House to elect Stephens speaker in January. That vote upset the Ohio GOP, which had expressed their official support for Toledo-area Rep. Derek Merrin.
The state party later passed a resolution to censure the 22 Republicans who joined all 32 Democrats in the House to elect Stephens, a move the state party said brought dishonor to the conservatives who elected Ohio’s Republican supermajority.
Young sued for ‘false’ domestic violence attack ads
While facing criminal charges of domestic violence, Young is also being sued for running political attack ads in 2020 that accused his then opponent, Matt Shaughnessy, of being “guilty” of domestic violence 20 years earlier.
But Shaughnessy was never on trial or even charged for domestic violence. And police never found any physical evidence that the attorney had committed domestic violence against his ex-wife.
“She made some complaints, and they were unfounded,” Shaughnessy said Sunday of the allegations made against him in October 2000. “And there’s not much I can do about that. It happened 20-some years ago. The police never saw any evidence of anything. They never made an arrest. In fact, oddly enough, I was able to continue trick-or-treating festivities with my children.
“A lot of it didn’t make sense,” said Shaughnessy, whose defamation lawsuit against Young also goes after the Ohio Republican Party for running ads in newspapers and on Facebook. “But (Young) actually turned around and told people I was guilty.”
For the past two decades, Shaughnessy, who like Young is a former Green councilman, has worked to help domestic violence victims recoup economic losses. His defamation lawsuit is ongoing. In February, Young and his campaign filed a motion denying that the ads were false or defamatory.
Reach reporter Doug Livingston at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com.
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