Ohio GOP Lawmaker's Domestic Violence Habit Finally Costs Him His Job
State Rep. Bob Young has resigned in disgrace.
Republican Ohio State Rep. Bob Young has resigned over his multiple domestic violence arrests after two months of saying that he would not resign over his multiple domestic violence arrests. This also follows two months of his fellow legislators asking him to please leave and, ultimately, stripping him of his committee chair position this week.
On July 7 of this year, at a private party at his home following a GOP fundraiser, Bob Young was arguing loudly with a guest when his wife, Tina, held her hand up to quiet him — and he (allegedly) slapped her in the face. She tried to get her phone to call 911, but he threw that in a pool. She then grabbed her kids and fled to his brother Michael’s house for safety, but the next morning, Young showed up there and demanded to be let in to speak to her. His brother said no and instead of leaving, Young (allegedly) charged into him and through a glass door trying to get into the house. Police were called, he was arrested and two days later was charged with misdemeanor domestic violence and assault.
“He came, and just lowered and charged,” Michael Young told deputies at the time. “And he went through the glass — landed right over there.”
Unsurprisingly, literally all of Young’s colleagues felt that he should probably resign after this, but he had other ideas. He wanted to stay. He seemed to think that things were somehow going to shake out in his favor, but two months and another arrest later — Young was also arrested for violating a protection order by leaving several voicemail messages for his wife — he is finally resigning. The fact that even Gov. Mike DeWine had also asked him to resign and that he had been stripped of his committee positions probably also had a little something to do with it.
And yet, Young is far from recalcitrant! In a statement, he suggested he was really only resigning "while these matters are pending" and that the only real problem with his situation is that it had become a “distraction.”
"All of the allegations that I am facing have become a distraction. I will be vigorously defending myself, and I'm looking forward to personal and legal vindication as the court process plays out," Young wrote. "I was hopeful that this matter could be resolved before this point, but I can no longer deny the distraction that this matter has caused the Ohio House of Representatives as an institution, as well as my colleagues, with whom I serve."
It seems like this matter is not actually going to be resolved in his favor, given that there are multiple witnesses to his violent tantrum.
Ironically, Young is also currently being sued for defamation over campaign ads in which he falsely accused his then-opponent, Matt Shaughnessy, of having committed domestic violence 20 years ago.
This is when Granny McNoFun reminds everyone that some of your nice liberal friends are domestic abusers, your doctor might be a domestic abuser, your super-friendly and helpful coworker might be a domestic abuser and it's important that we remember that.
When I was being beaten, I was ashamed. Let me say that again, but imagine it's in bold text - I was ashamed. When I finally stopped keeping the secret, I was told I must have misunderstood all the times I was punched, kicked, stabbed (only once), and raped - because Jimmy had always been such a nice helpful boy to everybody else. My friend Tammy's husband pointed out that I never did my hair and rarely wore makeup so maybe that was the problem, because remember that time Jim fixed his lawnmower for free?
On the left, we do have a better track record of not accepting this sort of thing from our leaders, but we still have and defend it in the ranks. We tend to get smug and think that this is a conservative problem, and this time it is, but please never forget that it's an everybody problem.
So much of the police response to DV cases just depends on whatever they feel like doing. Or in my case, not doing. After I applied for the RO (and it was granted because he didn't show up in court for the hearing) they knew where he was but said they couldn't serve him the restraining order unless the sheriff's department told them to and gave them a copy of the paperwork, but the sheriff's department couldn't even FIND the paperwork because "we have hundreds of these orders and who even knows whose desk it's on right now?" (great excuse, eh?)
All of which was horseshit, I found out. I called victim's advocacy and they told me all I had to do was print out a copy of the court paperwork I'd been emailed and give it to the PD myself. So I did, took it to the cops, and made them leave RIGHT NOW to go serve it on him while they still knew where he was because he was due to be released in the next day or two. I asked them to let me know when it was done but of course they didn't.
And they didn't do anything when I filed another report after he violated the order by trying to contact me. I think I still have the little slip of paper they gave me with the report number scribbled on it. So I didn't feel very secure thinking they'd help me out very much if he decided to violate the order in a worse way.