COURT Ex-police officer pleads innocent to party charges

The judge set a low bond for the former officer, but higher bonds for his sons.
STRUTHERS -- Former Struthers police officer Xavier Young pleaded innocent Friday to charges stemming from an attack on two men outside his home during a New Year's Eve party.
Young, 38, of 549 Fifth St., faces two counts of assault, 17 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and furnishing alcohol to a minor, and one count of dereliction of duty.
Police said Young attacked two men who showed up at his home in the wee hours of Jan. 1 and prompted numerous party guests to join in the attack. Police found brothers Shawn Scott, 37, and Jason Scott, 26, unconscious in an alley outside Young's home.
Young was fired from the Struthers Police Department on Jan. 18. He had been a member of the police force since 1999.
At Struthers Municipal Court Friday morning, Young said he will retain attorney Scott Cochran to defend him, but he was represented at the arraignment by Robert Rohrbaugh.
Rohrbaugh urged Judge James Lanzo to set a low bond for Young, saying that Young had no intention of leaving the area and pointing out that Young had turned up at court voluntarily without having been served with any papers informing him of the charges against him.
Before Friday's arraignment, Young, his wife and two of his sons were booked at the Struthers Police Department on the charges contained in arrest warrants that were issued Thursday.
Bond
Judge Lanzo set Young's bond at $2,000, broken down as $1,000 on the assault charges and $1,000 on remaining charges.
His wife, Sandra Young, 33, pleaded innocent to 17 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and furnishing alcohol to a minor, and one count of falsifying a police report. Her bond also was set at $2,000.
Young's son's, Darnell West, 21, and Andree West, 20, both of 521 Clermont, Youngstown, also appeared before the judge. Judge Lanzo set their bonds at $25,000 each on the charge of complicity in a felonious assault that each faces.
They did not enter pleas.
Judge Lanzo announced that he would be stepping down from further proceedings in all of the cases, because Young's status as a police officer at the time of the attack posed a potential conflict of interest for him as the city judge. He will ask state judiciary officials to appoint a substitute to preside over the cases, he said.