Dad Proud of Daughter Who Accused Parents of Drug Use

The father of a 13-year-old girl who turned her parents into police for allegedly using drugs says he is proud his daughter did what she feels is “morally right,” but believes that she did not understand the ramifications of her actions.

“People should teach their children to do what they feel is morally right,” Bobby Young said in an interview Friday at his Tustin home with KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.

He said he has taught her to do “what she believes is right. Not what society, not what I, not what a teacher, not what her minister, but what she feels is right, and follow those feelings.”

When asked if he was proud of his daughter, Young replied, “I am.”

Young, 49, a bartender, and his wife, Judith, a 37-year-old court clerk, were charged with possession of cocaine Aug. 13 after Deanna walked into the Tustin police station with a plastic garbage bag containing $2,800 worth of cocaine and a small amount of marijuana and pills.

But, Young said, “I don’t believe, I could never believe, that she understood the ramifications” of her actions. Young, referring to the couple’s alleged drug use, said his daughter was motivated by “a problem in our family.”

The girl said she was inspired to report her parents’ drug use by an anti-drug lecture at church. The two are free on their promise to return to court to enter pleas Sept. 23. The prosecutor said he would allow them to undergo court-ordered counseling and eventually drop charges if they successfully complete the program.