Case Dropped Against Couple Turned In by Daughter

Charges were dismissed Friday against a Tustin couple who were arrested after their daughter walked into a police station nine months ago with cocaine, marijuana and pills she said belonged to them.

Municipal Judge Gary P. Ryan dismissed the case against Bobby and Judith Young after finding that they had successfully completed a drug rehabilitation program.

Following her parents’ hearing Friday, 14-year-old Deanna Young said she would do it again despite the ensuing attention, which she called “upsetting” and “harassing” at times.

Bobby Young said his daughter’s action “probably saved our lives.”

Although the rehabilitation program had called for the Youngs to attend meetings for seven weeks at the Genesis dependency treatment center at South Coast Medical Center in South Laguna, Judith Young said she was voluntarily hospitalized there for 28 days and then attended meetings for two months.

“I needed to stay in the hospital because I was under a lot of stress and needed therapy,” she said.

Attorney Gary L. Proctor said Bobby Young had lost his job as a bartender at a Santa Ana tavern but has continued his contracting business. His wife, who had worked as a clerk in the federal bankruptcy court in Santa Ana, now works at home as an accountant. The family had also been forced by their landlord to move out of the house they were renting at the time of the arrest last summer.

The Youngs gained national prominence last Aug. 13 when their daughter turned them into Tustin police. She said she had been inspired by an anti-drug lecture she had heard at a community church.

Although Deanna was initially placed in protective custody, the family reunited a week later when a Juvenile Court judge ordered the girl released from Orangewood, the county’s home for abused or neglected children.

Judith Young said the incident has “brought the family closer together.”

Deanna, a high school freshman, said she still gets mail from other youths who, after reading stories about her, have also turned in their parents for drug use. In November, she appeared on a talk show in England about drug abuse in the United States.

“The laws (in England) are stricter,” Judith Young said. “They couldn’t understand the drug diversion program, or why the courts were so lenient. I think it’s great.”