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Child endangerment suspect going to trial

Young accused of punishing son by having him hold weights above head, do pushups

Charges against a city man who allegedly made his son do pushups and hold weights above his head as punishment are headed to Blair County Court.

“This is a parenting issue that has been risen to a criminal level,” attorney Shawn Cohen told the court Wednesday during a preliminary hearing for his client, Richard E. Young II, 30, of 1320 16th Ave., who Altoona police have charged with endangering the welfare of a child over allegations Young threw the boy across a room when the child couldn’t do the 40 pushups that Young demanded as punishment after the 10-year-old drew on a wall with crayon.

Cohen attacked every facet of the Altoona police investigation and the credibility of the allegations that while the boy was with Young in early February, Young forced the child to do pushups and was made to stand in a corner while holding barbell weights above his head.

“Credibility here is just not an issue,” Magisterial District Judge Todd Kelly told Cohen during the lengthy preliminary hearing at Central Court. Assistant District Attorney Emily Freed stressed in her arguments that all prosecutors had to do was show there was enough evidence to send the case on to court, and she said testimony from Altoona Detective Cpl. Terry Merritts outlining the boy’s story to police was sufficient.

The boy told police that Young made the 10-year-old do 40 pushups because the boy and his brother had drawn a heart on a wall in their bedroom. When the boy could only do five pushups, Young allegedly stood above him and shouted “Do it! Do it! Do it!” Merritts told the court. The boy told Merritts that Young then grabbed him and threw him across the room, near the edge of the stairs. The boy also said he was forced to stand with barbell weights above his head.

Cohen called in a friend of Young, who lives with him but is not romantically involved or related to him, who testified she was there and that the boy was doing pushups on his own, not as punishment. She said she has never seen Young punish the kids in such a

way.

Cohen’s questioning also revealed a history of custody issues and protection-from-abuse orders between Young and the boy’s mother, who he had a relationship with 10 years ago for about six months.

The mother testified she knew from her son that Young had made the boy hold books as punishment, but the weights are a recent addition to the punishments.

Cohen argued Young’s actions didn’t qualify as child endangerment and that Young never knowingly violated his duty of care, protection or support of the child, and that Young’s parental actions were permissible in Pennsylvania.

Kelly, citing case law, pointed out that the child endangerment statute isn’t as narrow as Cohen portrayed it and said what constitutes child endangerment must also take into consideration the common sense of the community, leaving it something for the “triers of fact” to determine at the court of common pleas level. Kelly said he agreed that parents have the right to use of force when disciplining children, but “there are some issues here that need to be addressed at the higher court, and it would be improper of me to step in and make that decision.”

Young remains free on an unsecured $10,000 bond and is due to appear in Blair County Court on June 2 for a formal arraignment.

Mirror Staff Writer Greg Bock is at 946-7458.

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