Saturday, May 08, 1999
Ex-firefighter gets 10 years for kidnapping
BY DAN HORN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
To his friends and family, Maurice Young is the kind of man who would work all day as a firefighter and spend the evening coaching a youth baseball team.
He is the kind of man, they say, who devoted so much time to his children that one still calls him “my hero.”
But as he stood in court Friday, Mr. Young admitted he isn't the man they thought he was.
Instead, he is the predator who tried to abduct a 7-year- old girl on her way to school.
“I'd like one day to be a different person,” Mr. Young said in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. “I'm sorry for letting you down.”
His apology came moments before Judge Thomas Crush declared him a sexual predator and sentenced him to 10 years in prison for kidnapping the girl last year on an Avondale sidewalk.
Mr. Young, 41, had faced
more than 50 years in prison, but the judge ruled that several of the charges should be combined because they were redundant.
He also concluded that Mr. Young's background suggests he might respond to intensive treatment and therapy.
“He has to be punished for what he did,” Judge Crush said. “And something must be done to correct these bizarre and unnatural tendencies.”
Before his sentencing, the judge heard from a psychiatrist who examined Mr. Young and determined his criminal behavior was rooted in the sexual abuse he suffered as a child.
Dr. Melvyn Nizny said Mr. Young repressed his feelings about the abuse and never sought professional help.
“He had so much shame and pain he was not prepared to speak about himself,” Dr. Nizny said. “If Mr. Young had the benefit of treatment, he wouldn't be in court today.”
He said Mr. Young, the father of three, now is tormented because he knows he traumatized his victim. “What he's done is repulsive to him,” he said.
Prosecutors say Mr. Young grabbed his victim Oct. 30 and tried to drive away with her. In the car, they say, Mr. Young had a “rape kit” including nylon rope.
Several of the girl's neighbors tackled Mr. Young before he could get away.
Although no physical harm came to the girl, assistant prosecutor Gerald Krumpelbeck said she has suffered serious emotional trauma.
The judge, however, sentenced Mr. Young to probation for the charges of attempted rape and felonious assault. He imposed the 10-year sentence for kidnapping.
Prosecutor Mike Allen described the sentence as “appropriate under the circumstances.”
Mr. Young's attorney, Thomas Miller, said those circumstances include no prior criminal record and genuine remorse for his actions.
But his background also suggests a dark side, one that was outlined in a psychiatric report to the judge.
The judge said Mr. Young had a fascination with teen-age girls and had taken photos of some.
He said Mr. Young also had been the victim of sexual abuse for five years as a child.
“His family and friends praise him highly but none were aware of the double life he led,” Judge Crush said.
Mr. Young admitted his deception in his apology.
“It wasn't Maurice Young the father of three that done this,” he said. “I was just a man who was suffering from his own hurts and pains that day.
“I ask if in time you could forgive me.”
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