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Council asks him to step down in wake of guilty pleas for assaults

Port Coquitlam, BC - Canada

Embattled Port Coquitlam Mayor Scott Young is refusing to step down.

A defiant Young last night chaired his first council meeting since pleading guilty last week to assaulting his former girlfriend and her boyfriend.

Members of the media and city staff outnumbered the handful of citizens at the meeting, many of whom were there on business unrelated to the Young controversy.

A late addition to the agenda was a motion by all six councillors calling for Young’s resignation — the third time the councillors have unanimously called for Young to quit.

The resolution was not debated and passed 6-1, with Young’s vote the lone dissent.

Only two people took advantage of open question period to press Young over his decision to stay on.

When one of them asked Young to step down, he declined, Coun. Greg Moore told The Province.

“When he was asked to expand on that, [Young] said, ‘No, I won’t,’” said Moore.

The motion read in part: “Not calling for Scott Young’s resignation would be perceived as endorsing the notion that alcoholism is an excuse for violence.

“Now that Scott Young has admitted guilt, the city councillors are once again requesting that the mayor resign.”

The dapper mayor seemed businesslike as the meeting began, speaking in a strong voice.

“Council twice asked for [Young’s] resignation last year and he has decided to stay,” Moore said in an interview before the meeting. “It makes council a little more difficult these days than it was before.”

Moore said some voters had told him that they were prepared to wait for the outcome of the court proceedings against Young, 46, who suffered personal tragedy when his teenage daughter committed suicide in 2002.

On April 4, 2007, Young went to the home of his former girlfriend Colleen Preston in defiance of a restraining order.

He pleaded guilty in Port Coquitlam Provincial Court last week to assaulting Preston and her friend Glen Shaw, and one count of breaching the restraining order.

Young burst into Preston’s home gym and began attacking Shaw, lying on the floor.

He kicked Shaw in the ribs and elbow and punched him in the head. The two grappled, and Young managed to slap Preston’s face. Preston called 911 shortly thereafter.

Officers had to use force to restrain Young, who was extremely intoxicated.

When an officer searched Young, he found four-metre lengths of yellow plastic rope in each front pocket — the same kind of rope his 14-year-old daughter Sierra used to commit suicide by hanging herself. The judge is expected to impose his sentence June 17.

According to security records, Young visited his city hall office three times after hours on April 4, 2007, the last time between 10:56 and 11:06 p.m. that night, when he cleaned out his personal effects.

At about 11:40 p.m., Young went to the home of his former girlfriend, Colleen Preston, who was working out with her new boyfriend, Glen Shaw, in her home gym.

Young “whipped open” the door and immediately went towards Shaw, who had been laying on the floor doing crunches. The mayor kicked Shaw in the ribs several times, at one point coming close to hitting Shaw’s head.

When Shaw got up, Young punched him in the head a number of times and the two continued to struggle.

At one point, Young broke free of Shaw’s grip and slapped Preston across the face.

She called 911 and a portion of her call to 911 was played in court Wednesday.

On the tape, Preston is heard alternately screaming at the 911 operator to send police and yelling at Young, saying, “You shouldn’t be here” and “There’s a restraining order against you.”

In the background, the ongoing tussle between Young and Shaw is somewhat audible, with Young yelling at Preston, “You f—ing ruined my life” and “You killed me. I’m f—ing dead. I don’t care.”

When Coquitlam RCMP arrived at 11:47 p.m., they found Shaw holding Young on the ground.

The officers noted a strong smell of alcohol on Young’s breath and said they had to use force in arresting him after he tried to resist by rolling over to sit up.

In Preston’s statement to police after the incident, she said Young seemed “crazed” and like he was in a drug-fuelled rage.

“But one of the most disturbing aspects was the discovery of ropes in Mr. Young’s pockets,” Duncan said. (In fall 2002, Young’s 14-year-old daughter from his first marriage took her own life by hanging herself.)

Duncan said that Young appeared to have been in a state of serious depression and intoxication as well as distress over the failure of his relationship with Preston. The “ominous overtones” of the two pieces of 14-foot-long nylon rope in his pockets was a further aggravating factor.

via The Province and Tricitynews

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