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Calls for W-JCC School Board member’s resignation after husband’s arrest on child porn charges

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With her husband awaiting trial on federal child pornography charges, Sandra Young’s position on the Williamsburg-James City School Board has been called into question.

W-JCC board Chairman Jim Kelly said the board has received several emails and phone calls from community members urging Young to resign since her husband, Charles K. Young, was charged by federal investigators this month with receiving child pornography.

Charles Young is accused of receiving photos and videos of young boys engaged in sexual acts. The 69-year-old was denied release from jail while he awaits trial because a federal judge felt his release was a danger to the community. He pleaded not guilty to the charges during a Nov. 21 court appearance.

Kelly said he’s been in touch with Sandra Young since her husband’s arrest. After calling each board member about the issue, Kelly spoke with Young again Tuesday.

“She is certainly concerned about the impact the situation is having on her family and the school system,” Kelly said. “Based on my conversation with her, I’m sure she’ll do what’s in the best interest of her family and the board.”

Kelly said he did not directly ask Sandra Young to resign.

When reached by phone Tuesday, Sandra Young declined to comment on whether she would resign from her elected post. She’s been on the board for close to a year since winning the Berkeley District seat vacated by Ruth Larson.

One of the couple’s seven children reported to police that he has witnessed his father viewing child pornography since he was a teenager, according to court testimony.

Now in his 30s, the man reported his father to Williamsburg-James City County Sheriff’s Office in August after he discovered his father had created a Facebook profile with a pseudonym to make friends and chat with underage boys, federal prosecutor Lisa McKeel said in U.S. District Court in Newport News.

It was not clear from court testimony when Sandra Young learned of the accusations against her husband. She has declined to comment publicly on the charges or evidence presented at his detention hearing.

McKeel said the son’s decision to turn in his father came after the family had tried and failed at an intervention with Charles Young during Christmas 2015.

During the intervention, the federal prosecutor testified that Charles Young admitted to his family that he had used the online file-sharing program Dropbox to look at child pornography. He also confessed that he was unable to travel to the Marshall Islands again because authorities there had caught him acting inappropriately with a young boy, the federal prosecutor said.

“This has been going on with Mr. Young for so long,” McKeel said during Young’s Nov. 21 detention hearing. “He has had numerous opportunities to change his behavior.”

In August, James City County police searched Charles and Sandra Young’s home and confiscated electronic devices, including a laptop, tablet and cellphone, according to court documents. Charles Young was not home during the search, and he held on to his cellphone, also hiding it from his wife until his arrest in November, McKeel testified.

When an FBI agent asked him about the phone during his arrest, Charles Young denied having it but later handed it over, McKeel said.

U.S. magistrate Judge Lawrence Leonard said he found the defendant keeping his cellphone troubling, and that, coupled with the strong evidence presented during the hearing, was enough to detain Charles Young until his 2017 trial.

Sandra Young attended her husband’s court appearance. She sat mute during much of the hearing, only making a small sound and covering her face with her hands during some testimony from McKeel. She did not comment after the proceeding.

A former head of Republican committees in Newport News and James City County, Charles Young remains at Western Tidewater Regional Jail in Suffolk. He has a hearing scheduled Feb. 28 at federal court in Newport News.

School Board members cannot force Sandra Young to resign, Kelly said. The allegations against Charles Young are troubling, Kelly said, but Sandra Young has been a reliable board member. “I have compassion for the position she’s in,” Kelly said. “You can’t help but feel for someone going through something like this.”

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