Ex-city official in Maryland charged with prostitution
In this 2014 photo, Frederick County Commissioners president Blaine Young speaks during his last meeting in office in Frederick, Md. Online court records show that Young was charged in a criminal information Monday, with multiple counts of prostitution stemming from an incident Feb. 18. (Bill Green/The Frederick News-Post via AP)
A former city official and member of a prominent political family who once considered running for Maryland governor faces prostitution charges, more than 15 years after surviving a sex scandal known as Frederick’s “black book” affair.
Anne Arundel County authorities released documents today charging Blaine R. Young, 44, of Union Bridge, with four counts of prostitution in a police sting operation. They allege he answered an online advertisement guaranteeing “fun, freaky & fetish friendly” services and paid an undercover officer $60 for expected sex in a hotel room near the Baltimore airport on Feb. 18.
Young didn’t return an email from The Associated Press or calls to his cellphone and his office at a Frederick-based lawn-care company.
His lawyer, Peter Sean O’Neill, said Young plans to plead not guilty and mount a vigorous defense.
“He’s entitled to the presumption of innocence, and I certainly hope that people would afford him his due process rights to be heard and to defend himself against these allegations,” O’Neill said.
The charges were filed Monday and first reported late Tuesday by Frederick radio station WFMD.
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Young was a Frederick city alderman in 1999 when police found his name on a file card among the records of a local escort service with the notation, “likes it rough.” Young wasn’t charged, and he denied having engaged in prostitution. He said he had hired women to dance at parties.
He chose not to run for re-election and launched a local radio talk show, calling himself, “Frederick’s youngest good ol’ boy.” In 2010, after switching from Democrat to Republican, Young won a seat on the Frederick County Board of Commissioners, which elected him president. He worked to lift restrictions on property development and championed the conservative tea party movement.
In 2012, Young announced he was considering running for governor. Instead, he made an unsuccessful bid in 2014 for Frederick County executive, the county’s highest elected office.
Young is the son of Democratic state Sen. Ron Young, a former Frederick mayor, and the stepson of Democratic state Delegate Karen Lewis Young, Ron Young’s wife.
