DEA agent promoted even amid allegations

James Young’s erratic conduct was known, but he was elevated anyway, records show.

- JAMES QUEALLY

FORMER DEA agent

David Doherty was standing at his desk inside the Los Angeles headquarters of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration when a supervisor from another office stormed in hurling profanities.

Doherty testified at a preliminary hearing in a San Fernando courtroom this year that a fellow agent, James Young, got “face to face” with Doherty and challenged him to a fight without provocation.

Doherty said he tried to deescalate by hugging Young and saying it was “all good, brother,” according to his testimony. But then, Doherty said, he felt Young's DEA-issued handgun jammed against his midsection.

“I got you, motherf—,” Doherty recalled Young saying.

Young then aimed the weapon at Doherty's face, according to the agent's testimony.

Staring down the barrel of a gun wielded by an official who, at that time in 2022, oversaw roughly 30 officers in the DEA’s Ventura County office, Doherty told the court, he wrestled Young to the ground and disarmed him.

More than two years later, Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Young, 54, with assault over the incident.

It was one of several bizarre moments that led Young to exit the DEA — but only after the agency promoted him twice despite documented concerns about his behavior and mental health.

The Times reviewed a Los Angeles Police Department report Doherty filed about the alleged attack along with DEA disciplinary records and internal emails.

The records show that DEA officials were well aware of Young’s concerning behavior yet still gave him increased responsibilities.

One high-ranking DEA official even tried to dissuade Doherty from reporting the attack to police, according to the agent’s testimony and the LAPD report.