DEA promoted L.A. agent who pointed gun at colleague despite issues

David Doherty was standing at his desk at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters in Los Angeles when a supervisor from another office burst in, hurling expletives.

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

Doherty said he tried to defuse the situation by hugging Young and saying he was “all good bro,” according to his testimony. But then, Doherty said, he felt Young’s DEA-issued handgun jammed against his abdomen.

“I got you, mom…” Doherty remembers Young’s words.

Young then pointed the gun at Doherty’s face, according to the officer’s testimony.

James Young allegedly pointed a gun at a fellow federal agent during a 2022 incident at the Drug Enforcement Agency office in Los Angeles.

(Al Seib / For the Times)

Staring down the barrel of a gun brandished by an official who, at this time in 2022, supervised about 30 agents in the DEA’s Ventura County office, Doherty told the court he tackled Young to the ground and disarmed him.

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

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

The Times reviewed a Los Angeles police report filed by Doherty about the alleged attack, as well as DEA disciplinary records and internal emails.

Records show that DEA officials were well aware of Young’s disturbing behavior, but nevertheless gave him increased responsibilities. A senior DEA official even tried to dissuade Doherty from reporting the attack to police, according to the agent’s testimony and the LAPD report.

After Doherty’s testimony at the preliminary hearing, Young was held to answer to several charges for crimes he allegedly committed between 2022 and 2024, including an incident of road rage, domestic violence and illegal possession of a stockpile of firearms, ammunition and grenades.

Young, who remains free on bond, has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He declined to comment. His defense attorney, Jeff Voll, said he planned to ask a judge to allow Young to enter a diversion program because of mental health issues, but provided no other details about his client or the case.

A DEA spokeswoman said she could not respond to media inquiries because of the federal government shutdown, although the agency previously declined to comment on the Times’ reporting on Young.

Young’s first problems at the DEA came in 2012, while he was on assignment in Tokyo. That year, he was sent home after a “medical evaluation” that determined he had problems that “prevented or interfered with his ability to perform the tasks and duties required by his position,” according to a treatment agreement between Young and the DEA reviewed by the Times.

Young required therapy for “mental health issues” and “alcohol abuse,” according to the document.

Young was also suspended for two days due to “improper operation of a government vehicle and poor judgment” while in Tokyo, according to a DEA disciplinary notice.

Young was reassigned to Los Angeles in 2013 and eventually put in charge of the DEA’s satellite office in Ventura County, according to Doherty’s testimony.

In 2021, an agent filed a complaint against Young, accusing him of making “volatile and unprofessional phone calls” and “inappropriate comments” toward subordinates, according to an email reviewed by the Times. It’s unclear what, if anything, the DEA did about the complaint.

Two federal law enforcement officials who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly told the Times that many agents felt something was wrong with Young, with both recounting stories of colleagues concerned about the way he handled guns.

Doherty testified that after the gun incident at the DEA’s Los Angeles office in 2022, he felt like the agency’s higher-ups were trying to protect Young.

“I didn’t feel like it was handled appropriately, and I kind of saw the writing on the wall, that this was something that the DEA was trying to sweep under the rug,” Doherty said in court.

Doherty made a report to the LAPD Central Division station shortly after the shooting. In it, he said another DEA official in Los Angeles, Assistant Special Agent in Charge Brian Clark, tried to discourage him from going to police. Clark warned Doherty that Young might in fact seek to file assault charges against him, according to the report, which did not explain Clark’s reasoning.

Clark, who is now the special agent in charge of the Los Angeles field office, did not respond to an email seeking comment.

The LAPD investigation stopped when DEA Los Angeles Field Office Chief Bill Bodner called LAPD Deputy Chief Al Labrada and claimed jurisdiction over the incident, according to the police report.

Bodner left the DEA in 2023, according to his LinkedIn profile. He and Labrada did not respond to questions from The Times. An LAPD spokesperson did not respond to a request for information about the case.

The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General finally presented a criminal case to local prosecutors in December 2022, according to a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. But assault charges related to the attack on the field office were not filed until June 2025. The spokeswoman declined to explain the delay.

Young retired from the DEA in 2024 but was allowed to collect a paycheck on administrative leave for about 18 months after the alleged attack on Doherty, according to two federal law enforcement officials.

In September 2024, Young allegedly argued with a driver on Highway 405, hit the other vehicle with his car, then brandished a handgun at the victim, according to a criminal complaint.

The day after the road rage incident, Young allegedly attacked his wife and placed her in a wrestling hold, applying pressure to her head and neck, authorities said. A subsequent search of Young’s Saugus home by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies revealed 30,000 rounds of ammunition, several grenades, a sawed-off shotgun, and altered identifying information to make it appear that Young was still an active DEA agent.

Investigators also discovered what was described in court documents as a video of a “gang-style execution” playing in a loop on a large screen.

If convicted as charged, Young faces up to 29 years in state prison.

In the Doherty incident, text messages displayed in court show Young claimed he didn’t understand why it was wrong to fire his gun until after it happened.

“Brother, I love you. I would die for you. I’m sorry I didn’t read things correctly. I thought we were playing, but I know I screwed up and misread the situation,” Young wrote to Doherty. “Please forgive me…I will never do anything to hurt you. Please forgive me for pulling my gun. You can press charges against me. I admit it.”