Dem lawmaker disputes police bodycam amid reports he said he was above the law: ‘On top’ or ‘on time’
A Democratic Maryland state lawmaker is disputing reports that he said he was "on top" of the law during a contentious police encounter amid a custody dispute, saying he said he was "on time" to drop off his child instead.
The footage of Maryland Delegate Caylin Young was captured on New Year's Eve after officers responded to a Baltimore home during a dispute between the lawmaker and the mother of his child, which was first reported by Fox 45.
"This is the second time we have met before, Mr. Diaz. How are you today?" Young said to one of the officers, according to the footage.
"I’m Delegate Young. I know, I’m a local elected official," he said.
Young tried explaining his custody arrangement with his child's mother to the officers. He said he was dropping his child off at the proper time agreed upon, contending that there was no need for her to call the police.
Moments earlier, the woman told the officers Young had refused to return their 2-year-old child to her home during a phone call. She also said Young had an "emotional outburst" a day earlier.
"So, he’s refusing to bring him back," the child’s mother told the officers in the video. "Yesterday, he had an emotional outburst. He ripped off my doorbell."
"You have it on camera?" asked Lopez.
"Yeah, I have it on camera," the woman replied.
She told officers she had not reported the incident to police the day it occurred.
As time went by, the exchange between Young and the officers grew tense. At one point, he exited his vehicle as it was running with the child still inside, prompting an officer to tell him to turn it off.
"The child is in the car, sir, and the car is on. The engine is on. You cannot walk away from the car," the officer said.
The child's mother then tells the officers that Young, who once served as Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott's director of the Office of Equity and Civil Rights, serves in the state legislature.
Moments later, the officers then tell her that Young thinks he's above the law because of his tone with them.
"Sir, keep your mouth shut," Young told one officer during the exchange.
"You bring the attitude here, not me," the officer replied.
"I have followed the law. I’m not above the law," Young said. "Don’t ever accuse me of being above the law unless and until I break the law."
"I don’t think I’m above the law. I’m on top," he said, according to local news reports.
In a news release Wednesday, Young pushed back on the factual nature of his words.
"My actual words to the officers were: "I’m not above the law, I’m on time," he said. "Stating 'I am on time' was a direct, factual defense of my adherence to the rules.
"Law enforcement was called to the scene over a disagreement regarding the specific arrival time for a custody exchange," he added. "I was explaining to the responding officers that I had arrived early and was in full, strict compliance with the court-ordered schedule. Stating ‘I am on time’ was a direct, factual defense of my adherence to the rules.
"To digitally alter or misrepresent that clear statement to sound like 'I'm on top' —stripping away the entire context of a timeliness dispute to falsely portray me as arrogant or above the law — is a gross violation of journalistic ethics and a textbook example of actual malice," Young continued before demanding an apology and retraction.
Less than a day after the confrontation, Young was accused of punching a woman in the chest in a separate incident, the news outlet reported.
The charges against him in that case were dropped. Fox News Digital has reached out to Young.