Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - Mom Let Man Whip Autistic Son With Belt on School Bus: Prosecutor

Episode Date: February 19, 2026

Karen Young, 38, faces a child endangering charge after police say she allowed a man living with her to whip her 8-year-old, developmentally challenged son with a belt. Court documents state that Josh Griffin, 33, had been living with Young and the boy for the last three months in Loveland, Ohio. A local tv station reported that a prosecutor told a judge that Griffin whipped the autistic boy on a school bus for "acting out" and that the incident was recorded by surveillance video. Griffin also faces domestic violence and endangering children charges. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the disturbing case in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: John Phillips https://x.com/JohnPhillipsCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

That's Karen Young and her mama vibes t-shirt being booked into jail after police say she let a man living with her, whip her son who has special needs with a belt. I go through the claims police are making about Karen Young and Josh Griffin, the charges they face and where the case goes from here. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. There's a mom in Ohio and a man who was living with her, who has. are in jail accused of something really, really awful involving this woman's eight-year-old son. Karen Young is the developmentally challenged boy's mother, and the man who is living with her is named Josh Griffin. A local TV station reports that this boy is autistic. The case takes us to Loveland, Ohio. That's a suburb northeast of Cincinnati. A criminal complaint for the boy's mom, Karen Young, states, Karen Young observed Josh Griffin, an adult male, forceful.

and repeatedly strike her eight-year-old developmentally challenged son approximately 20 times with a belt. Young and Griffin were booked into the jail on Tuesday, February 17th. Young faces charges of child endangering and failure to report a crime or knowledge of a death or burn injury. Josh Griffin, meanwhile, is charged with a misdemeanor domestic violence charge and endangering children. Griffin does not appear to be the eight-year-old boy's dad, a Criminal complaint states, per the eight-year-old victim's mother, the defendant has been living in the household for approximately three months. The defendant beat the developmentally challenged victim approximately 20 times with a belt. So it seems Griffin could be a boyfriend to Karen Young, although that hasn't been stated explicitly.

But prosecutors say this incident was recorded on surveillance video and happened on a school bus. The reason? Because the autistic boy was, quote, acting out. Unbelievable. Police say Karen Young confessed to witnessing the incident and not stopping it. This is video of her being booked into the Hamilton County Justice Center. She's taken to the search wall. This is standard procedure, of course, for any inmate taken to the jail. Her hair is searched and she is patted down to ensure she doesn't have any type of contraband hidden on her.

Ironically, you can see Young is wearing a mama vibes t-shirt. after the search wall pat down young is taken to another part of the jail for further processing she'll likely be fingerprinted and put in a jail jumpsuit eventually josh griffin he goes through a similar process when he's booked he's brought into the jail and taken to the search wall where he is patted down to ensure he doesn't have any weapons hidden on him when griffin appeared in court w l w t tv reported that his attorney characterized the whipping with the belt as discipline. And the attorney told the judge that Griffin doesn't have a prior record for violent crime. The judge granted a temporary protection order barring Griffin from having any contact with this boy. Now right now, it's not clear who reported this incident. Was it the bus driver? That would make sense or was it someone else? I want to bring in someone to discuss this case who deals with child abuse cases. He is John Phillips. He's an attorney down. in Florida. So John, thank you so much for coming on. Last time I spoke to you and interviewed you,

it was about the Tiger King. So this is quite a different, different case, tragic, awful case. Thank goodness this boy wasn't more seriously injured. But talk to me, if you would, about the allegations here. I mean, we have a mom accused Karen Young, accused of not stopping or reporting what's being described as an aggressive whipping of her son with a belt between 18 or 20 times by a man who was living in her house. They're saying the relationship is unclear. Right. So, you know, what we're kind of reading between the lines is you've got, you know, a birth mother with a new boyfriend. And the boyfriend's living in for for three months, four months into this apartment.

And one would assume, right, that this happened in the privacy of the apartment. But the police investigation reveals that there's some level of bus surveillance that has been used to assemble the charging documents. So at some point, you know, there was a 20 or so lashings with a belt, you know, in public, which is even more mortifying because. abusers tend to do less damage in public settings outside. But yeah, so you've got, so you've got under Ohio law, you know,

a level of child abuse. And then there's this big Ohio law. And most of them, I think most, if not all, are misdemeanors. But when you have a duty to report, harm, burns, you know, serious bodily injury. And this was this was one of those examples, you know,

when you got harmed to a minor, you have an obligation under Ohio law to report it. No doubt. And a lot of people might say, well, you know, I mean, I guess things are relative, but do people actually do spankings with belts anymore? I mean, that sounds like something from when like we were kids. I guess maybe that still happens. Like, thank God, I was never spanked with a belt. I mean, that never happened to me.

but I know that's happened to other people. Do people still do that? I guess they do. I mean, I feel like the rules of discipline change over the generations and the decades. Thank gosh, right? Right. Thank God.

I'm a parent of a 14, 11, and 8-year-old boy. So I'm constantly tested, and we were joking off camera. Like, I have a ring camera in our living room, and I'm like the NFL, like, constantly looking at replay to see who started the fight, right? And that's a different level of using tech and parenting that I can then get into their heads and figure out what happened. But I do remember the sound of leather traveling through belt loops because my dad was a belting parent.

And it was normalized. Now, in my friend groups and certainly, you know, and doing this for 25 years in the practice of law, it's rare to see or hear somebody confess that there's still a, you know, a spanker, much less a

belt spanker, you know, a tangible item spanker, because that's been so stigmatized and charged as it should be. In fact, I joked with my boys, or not joked, but, you know, had a conversation that now in some college games, they're coming up with

BTA, Belt to A, right, as we beat the opponent. And I was like, I don't like that because, you know, we got past belt to A, right? We should be past that as the society. Like physical punishment has never been, you know, the best way to discipline a child, particularly a child with developmental disabilities for crying out loud. Right. And that's the next part of this. And I'd really like the viewers to weigh in, too. I'd love to them in the comments section to let us know whether they think using belts for discipline is still a thing and whether that happened to them as a child. But let's get back to that developmentally disabled part of this. We don't really have a ton of information about what that means.

That sounds like, you know, that could come with behavioral issues in general. And the boy was described as, quote, acting out. So, I mean, kids with developmental disabilities or, you know, some behavior, they can come with behavioral issues. So acting out can mean a lot of things. And so this could be a kid with, I don't know, ADHD. It could be a kid who maybe has some other challenges. And who knows what was prompting this and what acting out means. And does the punishment fit the crime?

And so you've got somebody who's not a biological parent who may be mom's boyfriend, it sounds like, taking a belt to this child. And apparently it's on video, John. It's awful. It's just awful. And as I was trying to prepare for this interview, I was looking at other, you know, local news articles and trying to figure out where on the, and I use spectrum generally, where on the specting this child was. And there was some references to autism. And I think people jumped to conclusions that I don't think are fair to jump to

because it's complicated, right? But either way, you've got a man who'd only known this child for less than, right, three months and wouldn't be aware of how, you know, people with some level, whether it's ADHD or autism or, you know, some level of mental or physical. handicap, you know, reacts in a particular situation. And I, you know, I'm blessed with three kids that, that are just boys, just pure boys, and they will, they will push every boundary you have. And, and, and, but as a parent, we know where that is and what kind of works, taking the phone away, you know, certain types of discipline that we can, taking games away for crying out loud, you know,

big discipline, right? And but, you know, you have somebody that resorted to, again, not, I don't think the police arrest if it's, if it's a video of one belt to butt, right? But 20, I think every, every sheriff's office in America is like, yeah, no, we're not, we're not, we're not, we're not standing for this. You know, I, like, I never want to see surveillance like that, but I'm intrigued. to see the surveillance of what they have, you know, to get a further statement on what this case really is. The part that is very disturbing is that it sounds like this was also, I mean, well, thank God, it was a public event.

If it's on surveillance and it was either on the bus or near the bus, it was in front of people or at least in front of a camera. So there is video evidence. but you know it's charged as a domestic violence crime because this guy was living in the house so that makes it even worse and there's obviously a temporary protection order been granted against because it is a domestic violence case this guy is not to have any contact let's say he actually post bail he can't have any contact with this child I'm trying to figure out how somebody who just has known a child for a short time, whether he is mom's boyfriend,

thinks they can do this, you know? And then, I mean, maybe mom's co-signing it. Maybe mom's like, yeah, discipline him, you know, like, come on. I mean, it's not your child, first of all. And second of all, I don't know what level of acting out went on, but 18 to 20 lashes with a belt? Like, come on. Like, that's, that's horrific. I'm assuming this left many marks. It had to have. I'm not, it's not, it's not, it's just, it doesn't comport. And it makes me wonder, what else has possibly gone on here. Is there going to be more with further investigation and

possibly interviewing this child that comes of this? Exactly. And, you know, abusers. And again, I don't know, this guy, I don't know a situation. Yeah, neither one of us know that. But, you know, this level of discipline, I don't think I'm going to get sued for defamation by saying, this is abuse, right? This is as charged as alleged. This is abuse. And so what happened to lead up to this and what level of conditioning allowed it by the mom?

That, you know, those are kind of my questions is somebody that typically represents victims. And it's like, how did we get here? Yeah. How did we get here? And what has gone on potentially in the last few months? I want to know because what's going to happen and how this works in Ohio at least and at least in the county in which this is being handled. They were arrested on a complaint right now. The prosecutor's office is now going to take the case.

and it'll go to grand jury. And so there's going to be further investigation. The child probably is going to be interviewed by a forensic interview if he hasn't already been interviewed by a forensic interviewer. And more information will be gleaned from that. And maybe these two have already been interviewed. Mom already confessed, according to the court documents. And it sounds like she couldn't not confess.

and then this guy may have already made some statements. We don't know. So more could come of this. And then it goes to grand jury and additional charges maybe are filed. Right. And that's the process I expected to take. I mean, certainly once you have a confession and you have video, it could expedite the process. You know, if I'm mom, I'm breaking up.

This man has an injunction. Like, there's nothing. about this relationship worked out, okay? I don't know. I'm sorry to tell you. And so I, I, they've got, it sounds like they've got enough goods and they're kind of being public with that, that, you know, hopefully we can hit plea bargain range, you know, pretty quick and get this one disposed of. But it's, it's, these are serious charges too. Very serious charges. You know, I think plea bargain is the way that this will end up. The child, meanwhile, you know, will need care, will need to be placed into, you know, the best place he can be put in.

I mean, obviously, you know, we don't know the relationship between mom and her son. I mean, we don't know if this is something that has gone sour since this guy. came into the picture. We don't know if this is a one-time thing that happened. We just don't, there's a lot we don't know. However, I would assume they're going to want to, I don't know, depending on what we find out, that they're going to want to reunite mom and son at some point. And where is, where is his dad? Biological dad. Right. From a family law perspective, you know, it takes particularly heinous acts to separate, you know, birth parents from children for any prolonged period of time,

particularly permanently. Like there has to be, you know, significant, significant issues of a longstanding nature. And again, I imagine there's going to be some communication and some, you know, maybe even some drug testing that's kind of a part of figuring out what's in the best interest of the child. because it is sad. You do have somebody that has some level, some poor child that has some level of developmental disability. And instead of treating that with more love and more compassion and more care,

you know, it's disciplined. And under no good parenting skill, do you discipline, you know, disability? right? And it's just, it's just, it's so sad because, you know, we just, we hear these stories and you almost get jaded to it. Even as a victim's lawyer, it's like at some point, you, you, you don't cry at meetings anymore, you know, it's, it's sad. But it just doesn't hit you. And this one, this one, you know, hits home because you just, you want to hope that this level of, of abuse masquerading his discipline as is a thing of the past, but it's not. Apparently it's not.

And I'm assuming this Josh Griffin learned this somewhere. This may have been discipline that was inflicted upon him when he was a child. True. I mean, but by that same token, I almost said it, earbud lost, by that same token, so was I. You know, but I, you know, it's, it's just because it, I mean, I guess I'm, I'm an okay, you know, okay adult, you know, I was a good kid, but I don't think it's because of any spankings, you know, it's because of the love of my mother and because, you know, of the community around me, you know, the nature and the nurture that brought me up. It wasn't the spankings, I assure you.

And, and, and I probably needed some of them, though. But, but, but, you know, it's, it's as, even as I've raised three boys, you know, I was probably more inclined to spank child one and child three doesn't get spanked. Like, you, you kind of learn, like, this doesn't work. Like, there's other ways of positive and negative reinforcement. Again, you take away a kid's game for, for a day or remove access from them to text and call their friends. that that'll get their attention real quick. It happened last night that I got an extra hour of homework just because I took the phone away. And so, you know, we're just, you know, not all of us are reasonable.

That's the problem. No doubt. Well, it's a horrific case. And even if you were spanked with the belt, it's a child times change. And you should learn from that. Right. Doing this to somebody else's kid. No. John Phillips, thank you so much for your time and your expertise. Appreciate it. My pleasure. So right now, Josh Griffin's bail has been set at $55,000.

He faces those two charges, but more could be coming based on what the investigation reveals. The judge set Karen Young's bail at $20,000. At the time of this recording, both are still in the Hamilton County Justice Center. We'll keep an eye on this story and let you know what happens and whether any other additional charges are filed. That's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.