Film-makers besiege girl who turned in parents

Press, 20 August 1986, Page 6

Film-makers besiege girl who turned in parents

NZPA-Reuter Los Angeles Deanna Young, who turned her parents over to the police as alleged cocaine users, is being besieged by film offers. But all she wants to do is to be allowed to leave a juvenile centre and go home, says her court-ap-pointed lawyer, Susan O’Brien. Eleven film companies, including studios such as 20th Century-Fox and Columbia Pictures, have expressed interest in making a television film of her story.

“Deanna will be the

focus of the film,” said Judy Silk, of Dick Clark Productions. “All we need now is a happy ending.” Deanna, aged 13, has become a symbol of Los Angeles anti-drug campaigns since she heard a police lecture against drug abuse at the Peace Lutheran Church, in Tustin, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, last week. She went home, gathered up small amounts of marijuana and about 28g of cocaine and took them to the local police station. Her parents, Bobby and Judith Young, were arrested the next morning and charged with possess-

ing cocaine. The police said Deanna had told them that, before turning her parents in, she had pleaded with them to stop using drugs. Nancy Reagan, a leader in the war on drugs, said Deanna must have loved her parents a great deal. “I hope they realise just how much,” she said. Members of the Peace Lutheran Church offered prayers for Deanna and her parents. But, while her parents — Bobby, a 49-year-old barman, and Judith, aged 37, a court clerk — have been released from jail on their own recognisance,

Deanna is being held under a court order at the Orangewood Children’s Home for abused children and for children separated from their parents. The parents have visited her in the centre. “The meeting was an emotional one,” Ms O’Brien said. “She loves her parents and doesn’t want to be separated from them. They are very supportive of her,” she said. The home’s director, Bob Theemling, said, “This was not the act of a child who hated her parents. This was an act of love and concern.”