An Albany man shot by police who faced charges of felony menacing a police officer and misdemeanor possession of a weapon has taken a plea deal.
On January 24, 2022, officers responding to a 9-1-1 call spotted Jordan Young walking his dog along lower New Scotland Avenue. They claim he was holding a knife to the dog's neck, then charged at them. Police body cam footage shows Young ignoring calls to drop the knife before the shooting.
Young has been hospitalized multiple times and has undergone 23 surgeries. His trial was to have begun Monday but Friday morning he accepted a plea deal in court before Judge William Little. Albany County Assistant Public Defender Rebekah Sokol represents Young and met with the District Attorney David Soares’ office “multiple times” before negotiating the agreement.
"He pled to menacing a police officer, which is a D felony, D as in dog, essentially, he would be serving a two year determinate sentence," Sokol said. "So along with that comes supervision, certain other requirements. But the key here, and the benefit for us, and what kind of gets a turning point for us was that he's able to stay at liberty, as long as we need to medically. So basically, we're going to keep checking in with the judge, I'm going to obviously keep him up to date and keep the district attorney up to date about what's going on with Jordan, from a medical standpoint, and from a mental health standpoint. And, you know, as long as we need, he's going to be able to stay with his doctors and stay with his family. And the concern was always him going to prison in a way that would medically compromise him, and would be, you know, really put him at risk. So this allows him to get the treatment that he needs."
Sokol says the 33-year old Young faces several medical procedures and hopefully will be in better shape and spirits when he appears for sentencing August 18th.
"There's a number of hernias that have to be repaired a certain amount of damage that still exists in his abdomen," said Sokol. "They're looking at potentially seeing if they can reverse his colostomy bag, which would be huge. The other problem is, right now he has no muscle cover of his intestines in the front. So if something were to happen to him, if he falls the wrong way, if someone hits him, he really could have catastrophic internal damage."
Under the agreement Young would serve a maximum two years in prison, but could be given a lighter sentence in lieu of "time served" while he was hospitalized in police custody.
Before the plea deal was reached and the trial canceled, Young's biggest supporter, Center For Law and Justice Executive Director Alice Green, had planned to stage a weekend-long vigil outside D.A. Soares' office building, an extension of the Center's “Just Mercy for Jordan” campaign.
"It's not only about Jordan. It's more about what we do and how we treat people with mental health issues. And that point has to be made very strongly. We're going to continue to try to make that point," said Green.
The District Attorney has declined to comment.
