Utah News Dispatch
Utahn accused of punching Florida congressman is charged with assault
Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., speaks at the Florida Capitol on Jan. 24, 2024. (Photo by Jackie Llanos/Florida Phoenix)
Prosecutors have filed criminal charges against the Centerville man accused of punching a Florida congressman at a Sundance party and telling him “we will deport you.” Officials say he could face tougher penalties if convicted under Utah’s hate crimes law.
The Summit County Attorney’s Office on Tuesday charged Christian Joel Young, 28, with aggravated burglary, a first-degree felony and two counts of assault, a class A misdemeanor.
It was the first of two assaults on a member of Congress within a week. In Minnesota, a man charged at Rep. Ilhan Omar on Tuesday, using a syringe to squirt a strong-smelling but so far unidentified substance at the Minneapolis Democrat during a town hall.
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In Park City, Young sneaked into a party at High West Distillery and approached Rep. Maxell Frost and a friend, making comments about their race, charging documents say. Prosecutors noted Frost, a Democrat from Orlando, is Black and Latino.
Young put his arms around their necks like he was hugging them and pulled them in close, saying “we are going to deport you and your kind,” police said. He yelled a racial slur and punched Frost in the face, charging documents say.
Young then approached an African American woman by the bar, made “inappropriate and racially charged” comments, pushed her against the bar and yelled “You are the kind we are going to deport! You’re being deported!” charging documents say.
Police: Man accused of assaulting Fla. congressman at Sundance told him ‘we are going to deport you’
Young’s attorney Cliff Venable did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Prosecutors said in the charging documents that Young is subject to enhanced penalties for the assault charges if convicted, “because he intentionally selected the victims of those offenses because of his belief or perception regarding their personal attributes.”
If a jury reaches the same conclusion, the assault counts would both carry a sentence of up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, rather than a maximum sentence of a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Frost said in a social media post that the man who assaulted him late Friday “told me that Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face. He was heard screaming racist remarks as he drunkenly ran off.”
Security members told police Young had been denied entry to the bar, jumped over a fence to get back in, then ran away and somehow sneaked back in. Police confiscated a Sundance Film Festival administrative access pass in someone else’s name from Young.
In a statement, the Sundance Film Festival condemned the assault, which took place at an event not officially affiliated with the festival.
