Ex-T-Shirt Shop Owner Gets 3 Years For Sexual Contact With Child

HOWELL, NJ — The former owner of a Howell Township T-shirt business has been sentenced to three years in prison on charges he had sexual contact with a child and with employees and customers at his store, the Monmouth County prosecutor's office announced.

Brian Young, 53, was sentenced Friday by Superior Court Judge Jill Grace O'Malley, Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni said. He had pleaded guilty to charges of third-degree endangering the welfare of a child and fourth-degree criminal sexual contact before Superior Court Judge Dennis R. O’Brien on Oct. 11, 2019.

Young had been the owner of Big Frog Custom T-Shirts & More in the Howell Center Shopping Plaza on Route 9, in 2018 when Howell Township police received a report that Young inappropriately touched a child while inside his business, the prosecutor's office said.

Big Frog issued a statement after Young's guilty plea saying he had been removed as a franchisee in November 2018 when his arrest was first reported. The Monmouth County location has been under new ownership since then, according to the statement.

He was arrested Nov. 9, 2018 after the first incident was investigated by police and the Special Victims Unit of the prosecutor's office. After his arrest, five more people, all adults who were customers and employees, told authorities that Young had inappropriately touched them at the business as well.

Young will be subject to the provisions of Megan’s Law and parole supervision for life once he is released from prison.

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