Dave Young's courthouse office looked cavernous and lonely this week, with walls stripped down and bookshelves emptied.

He'd spent much of the past weekend packing up the books and belongings that have piled up during four terms as Canyon County's prosecutor, and he gestured around him with a weary smile.

"It's amazing how much crap you can accumulate in 16 years," said Young, 56.

A lot of setbacks have accumulated, too, and this past year has been particularly rough.

In May, his plans for a fifth and final term were quashed when he came in a distant third in a three-man GOP primary, claiming less than 14 percent of the vote. Winner John Bujak drew nearly half of the vote and was unopposed in November to take Young's job.

"It hurt at first," he said. "It still does."

In October, the elder of Young's two sons was sent to prison for having sexually exploitive images of teenage girls on a county-owned computer, capping more than two years of investigation and legal wrangling. Young says his position as the county's top law enforcement officer worked against his son, a 32-year-old former county computer manager with a previously clean record.

"Marc is in prison because he's my son," Young said. "I'm convinced if we were just the average family he would've gotten probation."

But the prosecutor stays mainly upbeat as talks about leaving office - his last day is Friday - saying, "the good far outweighs the bad. It's not even close."

"It wasn't fun going through all that, but maybe it's a blessing in disguise," he said, adding that the tribulation brought his family closer together and reinforced his faith.

"It wasn't my choice to go, but I'm not leaving with my tail between my legs," Young said. "I'm proud of what we've done."

A MAGNET FOR CRITICISM IN RECENT YEARS

For most of the past five years, Young has been a major target of anger and dissatisfaction from some Canyon County quarters, drawing a couple of lawsuits, online vitriol, a recall attempt and critical scrutiny from citizens groups.

"I don't think he deserved a fraction of the vilification and anger that came at him," his friend Doug McConnaughey said. "I don't know who else could stand up under that kind of public pressure. I couldn't."

He said it took real toughness for Young to decide to run again for office in 2008 amid the controversy over his son, who was indicted in September 2007.

"I disagree with him on some issues, but I don't think you'll find someone more honest and dedicated to public service," said McConnaughey, who was a local radio reporter and host when he first got to know Young in the early 1990s. He volunteered as a campaign strategist for Young's successful 2004 re-election bid, and the two became friends, he said.

Both friends and foes say a major turning point in Young's popularity and political future came in May 2003, when Angie Leon, a 21-year-old mother of three, was murdered by her estranged husband. Despite numerous domestic violence charges and 25 violations of no-contact orders against Abel Leon, a deputy Canyon prosecutor had agreed to release him from jail while he awaited sentencing for his latest crime. A few weeks later, Angie was dead.

"It was the beginning of the end" for Young, said Teri Ottens, who led a citizens task force that investigated the Leon case and participated in a failed attempt to recall Young in 2005. "He stayed in office a long time, but I don't think he ever recovered from that."

Ottens said she and some other Canyon residents were frustrated about plea bargains and what they considered lax prosecution by Young's office for several years before the Leon murder, but that incident was so jarring to the community that "it shined a spotlight on his office."

At the time, Young said a deputy prosecutor had erred in handling the case and vowed his office would "make every procedural change within our power" to try to prevent similar situations in the future. But critics said little changed, and the task force report blasted Young and his office. Ultimately, the county's insurer paid $925,000 to settle a lawsuit from Angie Leon's family.

Ottens has been one of Young's most vocal critics for years, but said, "I wish him well."

"I never thought he was a bad person," she said. "He's just a guy in the wrong job."

Young said he thinks the rising tide of criticism was exacerbated by chronic, not immediately life-threatening health problems that hit him hard in 2003 and caused him to be too disengaged from his office.

"I had zero energy for a while," he said. "That's when several things turned."

LEADER ON STATE LEVEL; LOCAL RELATIONS 'TOUGH'

Criticism by Ottens and others about Canyon prosecutors' handling of domestic violence rankles Young, he says, because quelling family violence was a core issue for him.

"Canyon County had a horrible domestic violence problem, and we needed to do something about it," he said.

In addition to creating a family violence task force, Young pushed through state legislation in 1998 that made it a felony to inflict traumatic injury on a family member. It is among his proudest achievements, he said.

"He worked hard to take issues to the Legislature to get laws passed," said Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs, who worked with Young in the Idaho Prosecuting Attorneys Association.

"I liked working with him," Loebs said. "I'll miss having him around."

Young served as president of the prosecutors association twice and is a past chairman of the Police Officers Standards and Training Council, forging connections with law enforcement officers statewide.

He's proud of his statewide standing and legislative accomplishments, but said relationships on a local level "got a little tough."

Leaders from all three major police agencies in Canyon County endorsed Bujak's campaign to unseat Young, as did police officer organizations in Nampa and Caldwell.

Former Caldwell Police Chief Bob Sobba, who now serves on the Caldwell City Council, agreed that relationships between police and Young's office were frequently rocky, particularly on gang-related cases.

"We'd have a case put together, and it was really hard to get it to court," he said. "We're first on the scene and make the arrest, and then the first thing we know they're back walking the streets."

On the plus side, Sobba said, Young greatly enhanced his office's work with crime victims and witnesses, creating a "top- notch" victim witness program.

He also praised Young for technology improvements in the prosecutors' office, a theme echoed by McConnaughey.

"All in all, he did a tremendous job of bringing that prosecutor's office from basically the 1920s to the 21st century, McConnaughey said.

GIVING OPPORTUNITIES TO STAFF

Young said he's proud of moving the office toward a paperless case-management system, and he cited the victim witness program as a highlight. But it's the people who work for him - lawyers, victim witness coordinators and support staff - who top the list of what makes the prosecutor proud.

"Despite the perception, we have some great people here," he said. "That's what I'm going to miss most.

"My rewards from this job come from seeing the people grow."

Giving his people room to develop is one of Young's key strengths, his chief criminal deputy, Virginia Bond, said.

"He's really the person that's allowed me to be the best I can be as an attorney," said Bond, who started in the prosecutor's office months before Young.

Young has taken considerable flak from challengers and observers for spending virtually no time in the courtroom and relying on deputies to handle cases. But Bond said it helps the deputies gain confidence, skill and job satisfaction.

"Harris took all the best cases," Bond said of Young's predecessor, Richard Harris. And she's concerned that Prosecutor-elect Bujak, a trial lawyer who has vowed to handle big cases, will repeat that pattern.

Young "never claimed to be an expert in one area or another of the law," said Bond, who is going into private practice. "For that he relied on the expertise of staff members.

"He knew what his strong points were, and he made the best of them and let us make the best of ours. Dave is a good manager."

Bond said she isn't personal friends with Young, but her job as chief criminal deputy is to enforce his policies and vision.

Asked about Young's management style, Bond said, "He's not very subtle. He's pretty outspoken. If you've done something wrong, you know about it."

GETTING BACK TO 'ORDINARY JOE'

One of the things that's hardest for Young, he said, is the feeling that the system he serves did wrong by his son, who has said the images of underage girls were placed on his computer by someone else. It was strange and awful, he said, to be going through the judicial process from the defendant's point of view.

"I've been in the judicial system for 16 years, and I believe it failed my son," Young said. "That was really difficult to take.

"I've chosen to believe my son because he's earned it."

Young said he has always been particularly close to Marc, counting him as "one of my best friends."

What comes next for Young is pretty uncertain at this point, he said. He had a job lined up, but it fell through, he said, and "at this point I just don't know." He does know, he said, that he wants to stay in Nampa, his lifelong home.

For the immediate future, Young said he's happy with the prospect of spending more time with his wife, Kris, their three grown children and three grandchildren. And he'll frequently head out to Owyhee County in his Jeep, rock-hunting.

It will be nice, he said, to "get back to being an ordinary Joe again." He's had enough of media and blogger scrutiny.

Still, Young added, "I would've gladly taken it for another four years."

Kris Rodine: 377-6447