Attorney defends Oregon man’s alibi
PORTLAND – Prosecutors are attempting to “inflame the fears of the public” by linking Sung Koo Kim, of Tigard, to the disappearance of a 19-year-old college student, his attorney said in a court document filed Friday.
Kim’s attorney, Janet Lee Hoffman, rejected prosecutors’ attacks on what she contends is proof that her client could not have been involved in the disappearance of Brooke Wilberger.
Wilberger disappeared from an apartment complex in Corvallis on the morning of May 24.
In earlier court papers, Hoffman said Kim was at home with his family that morning, making online stock trades via Ameritrade. He later went shopping with his father at a local Circuit City, she said, adding that Kim’s alibi was backed up by his family, records and a surveillance video.
However, Multnomah County District Attorney Michael Schrunk filed an affidavit Thursday stating that Kim “does not have an iron-clad alibi.” Schrunk said the drive from Corvallis to Tigard is only about an hour and 20 minutes, implying Kim could have made the trip.
He also said that the stock trades were made on Kim’s sister’s computer and that anyone could have conducted the trades if they had Kim’s pass code.
Schrunk said the first confirmed sighting of Kim at Circuit City was 12:42 p.m., nearly three hours after Wilberger disappeared.
The document filed Friday by Hoffman was a response to Schrunk’s, which she said “stretches the bounds of reality.”
Hoffman noted that the state affidavit puts Wilberger’s disappearance “as early as 10 a.m.,” whereas a press release by the Corvallis Police Department states that the college student went missing at 10:50 p.m.
Hoffman also said a statement by Jung Kim – the suspect’s sister – shows that her brother had free access to use her computer.
Sung Kim has been charged with stealing thousands of pairs of women’s underwear from college dormitories in three Oregon counties and has pleaded innocent. He is being held in Multnomah County on $10 million bail.
A bail hearing at Multnomah County court was canceled Friday after Hoffman noted that her client also faces $4 million bail in Yamhill County and $100,000 bail in Benton County.
After the hearing, Norm Frink, Multnomah County’s deputy district attorney, reiterated that Kim is a suspect in Wilberger’s disappearance but there is “no probable cause” to arrest him for it.
Nonetheless, said Frink, “even if he didn’t do this, the facts that make him a suspect are deeply disturbing in themselves.”
According to an affidavit filed by Portland police last week, a search of Kim’s computer revealed 40,000 pictures of women being tortured and raped, as well as a document that describes the rape, torture and mutilation of a woman.