[Pantyholic]

First posted June 2004

Sung Koo Kim is a suspect in the disappearance of a woman in Corvallis, but his lawyer says he has an alibi

Wednesday, June 23, 2004
BRYAN DENSON
and RON SOBLE

A man named as a suspect in last month's disappearance of 19-year-old Brooke Wilberger from a Corvallis apartment complex was arraigned Tuesday in a Portland courtroom on felony burglary charges.
Sung Koo Kim, a 30-year-old Tigard man who remains jailed in lieu of $10 million bail, is accused of stealing women's panties from campus clothes dryers at three Portland colleges. Prosecutors said Monday that they had identified Kim as a suspect in the Wilberger case.
Kim also is accused of stealing lingerie from colleges in Yamhill and Benton counties.
Kim's attorney, Janet Hoffman, has said her client was not in Corvallis the morning of May 24, when Wilberger vanished from the Oak Park Apartments. The disappearance drew national attention and launched massive but fruitless searches for the Brigham Young University sophomore.

A young woman at Kim's house in Tigard said Tuesday afternoon that Kim had no part in Wilberger's disappearance.
"We do have our side of the story, and all these charges will be refuted, especially about the girl," said the woman, who did not identify herself. "But our lawyer's advice has been not to talk."
At one point last February, students wary of lingerie thefts at the University of Portland set up a video camera with a live feed to their dorm that reportedly depicts Kim stealing panties from a dryer, according to a police affidavit offering probable cause for Kim's continued detention.

Prosecutors on Tuesday declined to recount the alibi that Kim and his attorney have offered them in the Wilberger case.
"The fact that we're still proceeding with this as one of the bases for increased bail speaks for itself," said Norm Frink, a Multnomah County chief deputy district attorney. "And the detailed facts, I'm sure, will come out at the bail hearing."

The bail hearing has not been scheduled but could occur later this week.
Kim, wearing glasses and a blue button-down shirt, remained quiet as he stood Tuesday afternoon in a glass cubicle inside a courtroom at the downtown Portland Justice Center. Judge Cheryl Albrecht outlined the burglary and theft allegations against him. Court do*****ents released Tuesday indicate that investigators recovered more than 3,400 pairs of women's underpants from searches of his house.

At the arraignment, Hoffman attempted to argue for a bail reduction, which might have allowed her to offer her client's alibi before a courtroom full of reporters. But she was cut off during the four-minute proceeding by Frink, who said the judge who set Kim's bail at $10 million on Monday had openings on her docket this week.
"We're not here for Ms. Hoffman to give a speech to the media," he said.

Albrecht refused to hear arguments for a bail reduction.
One issue likely to come up at a detention hearing is Kim's employment status, which is unclear. He told The Oregonian last week that he was a Bank of America employee, but a spokesman for the bank said Tuesday that it is Kim's father who is employed by the company.

"The son," said Harvey Radin in San Francisco, "is not an employee of the bank."

Kim's family members sat quietly in the courtroom, then followed Hoffman out and, according to the attorney, headed back to her office to discuss ways to get Kim out of the Justice Center jail.

They declined to answer questions about Kim's alibi.

Reporter Nika Carlson contributed to this report.