UPDATE: Has Hyundai fingered the suspect?
According to a police report, a Hyundai employee flew back to Korea immediately after a fatal auto accident in LA:
According to the report, 39-year-old ** Lee was with some business associates at Seoul-Oak Korean B.B.Q. restaurant where witnesses say he drank eight shots of Soju–a Korean rice wine.
The report says the group went to a Karaoke bar until just before midnight. Then half an hour later a UPS driver spotted a black Hyundai drifting into the HOV lane, as if someone had passed out and hit the center divider.
Minutes after that Ryan Cook–a trombone player with the band Suburban Legends–was riding his motorcycle home from band practice. Investigators say he never saw the parked car with its lights out. Cook died at the scene.
“After the traffic collision, Mr. Lee contacted one of the witnesses and drove the vehicle back to the corporation where he met with one of the witnesses and then he left the country through LAX,” said Jennifer Hink with the California Highway Patrol.
The report says Lee, who NBC4 reports works for Hyundai, showed his damaged car to a Hyundai executive who then drove him to an attorney’s office. It says Lee got in a taxi then boarded a plane to Korea.
“What kind of a man is he who doesn’t stand up for what he did. He made a mistake and he was too cowardly to stick around and own up to his own mistakes,” said Janet Cook.
Hyundai says it’s cooperating with the police. A corporate spokesman said:
“We agree this was a horrible and tragic accident. Hyundai Corperation is cooperating fully with the CHP and any further questions can be directed to them.”
From what I understand, there is an extradition treaty between Korea and the United States, ratified in 1999.
UPDATE: I haven’t found anything in the Korean-language press about the incident, but I’d imagine someone will pick up either tonight or tomorrow. KBS and YTN have reported the story–see comments.
UPDATE: The actual incident took place in 2005, but the identity of the suspect had only been learned now, apparently.
52 Comments
Unless Hyundai gives him up, or someone drops a dime and lets the LA Sheriff know his national ID number, he’ll never be found to be extradited.
Some habits from the old country don’t translate very well, like getting blasted at il-cha and i-cha and jumping on the L.A. freeways where most people drive 65-70 mph. Very sad.
Oh yes there is an extradition treaty. But Sperwer is right — Korea is a wonderful place to “hide out” in plain sight. The way to hale Lee into the dock in LA is to file criminal charges against Hyundai America Corporation accusing the company of accessory-after-the-fact or of obstruction of justice. There is no way that Lee would have made his own travel arrangements — someone at Hyundai America spirited him out of the country. The truth will out.
How does drinking and driving equal “…a horrible and tragic accident.” and the two middle school girls’ deaths were deliberate murder? Sometimes I just can’t figure out the logic in this country.
What a dumbass and his company is equally stupid and deserving of punishment for helping to flee the scene of a crime. Hope the fucker rots in hell.
No doubt. What would the reaction be if the people of LA took to the streets and demanded the expulsion of all Korean immigrants from America?
Well, one of the reasons this wasn’t picked up in the Korean press recently is that Dallas Cook was killed in October 2005. Also, Korean “suspected” of a crime abroad is not really big news.
Can’t they track him down through his visa application? Wouldn’t he have had to have written his citizen’s ID number when he applied? I’m admittedly ignorant of these matters, but it seems the U.S. government could put some diplomatic pressure on Korea to root this scoundrel out. Maybe something related to hints at further tightening (or non-loosening) of the visa application process, for example?
I hope Brendon is correct in that someone will file charges against Hyundai for this.
Such is a blatant disregard for the law.
It’s time for the people of LA to get the candles out and for the US media to fabricate wild stories of premeditated murder and misrepresent or hide knowable facts about the case and for patriotic Americans to write demands for an apology from Roh Moo-hyundae in their own blood.
right. october. who knows what the story is since then…
never mind, i got it.
Aha! I too was slow in figuring this out. This all happened last October. Still, now that they’ve discovered the identity (and nationality) of the driver, will there be any reports in the Korean media?
This soju-drinking adjussi got to go to jail. Stupid drinking and driving and killing an innocent person under influence must not happen, even in Korea. These stupid jerks drink heavily and drive and kill people. Stupid f***s.
What is so bad about this incident is that the Hyundai corporation aided in helping this fugitive escape. This is done by his boss, I surmise. He is so messed up. As Brendon Carr wrote, this is an excellent case against the Hyundai corporation. For a business entity which intentionally helped a “manslaughter” suspect to escape to a foreign country. I think this case deserves $100 million judgment against the Hyundai and I am not joking.
Yes I hope they sue the ass off Hyundai. Sorry to say this, the SOB (guilty or not) will probably get away with it. Higher burden of proof in court cases than the civil case Hyundai will liable for.
On that note I hope the Korean’s start to sue the asses off of some of the hawgwons for some of the teachers that they employ here.
Why was this Mr. Lee in the states? …because Hyundai US sponsored him to be there. Mr. Lee is no longer in the states so sue the company that is the legal guarantor of him in the US.
This should be the same for hawgwon owners. Sponsor some Canuck or whoever that ends up in a bar fight and breaks a national’s jaw, then face the music. The offender might pay a fine end up in jail (with a private foreigner cell)for couple months and get deported. But the school should be responsible for the compensation that the person they hired cannot pay.
Extradite him NOW. Sue Hyundai, and sue Seoul-Oak Restaurant while we’re at it.
Sorry. That was the wrong linnk. This is the correct link.
I have a better ideal. Rezone Korea Town, and move out all the room salons, kareoke bars, and Korean establishments. They are a blot on the landscape. We don’t need ethnic gettos. And then clean up the filthy streets. If you want to live like in Korea, stay in Korea. Why transport everything including the filth to somewhere else?
Mr. Lee hid out from the blood-alcohol test which could possibly make him guilty of a felony murder charge. I’m sure he thinks he got good advice — no test, no way to prove he was drunk. Or is there? Unfortunately for Mr. Lee, it seems that the California Highway Patrol or Santa Ana Police have done their investigation by interviewing witnesses (take note, Korea National Police — if you get off your ass sometimes crimes can be solved). Even without a blood-alcohol test, it will be possible to prove intoxication based on witness testimony about the quantity of alcohol consumed over time, together with some expert witness on how much booze it takes to fill up a man of a certain weight.
And yes, Seoul-Oak Restaurant and the karaoke joint probably ought to face liability, but California has a pretty weak dram-shop law.
Whether or not the man is guilty is up to the court to decide, but as a country under rule of law the United States cannot countenance foreign investors spiriting employees away to evade justice.
Why should Seoul-Oak restaurant have any liability in the matter? Was he standing on the table and waving his car keys around while ordering another drink? Eight shots of soju, especially the crap soju sold in the US, imbibed during the course of a meal isn’t THAT much alcohol. I know people who get drunk off of half a beer. Should restaurants stop serving more than half a beer to their customers in case the person is driving?
As for cm, do you find it difficult being a racist in this day and age? Exactly how do “Real Americans(tm)” live? Don’t like them ethnic “gettos,” huh? You must hate NYC. And most of LA. And San Francisco… let’s just say California… Hawaii… Texas… New Mexico… Florida… the South… are you from Minnesota? Oh wait, I forgot about all them Hmong and those Korean adoptees… Arkansas?
“especially the crap soju sold in the US”…
I never got any sense in five years in Korea that they were keeping all the “good soju” to themselves.
‘of course, the courts will decide…’ expat brenden
what a joke! it’s seems you’ve already decided. you’re more like the koreans you whine about. did you foret we’re already suing hyundai and the entire korean american community?…… how’s your korean wife?
‘THEY DON’T REPORT ABOUT IT!’ cried the lil expat
why would korean newspapers report about this? people get killed by drunk drivers all the time. and besides, it was just an american, and it happened in america not korea.
‘getting run over by a tank is the same as getting run over by a car.’ expat logic
‘move koreatown!’ korean trying to get good
and let’s see it replaced with what was there before the koreans got there- crime ridden black ghetto.
btw, judge judy, did a korean man really make you? i’m starting to wonder.
Hyundai hides him, so they should pay. So, time for the civil suit, clean house on Hyundai for their stupidity. I feel sorry for Cook, but, with such slime balls out there no chance for justice. Only time will do that. If it were me and I had the money, I’d hunt his ass down and take care of business.
These issues are obviously too complex for Nulji to comprehend. Why does he bother commenting on them?
Perhaps, we should start writing to the U.S. Embassy, the State Department and every place you can think of to do something about this matter.
And also we should write to the Governor Schwarzenegger to revoke Soju’s exemption status for not requiring hard liquor license to serve Soju in California.
Soju is exempted because of its status as the social and national drink of the Korean community?
What kind of bxxxxxit is that?
If the California can grant exemption status to the Soju because of it is unique to the Korean communities, why not the Vodka for Russian communities and Scotch for the Scottish communities?
http://www.progressivebeverage.....040907.pdf
Soju Makes a Splash in Southland September 7, 2004 Los Angeles Times
Mutt Lynch’s, which is approved to sell only beer and wine, is one of hundreds of California restaurants that in the last year have taken advantage of what regulators concede is a loophole in the state’s alcoholic beverage rules.
Because of a 1999 state law pushed by Korean restaurant owners, Soju has a unique exemption among distilled spirits in California, and spots such as Mutt Lynch’s are taking full advantage. (New York has passed a similar measure.) Lawmakers granted Soju its exemption because of its status as the “social and national” drink of the Korean community, explained Pat Deasy, a regulator with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
Email the Governor Schwarzenegger
http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
Lawmakers granted soju its exemption because of its status as the “social and national” drink of the
Korean community, explained Pat Deasy, a regulator with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!! Koreans know whom to pay off. I am a KoreanAmerican and I like to say (with tongue in cheek) that Migugs are using alcohol to keep downtrodden KoreanAmericans drugged. “Social and national” drink? Somebody should investigate who paid whom. I believe some Korean Soju companies are involved.
Korean Soju companies bribe Korean politicians in Korea. Shamless actresses (these companies want to push this evil on young women) drink Soju in the TV commercials as if it is the most natural thing to do. F***ing stupid females. They pass out after heavy drinking and men take advantage of them. Or, they give birth to deformed babies. And, they do not even know alcohol can do that.
According to a police report, a Hyundai employee flew back to Korea immediately after a fatal auto accident in LA
After following KNBC’s link to the original story, I realized that the accident did not occur in Los Angeles, as the recent KNBC link suggests and as The Marmot wrote. Rather, it occurred some fifty miles away in Orange County, not far from my alma mater UCI on a stretch of highway I have driven over hundreds of times.
This makes a difference to me because, when I thought the accident had occurred in Los Angeles, I could see (though not excuse) someone flying out in a panic, but that long drive from Orange County out to LAX adds more time for the perpetrator and his aider(s) and abettor(s) of crime to think about this. In other words, it makes it even more atrocious.
In hindsight, it makes more sense that this would have occurred in Orange County, since Hyundai America’s headquarters are there, not Los Angeles, and there are plenty of drinking establishments in Garden Grove, where OC’s well-established but unofficial Koreatown is located.
I’m curious about the LA Times article. The ‘abstract’ version of the article consists of one line that says Ryan Cook hit a black Hyundai. I want to read the whole piece but don’t want to spend $3.95 to do so. By chance does anyone here have ‘pre-paid’ access to LA Times archives?
Hyundai Motor America is located in the City of Fountain Valley witch is right next to the City of Garden Grove, home of the Koreatown.
I don’t understand why he was on the 55 (Costa Mesa Fwy.) since this Korean BBQ restaurant is located in the City of Garden Grove, he has no business driving on the 55 Fwy., maybe he lived in a housing that was provided by Hyundai in the city of Irvine, cause Irvine is a very popular housing place for the Asian companies that wants to house their representatives that was send from their home country?
We should probably contact the MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and have them lobby for nullifying for this Soju exception laws.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving Orange County Chapter
Send e-mail or feedback/comments
http://www.maddorangecounty.org/feedback.htm
Dead is dead, mulchy.
What we see again is that in the Korean/kyopo mindset, Korean lives are worth more. Just like when the Korean in Iraq was beheaded.
Wow, just completely ignore the fact that the guy got ran over by three other vehicles or the fact that the article doesnt get into whether those drivers stopped to assist the victim or if they just took off also.
The article says that none of the other drivers who hit Cook were injured, which implies that they did not just take off.
Do you consider this kind of thing just payback for “white privilege”, bluejives?
According to the reports, the proximate cause of Dallas Cook lying in the street to be struck by three other vehicles was his collision with the SUV stuck in the median. Had he not plowed into a car stopped where it wasn’t supposed to be (its driver, no doubt, slumped drunkenly over the wheel) Dallas Cook would be alive — or least would not have been killed in that accident. To the extent that Hyundai Motor employees conspired with Mr. Lee to play keep away from investigators, that company (Hyundai Motor or Hyundai Motor America) will have some splainin’ to do. Anyway, a great case and luckily American civil discovery process, coupled with police who actually investigate things, will uncover the truth.
The article on California’s soju exemption is pretty interesting. The exception apparently applies only to soju which is imported (from where, I wonder?); made-in-USA soju, even if chemically identical, is not good enough for the Ferengi immigrant community to agitate for its exemption from California’s hard-liquor licensing. Made-in-USA soju at 24% alcohol content is “hard liquor” but made-in-Korea soju at 24% alcohol content is not. Pretty crass.
What this has to do with the 2002 USFK accident involving the deaths of the two young girls, I dont know. But as long as some people are gonna insist on comparing ninja apples with fuzzy green oranges, allow me to bring up a familiar retort….shit happens.
That’s enlightening.
A couple of [Korean] peasants are flattened in an accident by a tank while walking down an unlit country lane at night, and it’s tantamount to genocide to hear the locals tell it.
But a non-Korean is killed as a result of the demonstratively unlawful and grossly negligent of a drunk Korean, who then unlawfully flees beyond the reach of the jurisdiction with the assistance of his ethnic buddies, and it’s “shit happens”.
Since bluejives is also an “ethnic buddy”, he just doesn’t get it, as they say.
Yeah, well I wouldn’t mind having an opportunity to make some shit happen to him.
Here is a link to an April 7 KBS News report of the incident:
http://news.kbs.co.kr/article/.....61441.html
The report simply says that the Korean police are searching for a 39-year-old man who is wanted for causing a traffic accident in October after drinking and driving, and that the accident led to the death of a motor cyclist in his twenties, who was riding up from behind. The report said that the man, who worked for a [Korean] group-affilate company, fled after the accident.
The report was part of another report on a 45-year-old Korean living in Los Angeles who also fled back to Korea after hitting and killing a woman with his car in December of last year. The Latino woman, who was in her seventies, was killed in a crosswalk. The report says the suspect’s family man is Baek.
YTN reported it, too.
By the way, I do not know if the Lee on the Korean National Police “Wanted List” is the same Lee that caused the accident, but there is no Baek on the list:
http://www.police.go.kr/index......_view=List
Gerry, neither is hardly “Korea’s Most Wanted”.
Nabbed? a href=”http://www.sperwerslog.com/index.php/sperwerslog/nabbed/” title=”Now UPI is reporting that the suspect, Youn Bum Lee, 39, has been located in Korea”.
The UPI report is short on details, but it appears that Hyundai is doing the right thing and have fingered the guy. At least, they’re claiming to be ccoperating. Let’s see if the cooperation extends to bringing the perp back to California through a little “persuasion” and saving the Calif taxpayers the expense of an extradition proceeding and sparing the family the justice denied of justice delayed.
Nabbed?
The UPI report is short on details, but it appears that Hyundai is doing the right thing and have fingered the guy. At least, they’re claiming to be ccoperating. Let’s see if the cooperation extends to bringing the perp back to California through a little “persuasion” and saving the Calif taxpayers the expense of an extradition proceeding and sparing the family the justice denied of justice delayed.
Dogbert,
Is that Korea’s “Most Wanted List”? There are swindlers on the list, so what not hit-and-run manslaughter suspects?
Sperwer - thanks for the link to UPI. I couldn’t read the other two provided (in Korean). Nothing was mentioned about any possible penalty to Hyundai for aiding Lee’s ‘escape’. How liable are they?
Actually, I saw a similar article to what Sperwer found, but I didn’t include it here because it seemed to me that the two stories are talking about the same thing. “Finding” Mr. Lee and “identifying” who he is are referring to the same thing, it seems.
Hyundai needs to really come forward and do the right thing, what they should have done months ago.
How about a trade? Lee for Chung.
Poke:
I don’t know what the exact statutory penalties in Calif would be, but the behavior is indictable under several crimes, including accessory after the fact to felony murder, manslaughter, negligent homicide and/or reckless endangerment; aiding and abetting a fugitive; and conspiracy. Nearly all of these are straightup felonies, although reckless endangerment and conspiracy could also be pitched as more or less serious misdemeanors. What us actually charged will depend on what the prosecutors think they’ll be able to prove on the basis of the available evidence The Hyundai executive who got this knucklehead onto the plane is probably being advised by the same [Korean-American?] attorney to get to the airport himself now. Whether Hyundai itself is indictable depends on whether the executive can be said to have been acting within the scope of his employment. If he used company resources to get this guy outta Dodge, that would put paid to any detour and frolic sort of defense to the agency liability theory.
Kushibo:
I think you know me well enough from my comments on other topics Korean that I also am not inclined to give Hyundai any significant credit until this guy is in custody in the States.
Of course, THE right thing would have been for the company to have made this guy stand up back when. On the other hand, what happened then seemed to have been done by one executive. That of course doesn’t exonerate the company, because the executive appears to have been acting within the scope of his employment and not off on a detour and frolic, as they say. Still Hyundai deserves some credit as a company now, as everything having become known to the institution, the institution now seems to be acting responsibly and taking appropriate corrective action.
Whether it acting responsibly is still an “if”, the large dimensions of which I probably didn’t emphasize clearly enough. It’s all based on H’s self-serving claim that it is cooperating.
That is, though BTW what I thought was significant about this story. It’s the only one I’ve seen that indicates - and it is only an indication - that the authorities now know exactly who this knucklehead is, and that Hyundai has told them. As someone who has spent time professionally from time to time trying to track down Koreans who abscond to Korea from elsewhere after committing crimes, I can tell you that means a lot. Even if Hyundai never does anything more, if they’ve clearly identified this guy, he’ll eventually get extradited (unless of course the local keystone kops let him slip away, which is more than possible). I think that covers the “finding”/”identifying” issue.
Dogbert:
I think the US would turn over Chung in a heartbeat, unless he makes it to his plant in Alabama. Then Shrub might have to call out the National Guard.
“Then half an hour later a UPS driver spotted a black Hyundai drifting into the HOV lane, as if someone had passed out and hit the center divider.”
What on earth does this actually mean? He already crashed?
“Investigators say he never saw the parked car with its lights out. ”
So the motorcyclist hit a parked car - where is this drunk driver, then?
Can somebody please explain what the fuck the journalist was actually saying?
According to the KBS broadcast news, the suspect resigned from Hyundai before he fled. How does that effect this case?
Yeah sure. Eight shots of soju with his cronies at a restaurant. Who knows how many shots of whiskey and beer at the karaoke bar. Falls asleep in his SUV on that road. Motorcycle runs into his parked vehicle. Man dies. Drives off. Contacts someone at Hyundai. Heads for the airport. And, oh yeah, has the presence of mind to resign from his job before heading off to Korea.
I am glad to have found this discussion and further details on the news story, the victim, Ryan Cook was a good friend of my brother, I heard about the accident when it first happened. I had recently posted about this on Newsvine and was pleased to find out more from reading the comments. I’m happy to know that the suspect has been found and hope that Hyundai fruther cooperates with authorities in this investigation.
My Newsvine article: http://orchard.newsvine.com/_n.....d-to-korea
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Nabbed?…
The Marmot's Hole has the original story, and the chattering of the usual suspects, about the Hyundai Motors employee whose drunken negligence resulted in the death of a California motorist, after which the perp fled to Korea with the help of a lo…