Kim blames upbringing for criminal obsessions Published: November 8, 2005 from: http://www.newsregister.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=200475 By KATIE WILLSON Of the News-Register Panty and porn collector Sung Koo Kim directed apologies toward his victims, but criticism toward police and prosecutors, when it came time for him to make a statement at his Monday sentencing hearing in Yamhill County Circuit Court. Judge John Collins called the mixed message disconcerting. "I'm troubled by the focus of your words on other people and agencies," he told the defendant. Collins said Kim is suffering depression and the community is suffering fear for its safety. He said it was his hope that a combination of incarceration and treatment would cure both. Collins accepted a sentencing package hammered out by the prosecution and defense as an element of their plea negotiations. Under the terms, Kim will serve 50 months in prison, less 17 months for time served, followed by 18 months in the county jail. He may petition the court to substitute inpatient treatment for the jail time, but must secure agreement from Collins for that to take place. Collins also ordered Kim to pay $2,364 in restitution and a $2,500 fine. Finally, he directed Kim to complete five years of a probationary program - one that includes appropriate mental heath and sex-offender treatment - upon his release from incarceration. Locally, the unemployed 31-year-old ended up pleading to nine counts of burglary and theft. They stemmed from break-ins at coed dorms in which panties were stolen from women attending Linfield College and George Fox University. Yamhill is just one of four counties charging Kim with like offenses. He still has three to go, including his home county of Washington, where he also faces child pornography charges. So his sentence could grow much longer and more complex before his case fully plays out. Prosecutor Alicia Eagan told the court Kim was guilty of something much more serious and insidious than a mere series of property thefts. She said he was also guilty of stealing women's privacy and the community's trust. "He's gone where we send our children when they leave our homes - to college dorms," Eagan said. Two victims, one from George Fox and one from Linfield, addressed the court through written statements read into the record by Eagan. And they tended to back her observation. "I always laughed about it until I found out about the crimes," one victim wrote. "Now I know more and I'm scared there are more people like him. "I wasn't aware of my surroundings until then. I had no idea I was being watched." When his turn came, Kim read a lengthy prepared statement. It included an apology for the fear he had instilled - unintentionally, he insisted - in his many victims. "I would like to apologize with all my heart to all the girls for my shortsighted, selfish, abnormal actions," he said. "It was never my intention to scare or instill a sense of insecurity in them." Kim said he never stalked anyone or posed a threat to the community. He simply had a fetish for women's undergarments, he said. He blamed it on the isolation he experienced growing up as a member of the insular Jehovah's Witness faith. "I was a Jehovah's Witness all my life, and tried to live a perfect life, according to the Bible and the doctrines of the Jehovah's Witnesses," he said. "I never committed fornication and kept away from all worldly sins. I lived all my life in isolation, in a lonely religious prison, deprived of friends, love, intimacy and happiness." He apologized to his parents as well as his victims, acknowledging the pain they had been forced to endure. He assured them it wasn't their fault. "I couldn't ask for better parents, or a better sister," said Kim, who was sharing a Tigard residence with the three of them at the time of his arrest. However, Kim also took the opportunity to lash out at law enforcement officers and prosecutors, saying they had violated his constitutional rights. He said they had deprived him of the freedoms to speak freely, to bear arms, to be afforded reasonable bail, to be allowed unfettered pursuit of life, liberty and happiness, and to be accorded due process of law.
Kim blames JW upbringing for criminal obsessions
by Dogpatch 3 Replies latest jw friends
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Odrade
I grew up in the area, so this story has a special interest to me, as it has been played out over the last few weeks in the Yamhill County courts. I wonder how the JWs are responding to yet another unfavorable story regarding JWs, along with the bad press.
I feel like putting a sticker on my car that says "I *heart* Jeb Bladine" --owner of the News-Register, for continuing to print stories like this, and letting the facts speak for themselves. -
Tigerman
Another Watchtower victim.
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Odrade
Yes... and no. His behavior was aberrant. By all accounts, his parents were decent people. His upbringing in the JWs, "typical." Most of us who have escaped the WT after having been raised in it, while we sustain some damage, we do not generally engage in criminal and deviant behavior, no matter how much we joke about it.
The thing to remember here is that Kim didn't just steal panties from public dryers. While laughable, that might be excusable, given the restrictive and Puritanical enviroment of the Organization. No, Kim is accused of gathering child pornography, criminal stalking, breaking and entering. He has charges pending in three more counties, and he has terrorized young women.
Because he is a "panty thief" it would be easy to marginalize his crimes, even excusing it because he is JW "damaged goods," and on some level, we want to sympathize with him, and lay the blame at the feet of the Watchtower. But this is not the Watchtower's fault. Oh, I'm sure it did make some bad things worse, but Kim... is a deviant criminal. He faces child pornography charges. I, for one, am glad to see him removed from Society.
It could be useful to point up the JW connection, but to place all the blame with the WT might do more harm than good... to those of us who fight it.