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City Council Candidate David Ryu was charged with attempted rape in 2002, but case was dismissed

Court records reveal that Los Angeles City Council candidate David E. Ryu faced a charge of attempted rape in 2002.
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April 21, 2015

Court records reveal that Los Angeles City Council candidate David E. Ryu faced a charge of attempted rape in 2002. 

According to the records, Ryu pleaded not guilty to the criminal charge of attempted rape of an unconscious person, and the charges were dismissed before a preliminary hearing, two months after they were filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in September 2002. Ryu was 27 at the time.

After the arraignment, Ryu posted $50,000 in bail and was ordered to not to have contact with the accuser, identified in court documents as Jane Doe. The charge was dismissed on November 15.  Ryu has not previously disclosed the incident. 

Ryu, who is running to replace District 4 councilman Tom La Bonge, is a community health director who currently serves as the Director of Development, Government, & Public Affairs at Kedren Community Health Center. He previously served as senior deputy to Los Angeles County Supervisor Yvonne Burke. After coming in second in the March primary, Ryu is facing Carolyn Ramsay in a May 19 runoff.

On November 15, 2002, the District Attorney’s office informed the judge in the case that it was “unable to proceed within the statutory period,” at which time the defense filed a successful motion to dismiss. There is no information in publicly available court documents as to why the prosecution was unable to proceed. 

The prosecutor in the case, Hilleri Meritt, told the Journal that she has no independent recollection of the case. Now a Superior Court Judge, Meritt worked for a time as an assistant district attorney in sex crimes.

According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, attorney Mark Kim, who represented Ryu at the time, said the case was dismissed before even a preliminary hearing.  Kim told the Times that Ryu and “Jane Doe” were in a car when they were discovered by another woman, the police were called and the second woman, not the alleged victim, subsequently filed the complaint that led to Ryu’s arrest. Ryu told the Times that he has had no contact since with either of the two women.

[UPDATES: 4/21/15] In statement released to the Journal on April 21, Ryu said: “It was a shock to be accused of something I did not do, and I would never do. Never in my life did I imagine I would be falsely accused of such a serious crime.

Even though I was exonerated, the false accusation was devastating to me at the time. I had just finished my internship at the United Nations and was preparing to leave for a Peace Corps posting in Africa. As a result, I had to wait out the wheels of justice and gave up my chance to serve in the Peace Corps.

However, I have long since put this behind me. I don’t believe there was any malicious intent, and I have not seen nor spoken to the other parties for many years, and I don’t think it’s appropriate to disrupt their lives just because I’ve chosen to run for public office.”

In statement released to the Journal on April 21, Kim said: “The alleged victim never claimed that anything happened. The police officers on the scene concluded nothing had happened. There was no physical evidence of either assault or unconsciousness. The one person who alleged a crime was a third party; and another witness cast doubt on her statement. There simply was no evidence of any crime. So my client, who consistently denied this charge, was fully exonerated.”

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