State briefs for October 17

Hawaii police lieutenant pleads not guilty in tax fraud case

HONOLULU — A Honolulu police lieutenant accused of filing false state income tax returns is scheduled to stand trial in December.

Eric Y.N. Yiu, 54, pleaded not guilty Monday to six counts of filing fraudulent tax returns.

Judge Colette Garibaldi scheduled Yiu’s trial for the week of Dec. 17.

Yiu remains free on $11,000 bail. He was arrested last week by officers from the Honolulu Police Department’s Professional Standards Office after the state attorney general filed charges.

The false returns were filed for 2011-16, prosecutors said.

The charges stemmed from a joint investigation by Honolulu police, the FBI, the state attorney general and the state Department of Taxation.

Each charge carries a maximum prison term of three years and a $100,000 fine. The attorney general has also served notice to Yiu that if he is convicted of two or more counts, it might seek an enhanced sentence of six years in prison for each count.

Yiu had been working in the department’s Central Receiving Division on restricted duty since June. He has worked with the department for 29 years.

Korean soccer player acquitted in Guam sex assault case

HAGATNA, Guam — A South Korean professional soccer player has been acquitted in a sexual assault case in Guam.

A jury delivered not guilty verdicts Monday on all charges against Byong Oh Kim following about three days of deliberations, the Pacific Daily News reported .

Kim was on Guam with the Sangju Sangmu soccer team for training in January. He was indicted earlier this year on three counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and four counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.

A woman told police that she was with Kim and his teammate during the day, and they ended up at his hotel room. She had asked to be taken home later that night, but Kim’s teammate told her he couldn’t drive because he had been drinking, she told police.

She woke up to Kim touching her, and he then raped her, she told police. He later carried her to the bathroom and had sex with her again, according to court documents.

The woman later woke up Kim’s teammate and asked to be driven home. As she was leaving, she ran to the hotel security guard and handed her phone to him with the word “rape” translated on the device, attorneys told the court.

Defense attorney F. Randall Cunliffe argued in court that prosecutors didn’t show any evidence that Kim forced or coerced the woman. The defense also claimed the woman’s story changed when she spoke to different authorities.

The trial began Oct. 5 and ended last week.