HAGATNA — 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.