Just a few months in the past, former Irvine Vice Mayor Tammy Kim had aspirations of returning to the Metropolis Council she beforehand served on for 4 years.
Now her quick objective is to struggle off costs that would put her in jail for a number of years.
The Orange County district legal professional’s that Kim was charged with 10 felonies tied to mendacity about her residency throughout her Metropolis Council tenure and whereas campaigning for mayor final fall.
Kim was formally charged with three felony counts of perjury by declaration, three felony counts of submitting a false doc, and one felony depend every of a public official aiding the unlawful casting of votes, of submitting false nominations papers, of understanding of the registration of somebody not entitled to vote and of voter registration fraud. She was additionally charged with a misdemeanor of creating a false assertion.
She might spend as much as 11 years and two months in state jail and county jail if convicted on all counts.
She is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning.
Kim briefly responded to a name from The Occasions, saying she was suggested to not share an excessive amount of per her legal professional, Caroline Hahn.
“We’re coming into a not responsible plea,” Kim stated.
Hahn added that she and her shopper “deliberate to launch a vigorous protection” however didn’t reply additional questions.
Kim is accused of utilizing two fraudulent addresses whereas operating for mayor within the November 2024 election after which in a Metropolis Council particular election in early 2025, based on the felony grievance. She owned a rental within the metropolis’s third District, the place she had lived since 2015, based on a separate lawsuit filed in opposition to Kim to get her thrown off the Metropolis Council poll.
Kim received election to the Irvine Metropolis Council in November 2020, receiving almost 44,000 votes a 14-person, top-three-candidate race.
At the moment, metropolis elections in Irvine used an at-large voting system, that means candidates might stay anyplace within the metropolis.
Town within the fall 2024, requiring council members to stay within the districts they signify. Solely voters from these districts might vote for these candidates.
Kim served till November 2024 when she ran for and finally misplaced a mayoral marketing campaign to Councilmember Larry Agran by a margin of almost 5,000 votes.
The district legal professional’s workplace believes Kim improperly used an handle to run for mayor, not claiming to stay within the third District rental she had owned for a decade.
To run for mayor, Kim modified her California driver’s license and her voter registration to a house within the fifth District, the place she by no means lived, based on the felony grievance.
The house belonged to a household Kim met by way of a Korean educating class, the grievance alleges. Kim didn’t inform the household that she was utilizing their handle, based on the grievance.
She has been charged with certifying that handle as her personal beneath the penalty of perjury.
Kim finally completed her marketing campaign and voted in November’s mayoral race based mostly out of the fifth Diistrict house.
Shortly after her defeat, Kim declared her candidacy in December to fill the now- vacant fifth District seat, which Agran left after successful the mayoral election.
Kim finally discovered a room in one other fifth District house on Jan. 10 and adjusted her California driver’s registration that very same day, based on the grievance. She then filed new nomination paperwork with the brand new fifth District handle, based on the grievance.
Later that month, former mayoral candidate Ron Scolesdang sued Kim, claiming that she was fraudulently utilizing an incorrect handle. Scolesdang had employed a non-public investigator to watch Kim, based on that lawsuit.
Kim finally dropped , the identical day a Superior Court docket choose eliminated her identify from the poll.
Betty Franco Martinez received the particular election.
