Posted on: Tuesday, November 27, 2001
Kalakaua prostitution case sent to trial
By Brandon Masuoka
Advertiser Staff Writer
A woman has been ordered to stand trial on a charge that she operated a prostitution parlor at a Kalakaua Avenue apartment that is owned by a state official.
Yong Im Kim appeared last week in Honolulu District Court before Judge Norman Lewis on a second-degree charge of promoting prostitution and was ordered to appear in Circuit Court on a Dec. 3 arraignment. Lewis found there was enough evidence to send her case to trial.
Her bail was set at $12,000.
Kim was arrested Nov. 14 with six other women on suspicion of prostitution offenses when police raided Coco's Relaxation at the Kalakaua apartment, police said. Police described Kim as the suspected proprietor of Coco's. However, Kim's attorney, Guy Matsunaga, said Kim told him she was an "employee" at Coco's, and did cooking and other chores.
Don Hibbard, head administrator of the state's Historic Preservation Division who is listed in state records as the owner of the second-floor apartment of the Century Center Condominium, 1750 Kalakaua Ave., said last week he was told by police that prostitution arrests were made at the apartment.
Hibbard said he was "surprised" when police told him about the arrests. He said he didn't know the alleged activity was taking place in his apartment, and declined to comment on his ties with Kim.
Police accused Kim of running a prostitution parlor that masqueraded as a massage service where female employees provided body shampoos and massages.
"It depended on girl to girl," said Honolulu Police Sgt. Gary Sunada of the Narcotics/Vice Division. "There was discussion of prostitution; sex for money. The girls worked there part time or full time. Some of them lived there because there were beds there."
State land records show that Hibbard purchased Century Center Condominium apartment 204A in June for $35,000 when it went into foreclosure.
According to a bankruptcy petition filed April 5, 1999, Kim and a man named Jon Korchnak owed $100,000 to Glimmer Corp., a company that Hibbard helps operates. In the petition, Kim said Hibbard initially had given a loan of $65,000 which later was increased to $100,000 to purchase the business Club Moondancer.
According to a police affidavit, police investigated Coco's after receiving numerous anonymous complaints of prostitution. The affidavit noted that the Narcotics/Vice Division has conducted similar stings and made numerous prostitution arrests at Century Center in the past.
Two undercover officers were solicited by women inside Coco's, according to the affidavit. When the officers tried to leave, the affidavit states, they were intercepted by Kim, who bargained with the officers.
Kim has 11 criminal convictions, including three for prostitution, according to the Hawai'i Criminal Justice Data Center. She also has one conviction in February 2000 for running an unlicensed massage parlor.
