Man Charged in Kidnap and Rape of Woman : Courts: Michael Kyung Lim of Woodland Hills pleads not guilty. His attorney denies he tortured his ex-girlfriend.

A Woodland Hills man charged with kidnaping his ex-girlfriend and beating and raping her for three days admits he struck the woman with a metal bar, but not so severely that it should be considered torture, his defense attorney said.

Attorney Harland Braun, representing Michael Kyung Lim, said Tuesday that the beatings with a metal bar were “a boyfriend-girlfriend fight that got completely out of control.”

Lim, 19, was formally charged Tuesday with six felony counts stemming from a complaint made by his 23-year-old ex-girlfriend. Lim pleaded not guilty to the charges in Van Nuys Municipal Court and was ordered held in lieu of $2-million bail. Braun said that with a bail figure that high, his client will remain in the County Jail.

Prosecutors alleged that Lim forcibly abducted the woman from the Wilshire District on Friday, brought her to the apartment the couple recently shared, and beat her for nearly three days.

Lim is charged with kidnap for the purpose of rape, torture, three counts of forcible rape and one count of spousal abuse for allegedly beating her last month while they still lived together.

Braun said the district attorney’s office “overfiled” the case, meaning that the alleged actions do not merit such serious charges.

The woman is in stable condition at an undisclosed hospital, police said.

Los Angeles Police Detective Robert Peloquin said she was beaten with a metal rod about 1 1/2 inches across.

Veteran officers, describing the wounds on the woman from her lower back to her feet, said the skin was torn from her body. Peloquin said she was “severely” beaten. Braun concurred, saying “the injuries are visibly disgusting.”

The criminal complaint alleges that Lim used a knife during the kidnaping and while he raped and tortured the woman.

“It was a paring knife,” according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Diamond. “He would occasionally put it to her throat. He also used it to cut off her hair.”

The woman lived with Lim for a brief time in his apartment on the 5500 block of Owensmouth Avenue, but she recently moved out because she was being abused, authorities said.

Braun said the couple met in Seoul, where they had a relationship. The woman moved to the United States from Korea on March 10 and was attending UCLA, Diamond said.

She recently moved out and Lim became jealous, he said. Lim had apparently arranged a meeting with the woman Thursday, but he abducted her and brought her to his apartment, authorities said.

“He was keeping her against her will,” Peloquin said. “She figured he would kill her” if she attempted to flee.

Lim was arrested Sunday night near a Vons supermarket at Ventura and Topanga Canyon boulevards when onlookers observed him beating the woman, according to police. The witnesses held Lim until authorities arrived, Peloquin said.

“He is, I think, what you would call a very docile person,” and he did not offer any resistance, the detective said.

Braun said the fact that Lim brought the woman to a store demonstrates that he did not believe he had done anything significantly wrong.

Judge Leland Harris scheduled an April 14 preliminary hearing.