Court Interpreter Is Sentenced to Jail : Courts: Chong Woon Kim pleaded no contest to mistranslating a victim’s testimony in a domestic abuse case. He is sentenced to 10 days, fined $2,700.

A Korean language court interpreter was sentenced to 10 days in jail and 500 hours of community service Monday after pleading no contest to mistranslating a victim’s testimony in a domestic abuse case and trying to persuade her to testify falsely.

Municipal Court Commissioner Mitchell Block also barred the defendant, Chong Woon Kim, 57, from working as an interpreter for the courts or any law enforcement agency during the 36 months Kim is on probation. Under terms of the probation, Kim must pay $2,700 in fines and make a $1,000 contribution to a battered women’s program operation by the Center for Asian Pacific Studies.

The charges stemmed from the criminal case of Michael Lim, 20, of Woodland Hills, who was charged with the April kidnap, rape and torture of a former girlfriend. According to police and prosecutors, Lim abducted the woman from the Wilshire district on April 1 and brought her to his apartment, where he used a knife to cut off her hair, raped her and beat her with a metal bar for two days.

Lim was arrested when he took the woman to a supermarket to buy food so she could cook for him. Instead, she broke free.

According to Deputy City Atty. Kjehl Johansen, when the woman testified a month later at Lim’s preliminary hearing, Kim erroneously interpreted her words to place the defendant in a more favorable light.

A Korean-speaking court clerk who happened to be in the courtroom brought the bad translation to the attention of court officials. Other witnesses said they had seen Kim talking with the defendant’s family members, and that they had heard Kim tell the victim that she should testify that she had no memory of the alleged rape.

Lim pleaded guilty Friday to beating the woman, but the more serious charges were dismissed under a plea bargain agreement when the victim refused to return from Korea to testify.

Lim received two years in state prison.