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Pinkberry Co-founder sentenced to 7 years for beating transient

March 15, 2014

FILE-This Jan. 30, 2012 file photo shows Lee Young, one of the former founders of the Pinkberry yogurt chain stands with his attorney Philip Kent Cohen, right, during his arraignment in the Los Angeles Criminal Courts Building in Los Angeles. Lee has been convicted, Friday, Nov. 8, 2013, of assault with a deadly weapon for striking a transient with a tire iron. Lee was sentenced Friday March 14, 2014, to seven years in prison for beating a homeless man with a tire iron in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Los Angeles Times, Al Seib, Pool,File)

LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A co-founder of the Pinkberry yogurt chain was sentenced today to seven years in prison for beating a transient with a tire iron on a Hollywood (101) Freeway off-ramp, with the judge calling it “a savage attack.”

Lee Young — a South Korea native and architect who is no longer associated with Pinkberry — was convicted Nov. 8 of assault with a deadly weapon along with an allegation of great bodily injury, for the June 15, 2011, attack on Donald Bolding.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Henry J. Hall imposed the maximum term on Lee, calling it “a savage attack on a defenseless person with a tire iron” who was protected from further injury by others who came to his aid and called 911.

“Those people are the heroes in this case as far as I’m concerned,” the judge said.

The judge said the attack was motivated by Lee “feeling disrespected by Mr. Bolding.”

Authorities said Lee confronted Bolding because he believed the transient had disrespected him by exposing a tattoo of two stick figures engaged in sexual activity.

The judge noted that Lee drove at least 100 yards down the road before pulling out the tire iron from the car and coming back with a companion to confront Bolding, who was panhandling on the Vermont Avenue off-ramp of the Hollywood Freeway. “It has nothing to do with self-defense,” Hall said.

Saying that the maximum sentence was “justified,” Deputy District Attorney Bobby Zoumberakis told the judge that Lee chased the victim through traffic in broad daylight. After the hearing, the prosecutor said Lee struck the victim with a tire iron and his companion — who has not been identified — punched and kicked the victim.

Defense attorney Philip Kent Cohen unsuccessfully asked the judge for a 90-day diagnostic examination in which Lee would have been evaluated by the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to determine if his 49-year-old client was suitable for probation.

Cohen said he believed that the case had been presented “as one of rich versus poor or one of ‘have’ versus ‘have not.’”

“I don’t think that could be farther from the truth,” Lee’s attorney said. Through an interpreter, Lee’s wife, Kim Jieun, begged the judge, “Do not separate our family. Keep our family together.”

A longtime friend of Lee’s described him as “thoughtful,” “serious”and a “valuable citizen,” and said a prison sentence for Lee would “only compound this tragedy.”

But the judge denied probation for Lee, citing the “horrendous nature of the attack” that left the victim with a broken arm and head injuries.

Bolding has filed a civil lawsuit against Lee.

Lee, a former kick-boxer, co-founded Pinkberry with then-wife Shelly Hwang in 2005. He is no longer involved with the company, its partners or its more than 170 stores worldwide.

Pinkberry formally ended his ties with him in May 2010, according to the company.

Lee will have to serve 85 percent of the prison sentence, the prosecutor said. The judge gave Lee credit for 150 days he has already served behind bars.