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	Defense Attorney Says Accuser in Sex Assault Is 'Saving Face' By Pierrette J. Shields Longmont Times-Call November 7, 2007 http://www.timescall.com/News_Story.asp?id=4492 BOULDER — A defense attorney for a former Longmont church worker accused of having a sexual relationship with a teenage charge told jurors Tuesday that the case against Peter Kim was about a church and a devout family's efforts to save face. Attorney Steven Louth said Kim did not have a physical relationship with a teenage girl under his supervision at the Central Presbyterian Church until the girl turned 18, and that the two were an item was common knowledge. "Don't let people manufacture evidence just to save the case," Louth said to jurors in anticipation of the prosecution's presentation during the second day of Kim's trial. Kim is charged with sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust and sexual assault on a child with a pattern of abuse. He has an earlier misdemeanor conviction for a sexual relationship with a teen-age girl from Aurora whom he met while in a ministry position at another church. "This is a case about saving face, saving face in the eyes of the church," Louth said of Kim's Longmont accuser. Police arrested Kim in October 2006 on suspicion of having a relationship with a 15-year-old girl he met through his work at Central Presbyterian Church in Longmont. The relationship, which police believe included sexual contact in cars parked in public lots in 2001 and 2002, concluded when the girl was 16, police said after his arrest. Kim worked as a youth ministries director at Central Presbyterian Church from June 2000 until March 2003. Prosecutor Tim Johnson described during opening statements an increasingly inappropriate relationship that Kim, now 40, had with the girl. He said teenage boys noticed the relationship and talked about it among themselves. However, police were notified of the allegations in 2005 only after the girl began attending a religious school in another state and told peers she had had a relationship with her then-married youth minister. Johnson said she was so distraught she developed bulimia and dropped six sizes in one summer. Kim's accuser took the witness stand Tuesday afternoon and is scheduled to conclude testimony this morning. His accuser from Aurora on Tuesday also testified about her relationship with Kim. Pierrette J. Shields can be reached at 303-684-5273 or pshields@times-call.com
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