The family of a professional musician killed in a hit-and-run accident in Orange County filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Hyundai Motor America, alleging that company officials helped one of their colleagues leave the country before he could be questioned by police.
Wylie A. Aitken, an attorney representing the victim's family, said surveillance tapes from Los Angeles International Airport show that Hyundai employees helped Youn Bum Lee become a fugitive, contradicting statements they made to police investigating the crash.
"Justice has certainly been slow in this case," Aitken said, surrounded by Ryan Dallas Cook's parents and three sisters during a news conference at his Santa Ana law office. "But at least we're headed in the right direction."
Cook, 23, was killed in October 2005 when his motorcycle slammed into Lee's disabled car on the Costa Mesa Freeway. Lee, who had been drinking with colleagues shortly before the crash, left the scene and was on a plane to his native South Korea less than 24 hours later, according to police and court records.
Lee was charged last month in absentia with felony gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated; driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs with injury; and hit-and-run with injury or death.
Cook's family wants other Hyundai employees held criminally responsible for obstructing justice and being accessories after the fact.
In the meantime, family members say, they are seeking answers and justice through their lawsuit.
"It is shocking that a major corporation would create a culture that would inevitably lead to a drunken-driving fatality and then actively assist the perpetrator in his flight from justice," Aitken said. "What unfolded was possible criminal conduct not just by Mr. Lee, but up and down the corporate chain."
Susan Schroeder, spokesman for the district attorney's office, said charges against other employees were still possible, but that prosecutors did not have evidence showing anyone helped Lee get out of the country.
She said it took longer than usual for a warrant to be issued because, in seeking the maximum charges against Lee, investigators had to find evidence that he was under the influence at the time of the crash. Because Lee already was out of the country, that took a lot of legwork, she said.
"Unfortunately, it took a lot longer than we wanted it to," she said.
