Crime & Safety
UPDATE: Pinkberry Co-Founder Arrested on Assault Warrant
Young Lee, who opened the first yogurt chain on Huntley Drive in West Hollywood, is taken into custody on suspicion of assaulting a homeless man with a deadly weapon.
The co-founder of Pinkberry, arrested at Los Angeles International Airport Monday as he arrived from Korea, allegedly attacked a homeless man along Hollywood (101) Freeway in June, police said Monday.
Young Lee, 47, was arrested about 2 p.m. Monday on a felony warrant for aggravated assault "related to an evening attack on a homeless beggar ... on June 15, 2011," according to Los Angeles police.
Lee and a companion got out of the car Lee was driving on Vermont Avenue near the Hollywood Freeway offramp and confronted the homeless man, because Lee thought the man had disrespected him by exposing a sexually explicit tattoo, according to the District Attorney's Office.
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Lee allegedly used a tire iron to beat the homeless man, who suffered a broken left forearm and several cuts to his head, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Witnesses described the Range Rover the men were in and its license plate, and that led to Lee, according to Los Angeles police Lt. Paul Vernon. "Witnesses picked out Lee from a photo display," he said, "and a judge issued a warrant for his arrest."
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Detectives took an iron from the rented vehicle as part of their investigation, Vernon said. Police did not identify Lee's alleged accomplice.
"When federal databases alerted detectives that Lee was inbound on a flight from his native Korea on January 16, detectives from (the LAPD's fugitive) task force and the FBI met Lee at the airport and arrested him," Vernon said.
He was released Tuesday on $60,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Feb. 6 in Los Angeles Superior Court on one felony count of assault with a deadly weapon.
Lee, who was convicted in 2001 of felony possession of a controlled substance and misdemeanor carrying a loaded firearm, faces up to seven years in state prison if convicted, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Lee, a boxer-turned-architect, co-founded Pinkberry with Shelly Hwang. Its first store opened in West Hollywood in 2005 and the low-calorie yogurt chain quickly grew. In December, Lee put up for sale a 3,000-square-foot home in Malibu.
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