By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Police are seeking an arrest warrant for Yoo Jang-ho, the former manager of the late
Jang Ja-yeon, for allegedly defaming the actress by leaking her suicide note to the press.
Yoo, one of key figures involved in the scandal of alleged sexual abuse surrounding Jang, turned himself in at Bundang Police Station at 3.40 p.m., Tuesday. It was the third time he has appeared before police following March 13 and 25.
"I will faithfully assist the police investigation", Yoo told reporters before entering the station. He declined to make any further comment.
Yoo kept the seven-page note in which Jang claimed her former agency head, Kim, forced her to provide sexual services and entertainment to media and corporate executives in return for more media exposure.
After parts of the note were made public by local media, he claimed that he burned the letter together with her family after her funeral. He later admitted to having kept copies of it and showing them to some reporters before meeting the family.
Jang's family sued Yoo for defamation of the late actress, while Kim did so for libeling him. During initial questioning, Yoo claimed that he burned the original document and did not leak it before she died. But a program director testified that another actress talked to him about Jang's note before she committed suicide, and police questioned Yoo over the contradictory testimony.
As to the claim that the burnt note was the original, Jang's family testified differently, claiming that a seal on the paper was easily removed when they rubbed it as if it had been put on the paper only minutes before they met.
Police will question three figures out of nine who were allegedly "entertained" by Jang, including an online news provider chief who allegedly sexually harassed her at a bar, having already questioned the other six. The nine people are all mentioned in the note.
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Yoo Jang-ho
