Pacific edition, Thursday, June 21, 2007

UIJEONGBU, South Korea — Lawyers and witnesses argued in Uijeongbu court Tuesday over conflicting accounts of a soldier’s March 26 taxi driver assault.

An exasperated prosecutor repeatedly raised his voice at the elderly victim, Yoon Boon-ha, while questioning how Pvt. Michael Curtis Adams, 21, beat him and then stole his taxi.

Yoon wrote in a statement to police that Adams punched him, but didn’t write that Adams struck him with a 16-ounce bottle.

Yoon told the three-judge panel Tuesday that he felt the bottle strike his right eye but never saw the bottle.

Yoon said he was agitated while making his police statement.

“At the time, I didn’t have my wits about me,” Yoon said, according to a court-appointed English translator.

Adams, of the 55th Military Police Company, has maintained since his June 5 hearing that he punched the driver and stole the taxi, but said he did not beat him with a bottle.

Adams showed up in court Tuesday in a beige South Korean prison uniform and a new, spiky mohawk haircut.

The new look appeared to surprise court officials, who last saw him June 5 wearing a regulation military haircut and an Army combat uniform.

Yoon also said that Adams did not choke him, and that he crawled out of the taxi under his own power to get away.

However, a college student bicycling by the black taxi at around midnight testified Tuesday that he saw Adams drag Yoon down while grasping him in a chokehold.

Adams said he did not know there was a witness at the scene and claimed the witness’s statement was not true.

During earlier testimony, Adams said he hailed the taxi at 11 p.m. near Samgakji subway station, near Yongsan Garrison in Seoul. He asked the driver to take him to Camp Red Cloud in Uijeongbu, saying he figured he would find a way back to his barracks at Camp Casey in Dongducheon.

While drinking a bottle of a vodka mix, Adams realized he didn’t have enough money to cover the 20-mile trip.

Yoon testified Tuesday that he tried to explain to Adams that he could pay later. Instead, Adams assaulted Yoon and then stole the taxi.

Adams soon realized he was lost and fled, he testified. He turned himself in to military authorities the next day.

Adams now faces up to seven years in prison. A financial settlement could mitigate the sentence, but Yoon is asking for 50,000,000 won, or about $54,000. Such settlements are common in South Korean court, but Yoon’s asking price is far higher than most similar settlements.

Adams’ next court date is July 6.