Former Irvine City Councilwoman Tammy Kim is facing 11 criminal charges from OC District Attorney Todd Spitzer, alleging Kim lied about where she was living during two separate elections and illegally cast her vote in the 2024 election from an address she never lived at.
In a Thursday interview, Kim said she would be entering a plea of not guilty at her arraignment tomorrow but declined to comment further under advice from her lawyer.
In a news release Thursday afternoon, prosecutors allege Kim perjured herself repeatedly by claiming she lived at multiple addresses in the city’s fifth district while she was actually living elsewhere in the city.
Under Irvine’s city council districts, it’s illegal for a candidate to run for office in a district they don’t live in. City voters are also only able to cast their ballot for a city council member in the district they reside in.
Kim is currently charged with three felony counts of perjury and three felony counts of filing false documents. She’s also charged with additional felonies, including aiding the illegal casting of votes, filing false nomination papers and voter registration fraud.
If convicted on all 11 counts, she could face over a decade in prison.
It’s not the first time questions around Kim’s residency have surfaced.
She dropped out of a special election earlier this year after she was sued by an Irvine resident who alleged Kim didn’t live in the district, saying she was tired of the city’s politics.
[Read: Former Irvine Councilwoman Abandons Campaign Amid Residency Questions]
“I’m agreeing to be off the ballot,” Kim said in a February interview. “I’m recentering my life, I’m tired of the constant harassment. It’ll be never ending.”
Prosecutors claim the first instance of alleged perjury came in the 2024 election, when she ran for mayor and lost. She claimed to be living in the city’s fifth district, which prosecutors say was not true.
“Kim is accused of changing both her California driver’s license and voter registration to the address of a home on Alaris Aisle, an address at which she had never lived,” reads a statement from Spitzer’s office. “She is accused of certifying this information under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California.”
Prosecutors allege Kim voted from Alaris Aisle address.
“She was a seated councilmember at the time and did not live in District 5 despite casting her vote in that District’s election,” reads the statement from Spitzer’s office. “Voters must live in the district in which elections they vote.”
Prosecutors claim that the Alaris Aisle address was occupied by a family at the time, and that she did not live there.
“The occupants of the Alaris address included a man she met through a Korean teaching class, his wife, and their two children,” prosecutors wrote. “Kim is accused of using the Alaris address on official documents without the family’s knowledge.”
Prosecutors also allege that Kim put a deposit of $400 on a different address in the fifth district, and then officially filed her nomination paperwork to run for city council from that address a week later.
Noah Biesiada is a Voice of OC reporter and corps member with Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at nbiesiada@voiceofoc.org.