Actor Lee Jae-ryong, 62, who faces charges of fleeing the scene of a drunk-driving accident, leaves Gangnam Police Station in Seoul after questioning in March. [Yonhap]
Actor Lee Jae-ryong, 62, who faces charges of fleeing the scene of a drunk-driving accident, leaves Gangnam Police Station in Seoul after questioning in March. [Yonhap]

Actor Lee Jae-ryong, indicted on charges of fleeing the scene of a traffic accident in Seoul's Gangnam district, is set to stand trial for the first time in October.

According to legal sources Friday, Judge Lee Jae-wook of the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Division 10 has scheduled the first hearing in Lee's case for Oct. 16 at 10:20 a.m. Unlike pretrial preparation hearings, a formal trial date requires the defendant's presence, and Lee is expected to appear in court that day.

Lee is accused of crashing his car into a median barrier near Cheongdam Station on Seoul Metro Line 7 in Gangnam-gu at around 11 p.m. on March 6 and fleeing the scene. He attended another drinking gathering shortly after the accident and was arrested by police about three hours later at an acquaintance's home.

Gangnam Police Station forwarded the case to prosecutors without seeking detention, applying charges under the Road Traffic Act — including failure to render aid after an accident, drunk driving and obstruction of a breathalyzer test — citing indications that Lee had attended a second drinking session after the crash, a tactic known locally as "drink diluting," intended to obscure blood alcohol levels.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's Criminal Division 7, led by Chief Prosecutor Jo Yun-cheol, indicted Lee on Aug. 5 on charges of failure to render aid after an accident and obstruction of a breathalyzer test. Prosecutors dropped the drunk-driving charge.

Prosecutors determined they could not clearly establish through the Widmark formula that Lee's blood alcohol concentration at the time of driving had reached 0.03 percent or above. The Widmark formula estimates blood alcohol concentration over time based on a person's physical characteristics, the timing of alcohol consumption and the amount consumed.


bell@heraldcorp.com