A 48-year-old felon who was arrested 21 years ago for taking a television cameraman hostage is back in custody.
This time, Ulysses Kim —who in 1999 received $199,000 in a court settlement for his mistreatment while in Halawa Correctional Facility — is facing charges of first-degree car theft and first- and second-degree terroristic threatening.
Kim was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday in Circuit Court, but the proceedings were postponed until Monday because he is in Oahu Community Correctional Center’s medical facility.
Kim is being held at the Kalihi prison facility, unable to post $50,000 bail.
Police said Kim on Sept. 23 entered the car of a 58-year-old man in Waipahu and tried to steal it.
The man confronted the suspect, who then tried to flee, but the man held on to him until police arrived.
Kim was indicted by an Oahu grand jury Sept. 26.
In August 1992 Kim, armed with a sawed-off shotgun, was a parole violator being sought by police when he took KGMB-TV cameraman Peter O’Callaghan hostage.
Kim was being sought for aiming a shotgun at state deputies trying to serve a parole violation warrant for failing to pass drug tests.
He had been paroled earlier in 1992 after serving seven years for armed robbery.
The television cameraman was at Round Top Drive, reporting on the manhunt.
The standoff ended when a police officer shot Kim in the shoulder. Kim had shoved the cameraman to the ground.
Circuit Judge Bambi Weil sentenced Kim to prison for up to 20 years and said he "must be isolated from the community" because of his history of crime and violence.
The Hawaii Paroling Authority set Kim’s minimum prison term at 12 years before he was eligible for parole.
Kim has an extensive criminal record dating back to 1984, when he was first convicted for robbery. He has convictions for eight felones and two misdemeanors.
He was arrested again in 2007 for failing a drug test while on parole.
Last year Kim was arrested and convicted of misdemeanor car theft and served 30 days in jail.
In his 1995 lawsuit, Kim alleged that prison officials branded Kim a "special case" or problem prisoner after he was transferred to Halawa’s high-security section, where he was stripped, shackled and beaten with a riot baton. He was left shackled in a cold jail cell without bedding for two weeks in August 1995, Kim’s lawyers said.
The special-case policy, which allowed the use of shackles, has since been rescinded.
