Just a few months ago, former Irvine Deputy Mayor Tammy Kim was eager to return to the city council where she had served for four years.
Now, her immediate goal is to fight the allegations that could have kept her in prison for years.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday afternoon that King was charged with 10 felony charges, allegedly lying while serving in the city council and last fall while running for mayor.
King was formally charged with three counts of felony crimes, a declaration of declaration, three counts of felony crimes, a felony crime, and every official of a public official is supporting illegal voting, submitting false nomination documents, and understanding the registration of persons who do not meet the fraud of voting and voting registration. She was also charged with misdemeanors with false statements.
If all charges are convicted, she could spend up to 11 years and two months in state and county jails.
She is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning.
King briefly responded to the Times call, saying she was advised not to share too much attorney Caroline Hahn.
“We are signing a guilty plea,” King said.
Hahn added that she and her clients “planned to launch a strong defense” but did not answer further questions.
According to the criminal complaint, King used two fraudulent addresses when he ran for mayor in the November 2024 general election, and then used two fraudulent addresses in the city council special election held in early 2025. According to another lawsuit against Kim Jong Il, she owns an apartment in the city's third district and has lived since 2015 to remove her from the city council's vote.
King won the Irving City Council election in November 2020, with nearly 44,000 votes, a 14-man, three-person candidate match.
At that time, Irvine city elections used a general voting system, which meant candidates could live anywhere in the city.
This city Move to regional elections In the fall of 2024, Council members are required to reside in the area they represent. Only voters in these regions can vote for these candidates.
Kim ran in November 2024 and eventually ran for council member Larry Agran by nearly 5,000 votes and eventually lost the mayoral campaign.
The District Attorney’s Office believes that Kim Jong Il improperly used an address for the mayor and no longer claimed to live in a District 3 apartment she owned for ten years.
According to the criminal lawsuit, Kim Jong Il runs for mayor for changing her California driver’s license and voter registration to a home in the fifth district where she has never lived.
The complaint said that the house belonged to Kim Jong Il and met through a Korean teaching class. The complaint said Kim did not tell his family that she was using their address.
She was accused of proving the address with her own address in perjury.
King finally finished her campaign and voted in the fifth inning of the house in November.
Shortly after his defeat, King announced the candidate in December to fill the now vacant District 5 seat, and Aglan left after winning the mayoral election.
King eventually found a room in another house in another District 5 on January 10 and changed the registration of California drivers the same day, the complaint said. The complaint said she subsequently submitted a new nomination paperwork and submitted it through a new District 5 speech.
Later that month, former mayoral candidate Ron Scolesdang sued Kim, claiming she used the incorrect address fraudulently. According to the lawsuit, Scolesdang hired a private investigator to monitor Kim.
Gold finally dropped Exit the competition on February 7the same day, a high court judge deleted her name from the vote.
Betty Franco Martinez won the special election.
