SEATTLE -- A love triangle involving the owner of one of Seattle's best known restaurants led to an unusual day in court Wednesday. It's a case prosecutors say was cunning, calculated and violent.
A judge set bail at a half million dollars for Scott Koh, the owner of Korean restaurant Shilla. Koh is accused of rounding up a gang of his workers and hatching a plot to extract revenge against his estranged wife's lover.
Prosecutors say Chris McMonagle was kidnapped, and tortured - tased over and over, then beaten. After spending days in Harborview Medical Center, McMonagle was in court Wednesday, facing Koh, the alleged mastermind of the plan. Koh pleaded not guilty to kidnapping and assault charges.
McMonagle wasn't the only one watching. Koh's lawyer pointed out a gallery full of supporters, a show of support the defense hoped would get Koh's bail lowered.
"We know he is a good person," said Koh's attorney.
But prosecutors painted a different story.
"A person can be intelligent kind and generous to those he cares about, but also controlling manipulative and violent to those who cross him and that is what Scott Koh was," said a prosecuting attorney. "He saw his estranged wife slipping away into the arms of another man and he enlisted a team to savagely beat the victim, torture him and eliminate him."
The team police say included three of Koh's workers at the Denny Way restaurant. Now they and Koh face kidnapping and assault charges. The other defendants also pleaded not guilty in the case.
The defense team's efforts to lower Koh's bail failed. The judge didn't budge; Koh is being held on half a million dollars bail.
