OC Councilwoman Lied About Where She Lived During Election, DA Says

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — A former Orange County Councilwoman is scheduled to be arraigned Friday on charges of lying about where she lived while she ran for office.

Former Irvine City Councilwoman Tammy Kim, who was on council from 2020 through last year, reportedly updated her address to a home on Alaris Aisle, where she never lived, according to Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.

After Kim lost her bid for mayor in November, she filed in December for the special election for City Council in what would become District 5, prosecutors said. She listed her residence as the address on Alaris Aisle despite living in District 3, prosecutors alleged.

At the home she listed on Alaris Aisle lived someone she met through a Korean teaching class and his wife and their two children, prosecutors said. She was accused of using the address without the family knowing about it, prosecutors said.
Kim put down a $400 deposit on a room for rent in a home on Willowrun in District 5 on Jan. 10 and updated her driver's registration to the address the same day and filed new nomination papers for that address a week later, prosecutors alleged.

When a resident challenged her candidacy based on the residency allegations, she was knocked off the ballot by an Orange County Superior Court judge in February for the April special election, prosecutors said.

Councilwoman Betty Martinez Franco won the special election to represent District 5.

Kim is charged with three counts of perjury, three counts of filing a false document and one count each of a public official aiding illegal casting of votes, filing fraudulent nomination papers, not being entitled to vote in an election and voter registration fraud, all felonies, and a misdemeanor count of making false statements.