A man who was kidnapped and beaten on Sunday, allegedly by his girlfriend’s husband, said the cuckolded man had previously given the new couple his blessings.
By most accounts, Scott Koh is a generous, courteous and kind man who has even gone so far as to post bail for his employees, according to Chris McMonagle.
That’s why what Koh is alleged to have done on Sunday is so unbelievable, said McMonagle, the victim of a kidnapping and assault that he and Seattle police say was orchestrated by Koh.
Granted, McMonagle, 40, is dating Koh’s estranged wife.
McMonagle said Koh handled that news with dignity at first. He gave the new couple his blessings, said that he was going to bow out gracefully, packed some belongings and moved out of the Queen Anne apartment the couple had shared.
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Koh, 48, the owner of Shilla restaurant on Denny Way, even gave McMonagle a $100 bill as a show of goodwill, McMonagle said.
But McMonagle now believes Koh was seething inside.
It all culminated at 11 a.m. Sunday when McMonagle and Koh’s estranged wife were sleeping in at the apartment.
Koh had reportedly convinced a number of his wife’s relatives that she was using drugs and asked them, along with a professional counselor, to participate in an intervention, McMonagle said.
“He had managed to convince them that she had a heroin habit, which could not be further from the truth and is just crazy,” McMonagle said. “They thought it was a drug intervention when really it was a boyfriend intervention.”
When the group of about 10 arrived unannounced at the apartment, the 37-year-old woman locked herself, along with McMonagle, in the bedroom and called the Seattle Police Department’s nonemergency number.
Police arrived, and McMonagle and the woman came out of the bedroom. Officers told McMonagle to leave because Koh’s name was still on the lease and wanted him out.
As he walked out of the apartment with the keys to his girlfriend’s black Lexus he passed a man he’d never seen before who had Zip Ties on his belt. McMonagle thought it strange, but it had been a strange morning.
As he was driving out of the parking garage his girlfriend’s Lexus was struck by another car, prosecutors say in charging documents filed on Wednesday in King County Superior Court.
Prosecutors say that while McMonagle was distracted, Koh and two other men attacked him. Those three plus the driver of the car that hit him beat McMonagle, tased him dozens of times and hit him with the butt of a shotgun before stuffing him into the Lexus and driving off, the charging papers say.
While in the Lexus, the four men managed to bind him with Zip Ties, McMonagle said.
As the group drove on Denny Way, McMonagle said he made several desperate attempts to get the attention of other people. At each red light, he flung his 6-foot-5 and 250-pound body across Koh’s lap to expose his head in the window and call for help.
“People were looking me in the eye, watching me get pistol-whipped in the back seat of the car, and they just went back to their driving,” he said. “Not one person called 911.”
According to the police report, two 911 calls were made reporting the incident — both were from people in or around the apartment complex.
At one point, the attackers emptied McMonagle’s backpack and jammed it over his head, he said.
McMonagle said he and his four abductors drove around for a while before he was taken to what he believes was another parking garage. Again, he was beaten and one man asked Koh if he could shoot McMonagle, according to McMonagle and the charging documents.
McMonagle, who court records show has served prison time for convictions ranging from petty theft to robbery, said he has been in life-threatening fights but has never been as scared as he was on Sunday.
“I really thought they were going to kill me and dump my body,” he said.
Finally, police obtained Koh’s cellphone number and, suspecting his involvement, called him.
“He got real nervous and rattled,” McMonagle said. “He lit a cigarette and offered me one. Then he said, ‘This got too big.’ ”
McMonagle said Koh put him back in the car and drove to Fremont, where Koh surrendered to police
“It looked like every cop in Seattle was there,” he said.
McMonagle spent the next four days at Harborview Medical Center, where he was treated for a broken nose, fractured ribs and a collapsed lung, among other injuries.
His girlfriend was by his side nearly every minute, he said.
Koh and the three men identified in charging documents as Koh’s employees — Lazaro Gerardo Ortega-Barajas, Kristoffer Lee Marthini and Jamie Park McCorkle — were each charged with first-degree kidnapping, second-degree assault and first-degree robbery. Bail for Koh and Marthini was set at $500,000 each, and $150,000 each for Ortega-Barajas and McCorkle.
McMonagle said he doesn’t have any hard feelings toward Koh’s three accomplices.
“I don’t think they actually had much to do with it. They were misled with a lie,” he said.
But he’s not forgiving of Koh and wants to see him punished. “He gave us his blessing and then he tried to take my life.”