

Pinkberry co-founder Young Lee pleaded not guilty Monday to felony assault for allegedly beating a homeless man with a tire iron over a sexually explicit tattoo.

Lee, who remains free on $60,000 bail, was granted a one-time dispensation by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Upinder Kalra allowing him to travel to South Korea.

In return, he consented to automatic extradition should he fail to return to court March 5, the date of his next scheduled hearing.

Lee has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon in connection with a June 2011 assault on a transient on a 101 Freeway off-ramp.

Lee was stopped at a light when he was approached by a man seeking money, Los Angeles police said. Words were exchanged, and Lee and another man in the car chased the homeless man and assaulted him with a tire iron.

The source said detectives believe Lee was angered when the transient revealed the tattoo and that prompted him to get out of his car, chase him down and beat the man.

Philip Kent Cohen, the attorney for Lee, told the Los Angeles Times earlier this month the transient "made explicit threats as if he had a weapon, which he may have had."



According to the Los Angeles Police Department, Lee was driving a rented Range Rover on the 101 Freeway in June 2011, with an acquaintance in the passenger seat. When he got off the freeway at Vermont Avenue in East Hollywood, he spotted a transient who had been asking passing drivers for money.