The father of a 26-year-old man accused of kidnapping and raping a 14-year-old Arizona girl said Monday that when he found the girl in his North Las Vegas home his son told him the girl was his girlfriend.
North Las Vegas police say the girl told detectives she'd been kept captive for a month, raped repeatedly and photographed in sex acts, threatened with a handgun and locked in a bedroom with frozen food to eat and a bucket for a toilet when Jimmy Carter Kim was gone.
She said she finally used a pair of scissors last Thursday to unlock the door and escape, according to a police report.
Dennis Kim told The Associated Press he thought the girl had been in the house only a few days and he doubted she was kept against her will, as police said she reported after going to a convenience store near the Kim home and calling 911.
The father said he confronted his son after hearing the sound of a radio and finding the girl in his son's room last Wednesday while his son was attending classes at a Las Vegas hair and cosmetology school.
The door wasn't locked when he found her, Dennis Kim said.
"If Jimmy locked her up, then how come she didn't cry for help?" he asked.
Dennis Kim said he thought the girl was at least 18, and perhaps 21. He said he told his son that she couldn't stay in his house.
"I told Jimmy many times: No woman, no man in my house without him," Dennis Kim said. "I said that's unacceptable."
"He said, `Sorry dad. That's my girlfriend."'
Dennis Kim identified himself as a 75-year-old former South Vietnamese Air Force lieutenant colonel who spent 13 years as a prisoner of war. He said he now works as a card dealer at a Las Vegas Strip casino.
Dennis Kim said he moved to the house on Dawn Valley Drive in 1993, when Jimmy was about 4 years old. They've lived alone in the house since Jimmy's mother died in 2013.
Police said the father hasn't been charged with a crime.
Jimmy Kim was arrested late Thursday while driving his father's van and booked Friday into the Las Vegas City Jail pending an initial court appearance on multiple felony kidnapping and child sexual assault with use of a weapon charges.
Police said the girl underwent rape tests before being reunited with her family in Bullhead City, Arizona, about 100 miles south of Las Vegas.
Bullhead City police spokeswoman Emily Fromelt said the girl had been reported as a runaway Nov. 3.
The girl's name wasn't disclosed by police. AP generally does not identify people who say they are victims of sex crimes.
North Las Vegas police said the girl reported she ran away from home before getting in a van with a man she didn't know who gave her marijuana to smoke and drove her to the home while she slept.
The girl said the man showed her a gun and held his hands around her throat several times. She said she was scared to try to escape.
Police Officer Steven Wiese said police serving a search warrant found a gun in Kim's room and evidence that other children may have been held and attacked.
Jimmy Kim was being held Monday at the Las Vegas City Jail pending an initial court appearance in North Las Vegas Justice Court. He could face life in prison if convicted.
His father said his son didn't have a lawyer.
