LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A co-founder of the Pinkberry yogurt chain was sentenced today to seven years in prison for beating a transient with a tire iron on the Vermont Avenue offramp of the Hollywood (101) Freeway.
Young Lee, who is no longer associated with Pinkberry, was convicted in November of assault with a deadly weapon for the June 15, 2011, attack.
The transient, Donald Bolding, was attacked while panhandling on the offramp. He said during a preliminary hearing in 2012 that he had been asking commuters for money when he saw his assailant wielding a tire iron and demanding, ``Apologize. You showed disrespect.''
”It was a bad day. I was assaulted,'' he said.
Prosecutors said Lee and a companion got out of a car he was driving and confronted Bolding because Lee thought the transient had disrespected his wife by showing a sexually explicit tattoo.
``I'm befuddled. I'm like, `What are you talking about?' That's when he hits me with the tire iron,'' Bolding said, noting that he was hit twice in the head.
The transient said he was bleeding when he ran into oncoming traffic in an effort to avoid being attacked further. He testified that he was ordered to get on his hands and knees to apologize as he fell against a fence.
``I'm trying to cover my head because he's swinging the tire iron,''
Bolding testified, saying that he felt pain when he was struck in the arm.
The attack stopped after other people came to his aid and called 911, he said.
Lee co-founded Pinkberry with then-wife Shelly Hwang in 2005. He is no longer involved with the company, its partners or its more than 170 stores worldwide. Pinkberry formally ended his ties with him in May 2010, according to the company.