After the "drinking session assault" incident, a court ruled that former professional baseball player Lim Hye-dong (29), who is under investigation on suspicion of extorting Major Leaguer Kim Ha-seong (30, Tampa Bay Rays), must pay Kim 800 million won for violating the terms of a settlement.
The Civil Division 4 of the Seoul High Court (Presiding Judge Kim Woo-jin) on the 23rd dismissed the appeal by Lim Hye-dong's side in the second trial of Kim Ha-seong's liquidated damages suit against Lim and delivered the same ruling as the first trial. Earlier, the first trial in Aug. last year ordered Lim to pay Kim 800 million won.
The dispute between the two, who are senior and junior, began on Feb. 2021 when they got into a scuffle while drinking at a bar in Gangnam, Seoul.
In Dec. 2023, Lim Hye-dong appeared in the media and on YouTube and claimed Kim Ha-seong habitually assaulted him and paid him money as hush money.
Kim Ha-seong countered that this was false. Kim said Lim Hye-dong threatened him by pointing out Kim's military status at the time, and that Kim paid a 400 million won settlement on the condition that Lim would not contact him directly or indirectly or engage in any disadvantageous acts of any kind.
However, even after that, Lim Hye-dong repeatedly violated the settlement terms by contacting Kim Ha-seong, among other acts, prompting Kim to file a criminal complaint accusing Lim of extortion and to file a liquidated damages suit. When the first trial ruled for the plaintiff, Lim appealed, but the appellate court also did not rule in Lim's favor.
Lim Hye-dong joined the professional baseball Nexen (now Kiwoom) Heroes as a pitcher in 2015, but left the team the following year without making his first-team debut.