Propositioning of teen leads to man’s arrest

Owner of Sushiville allegedly traveled to McMinnville to meet young girl

By Mara Stine

The Gresham Outlook, Sep 13, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Insik ‘Brian’ Choe

contributed photo / The Outlook

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A Gresham business owner allegedly propositioned a 13-year-old girl online and drove to McMinnville to have sex with her.

Yamhill County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Insik “Brian” Choe, 55, of Beaverton on charges of first-degree sexual abuse Wednesday, Sept. 6, said Lt. Ken Summers, a sheriff’s office spokesman. Yamhill County Jail officials released Choe after he posted $1,000 of his $10,000 bail.

Choe, who reportedly co-owns Sushiville in Gresham, left the restaurant and drove nearly 55 miles to meet someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl at a McDonald’s on Highway 99W, Summers said.

But the girl he met in an online chat room on Saturday, Sept. 2, was really an undercover volunteer from Perverted Justice, a national organization dedicated to uncovering online sexual predators.

Perverted Justice volunteers use fake Internet profiles to pose online as underage teens. They are trained to not initiate sexual discussions, but to wait for adults to contact them. And that contact sometimes becomes sexual in nature, Summers said.

After Choe allegedly arranged on Wednesday, Sept. 6, to meet the girl for sex, the volunteer contacted sheriff’s deputies who reviewed the online chat to confirm the volunteer’s allegations.

“Choe came to McMinnville after multiple contacts with what he thought was a child,” said Sheriff Jack Crabtree. “Our investigators reviewed the chats and determined that an intent for sexual contact was clearly evident in the discussions.”

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