Sunday October 21, 2018
By Brian Hews
They call it campaign silly season, where normally law-abiding candidates become law-breaking juveniles in a misguided effort to win their respective elections.
Such is the case with Buena Park District 1 City Council candidate Sunny Youngsun Park.
Park is a lawyer and principal partner of the Park and Asher Law Firm; she serves on the California Board of Accountancy, a State Regulator for approximately 100,000 licensed accountants, to protect consumers in California; she is also a board member on the Los Angeles Community College Foundation.
Yet Park was willing to potentially ruin her reputation just to win a City Council seat.
Hews Media Group-Los Cerritos Community News obtained a video last Friday showing Park and an accomplice stealing campaign signs. According to the Buena Park police department, Park was arrested and booked.
The consequences of stealing signs can include a large fine or even jail time. Stealing signs is a misdemeanor of petty theft and can carry a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine or imprisonment of up to six months.
The political ramifications can be much worse.
The cell phone video shows a man confronting Park and then walking around her car and catching a glimpse of several No on Sunny signs in the back seat of the car.
The BP Police, issued a statement Friday saying, “a candidate in the race for the Buena Park City Council seat in District 1 was arrested this morning for allegedly removing campaign signs. Officers responded to a residential area near Malvern Avenue and Dale Street at about 10:00AM, regarding a complaint that a man and woman were seen removing campaign signs that were placed in the area. Youngsun “Sunny” Park was contacted nearby, and officers obtained evidence of the alleged offense. She was taken into custody without incident, and later released on a citation for unlawfully removing campaign signs 490.2(a) CPC. The male was not located, but officers are working to identify him.”
HMG-LCCN emailed Park for comment, as of publication time, she had not responded.