Evidence showed that the former chief of Jeju District Prosecutors’ Office may have lied about his alleged lewd behavior in public, as police said Tuesday he was the only person present at the scene of the crime.

Kim Soo-chang, the 52-year-old former senior prosecutor, was taken into custody last week for allegedly masturbating at a local restaurant. He claimed that the police had mistaken him for the actual culprit, who was supposedly sitting beside him at the scene but left just before officers came.

The CCTV footage, however, showed only one man present at the time of the crime. The video analysis is inconclusive on the identity of the person yet, but it is likely to have been Kim as there was no one else around the area.

Police declined to describe what the man in the CCTV footage was doing, but said the footage showed “what was clearly lewd behavior.” They urged the National Forensic Service, which is currently studying the footage to identify the man, to notify them of the results as soon as possible.

Last Wednesday, local police detained the former chief prosecutor of Jeju after receiving reports that a middle-aged man was masturbating at a restaurant. Kim was apprehended after a witness confirmed that his clothes and hairstyle matched that of the offender.

The senior prosecutor spent the night in confinement and was released the next morning.

Kim, who initially attempted to hide his identity by giving his brother’s name to police, claimed that he had been merely taking a walk at the time and did not commit the cited crime. On Sunday, he pointed out that the witness reportedly said the perpetrator was drunk and he barely consumes alcohol.

But officers refuted the reports and said the witness did not tell them the man appeared to be drunk. They also denied earlier reports that Kim had been in possession of sex equipment at the time of the arrest, but said he did have a bottle of baby lotion in his pocket.

The Justice Ministry said Monday that it accepted Kim’s offer to resign, saying it was “inappropriate for him to continue serving (as a chief prosecutor) while an investigation concerning him is underway.”

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)