Court tosses 4 police interviews of former Simpson College professor charged in murder, but allows use of one

Evidence from four of five interviews between a former Simpson College professor charged with killing her husband and West Des Moines police detectives cannot be admitted at trial, the Iowa Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.

It was a partial reversal of the May 4, 2021, ruling by Dallas County Judge Brad McCall that all five interviews between Gowun Park, 43, and the detectives had to be excluded. Wednesday's ruling allows statements from the first interview between Park and police officers at her West Des Moines condominium to be used in her trial.

Park's attorney, Gina Messamer, was not available for comment. Assistant Dallas County Attorney Jennine Ritchie did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Park is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping in the death of her husband Sung Woo Nam at the condominium on Feb. 15, 2020. West Des Moines police officers said Park kept Nam's hands and feet bound with zip ties for hours, and left him tied to a chair with a towel duct-taped over his head.

More: Judge tosses 5 police interviews with former Simpson College professor charged with murder

Nam's cause of death was listed as strangulation, according to court documents.

Park, who was released from jail when her bond was reduced because of the COVID-19 pandemic, pleaded not guilty in March 2020. She said her husband was abusive and gave her permission to tie him up when he became violent, according to court documents.

McCall ruled last year the interviews could not be used because:

• Detectives who arrived to investigate wouldn't allow Park to leave her condo and go to the hospital to check on her husband, even though they said she was not in custody and did not read her her Miranda rights. In addition, they restricted her movement within the condo to the point that she could not change out of her pajamas before they took her to the West Des Moines Police Department.

• In a second interview, detectives kept questioning Park, even though she asked to speak with a lawyer and it was clear she did not understand her rights when they were read to her.

• Though Park initiated a third conversation about eight hours later, detectives failed to check whether she had spoken to a lawyer before carrying on the interview.

• Detectives implied Park would be treated with leniency if she talked to them.

"Based upon the repeated nature of the implied promises and assurances the officers made to Park during their first station house interview with her, combined with the fact Park clearly articulated her desire to remain silent and to consult with counsel, the Court concludes the taint from the initial interview clearly carried over to all of the subsequent interviews conducted by the police officers," McCall wrote in his decision.

Iowa Court of Appeals Judge Anuradha Vaitheswaran, however, found that in the initial interview, Park was never handcuffed and that the officers had not gone to the home planning to arrest her after she called 911 seeking medical assistance for Nam. She was allowed to move freely around her living room, and while officers questioned her, they did so "sequentially and in a non-coercive fashion," Vaitheswaran wrote.

"Although they blocked the bedroom door, failed to tell Park she was free to leave the room or the condominium and denied her request to go to the hospital, we are not convinced that conduct transformed an otherwise non-custodial setting into a custodial setting" where Park was entitled to be read her rights before questioning, Vaitheswaran wrote.

She agreed in her ruling, however, that in subsequent interviews, officers deceived Park and misled her into giving damning statements, which led to her arrest.

She noted that when Park, at the police station, asked about Nam's condition, one detective told her, "I still don't know what's going on with your husband,'" though he knew Nam had died before questioning started.

Another detective told her that they needed to talk to her to give doctors information. Then she was read, and asked to waive, her Miranda rights. Park responded, "I'm not sure ..." according to court documents.

Asked during a court hearing why he waited about 90 minutes into the interview to tell Park her husband had died, a detective said, "Because we still weren't getting any information from her," according to Vaitheswaran's ruling.

The misrepresentations masked Park's right to be warned that anything she said could be used against her, Vaitheswaran ruled.

"A reasonable person in Park's shoes would surmise that the deception was designed to circumvent her right to remain silent," she wrote. "The detectives effectively turned Park's right to remain silent on its head. ... Their trickery employed immediately before and after the first detective read Park the Miranda warnings was the single psychological pressure point that the detectives knew might bear fruit."

Detectives also told her they were trying to help her if Nam had abused her.

"If he was physically beating you, tell us, tell us dear. Tell us what happened. We are here to help you," detectives said, according to Vaitheswaran's ruling. "Nobody deserves that. It's not your fault. You didn't deserve for him to treat you that way."

The second interview ended after Park said she wanted to speak with a lawyer.

McCall tossed three more interviews, including two in which Park came to the police station and initiated them herself.

After the fifth interview she was arrested and charged with Nam's murder.

Vaitheswaran wrote she affirmed McCall's decision to exclude those interviews because the "promises of leniency" tainted the second interview and all those that followed.

"Although Park came in voluntarily, the effect of the earlier promises had not dissipated," Vaitheswaran wrote. "If anything, the interview highlighted the continuing weight those promises carried."

Park's trial in Dallas County, scheduled for last October, was postponed, and no new trial date has been set.

Park came to the U.S. after finishing high school in South Korea, where she was born and raised. She got her master's degree in economics at New York University in 2010 and taught there as an adjunct professor from 2015 to 2017, when she received a doctoral degree in economics from the City University of New York.

Simpson hired her as an assistant professor the same year. Her Simpson contract was up at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year and she had a job in Kentucky lined up, . Park had no prior history with law enforcement.

Philip Joens covers breaking news for The Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-443-3347 at pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Court tosses 4 police interviews with former Iowa professor Gowun Park