On July 9 (KST), the first public trial for former Griffin head coach Kim “cvMax” Dae-ho was held in the Goyang office of the Uijeongbu district court. CvMax fully denied the assault allegations and requested to question two witnesses, Choi and Son.

CvMax was accused of violent actions and behavior in his tenure as the head coach of Griffin. Last March, the Uijeongbu district court gave cvMax a summary order of a fine, and cvMax requested for an official trial to prove his innocence.

After presenting a petition to the justice department, the cvMax side asserted that they received the evidence but it wasn’t properly sorted — such as the stater and writer being different — and requested the prosecution to sort it out. The justice department accepted the assertion and ordered the prosecution to arrange the evidence.

Also, the cvMax side requested to question Choi and Son in court. As the prosecution agreed, the justice department requested to examine the witnesses as soon as possible. They first suggested to examine the witnesses on the July 16, but the cvMax side pointed out that many things have yet to be prepared, due to the many “situations or circumstances between the players and coaches, as well as the situation at the time of the incident”, as well as cvMax’s current job as a head coach of a pro gaming organization [DragonX — Ed.]. As such, cvMax’s side suggested the trial date should be postponed to after September 5, the end date of the 2020 LCK Season.

With this being an assault case, the justice department acknowledged that materials or memories could be lost over time, but allowed to postpone the questioning of Choi and Son to August. The time for questioning the witnesses was initially set to two hours. While the prosecution requested 10 minutes, the cvMax side insisted that there’s a lot to ask and requested an hour each for Choi and Son. Although the cvMax side requested to question the two witnesses individually, the department of justice stated that the witnesses may not attend if they were called individually and set two hours to question the two witnesses together.

After the first trial, cvMax’s lawyer, Lim Sang-hyeok, said: 

“When proving someone is guilty of assault, the intention is also important. We’ve gained additional material during the interrogations, so I’ll do my best to prove cvMax’s innocence.”