Celine's Husband Faces More Legal Woes

By Louise A. Barile

Friday March 28, 2003 01:35 AM EST

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Yahoo Buzz
• E-mail

It's been exactly a year since allegations surfaced from a woman who claimed Celine Dion's manager-husband, Rene Angelil, sexually assaulted her in a Las Vegas hotel room three years ago and offered her $2 million to keep quiet.

Although the investigating Las Vegas police declined to press criminal charges against Angelil earlier this year citing a lack of evidence, the woman's new attorney now says he plans to turn a dress stained with DNA evidence of an assault over to police next week, reports the Associated Press.

The case is anything but clear, muddied from the start by accusations back and forth. In fact, the woman, Yun Kyeong Kwon Sung, 47, and her husband, Ae Hoe Kwon, 50, were themselves indicted on charges of extortion and bribery after they allegedly demanded an additional $13.5 million to drop the recent civil complaint against Angelil.

The couple was arrested after their conversation with Angelil's lawyer and an undercover police detective posing as Angelil's representative was taped during a sting operation last January, reports AP.

Angelil's lawyers have always proclaimed their client's innocence and defended his decision to pay the original $2 million settlement.

"Many times celebrities will pay what is known as hush money to keep quiet," Angelil's lawyer Martin Singer told a grand jury on March 4, according to AP. "Whether or not the claims are true -- you pay money to keep the claims quiet."