[UPDATED with Conviction:] Joseph Hyungmin Son, Austin Powers' “Random Task,” Guilty of Torture


UPDATE, AUG. 26, 8:38 A.M.: Actor Joseph Hyungmin Son, who played Dr. Evil's henchman Random
Task in the 1997 comedy Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, has been convicted of torture.

The 40-year-old faces up to 15 years to life
in state prison at his Sept. 9 sentencing in Santa Ana for the case involving the gang rape of a
woman who was out walking her dog in Huntington Beach on Christmas Eve 1990.
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Our nominee for last week's Ugly Police Mugshot of the Week had been charged in 2008 with several other felonies, including rape, but the Orange County District Attorney's office determined Son could not be convicted on those counts due to the statute of limitations.

ORIGINAL POST, AUG. 19, 9:53 A.M.: Our periodical Ugly Police Mugshot of the Week has featured clear winners–if by winners you mean losers–as well as clear winners and a few also-rans. We've also crowned souls who were not that physically unattractive, but their crimes put them over the top with our judges–if by judges you mean me.

But today presents the most-challenging Ugly Police Mugshot of the Week, as it's impossible for me to pick which of the following two fellows is the ugliest.

It's up to you to decide, fair citizens:


Joseph Hyungmin Son, 39, played “Random
Task” in the 1997 comedy Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery. His character's name was a spoof of the baddie “Odd Job” in the James Bond film Goldfinger. The random task that landed Son in Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno's courtroom this week is the kidnapping and sexual assault of a 20-year-old Huntington Beach woman who was snatched off the street by two men while walking her dog on Christmas Eve 1990.

The actor, who fought in professional mixed-martial arts bouts as Joe Son, seems to have been into a lot of random criminal acts. He has a felony vandalism conviction and prison time on his rap sheet. When Son violated his parole in 2008, his DNA was extracted, and it matched samples in the state database from the 1990 abduction and rape in Surf City, where the victim was pistol-whipped, repeatedly raped, threatened with a loaded gun and ultimately tossed–bruised, battered and naked except for a jacket wrapped around her head–out of car in Compton.

Her captors told her they were releasing her as a Christmas present.

Son faces life in prison if convicted of the charges against him: conspiracy
to commit murder and torture. Santiago Gaitan, 40, pleaded guilty in January to being the other man in the car. He was sentenced to 17 years and
four months in state prison.


Son's alleged crimes are more serious than what John Rodriguez, 20, got popped for Tuesday: indecent exposure. But just look at that mugshot: the dastardly goatee, the all-ogling large glasses and the . . . hey, nice to mole you. Mole, mole, mole, mole. (Sorry: wrong Austin Powers movie.)

An 18-year-old La Quinta High School student was walking near
McFadden Avenue and Ward Street in Westminster around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning when a
black 2009 Toyota Camry pulled up to the curb next to her, according to Westminster Police Cpl. Van Woodson, the department spokesman. The driver asked the young woman a question, prompting her to get closer to the car, in which he could see the man was exposing himself, said Woodson, who added the dude said something vulgar and drove off.

However, the young lady got more than a skin show: she got the Camry's license number, typing it into her cell phone. That's what led cops to Santa Ana resident Rodriguez, who the woman later positively identified as the man who flashed her.

At least he did not shag her!

Woodson says his agency is now trying to determine if Rodriguez can be linked to other indecent exposure cases in Westminster and Fountain Valley. Besides the mugshot above, there is this description to go off of: 6-foot-1 and 350 pounds of pure lovin'. If someone who looks like that has TMI'd you: 1) My condolences; B) Contact Westminster
Police detectives at 714.548.3207.

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