An attorney for a man accused of lighting Teslas on fire in Las Vegas is blaming language interpretation problems for apparently contradictory testimony from the suspect’s mother about her level of contact with her son, an issue that contributed to a federal judge’s decision to detain him.

Authorities allege Paul Hyon Kim, 36, was the person who vandalized at least five Teslas in the early hours of March 18 at a Tesla service center at 6260 Badura Ave., near South Jones Boulevard and the 215 Beltway. He is accused of shooting a gun inside vehicles and lighting them on fire with Molotov cocktails.

Kim’s case has implications for national politics given Elon Musk’s role as CEO of Tesla and leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, which has sought to shrink the federal government, and a recent spate of Tesla vandalizations.

In a Friday motion, defense attorney Adam Solinger pushed for U.S. Magistrate Judge Elayna Youchah’s detention order last week to be reviewed by a higher-level district judge and revoked so Kim can be released before trial.

“The Magistrate’s finding was based upon translation errors and the erroneous decision not to take testimony from Mr. Kim’s father, who was also present, or ask that his brother and sister come to court and take testimony from them,” Solinger wrote. “Had that been done, the Magistrate(‘)s finding would likely have been that Mr. Kim has a strong family connection despite the geographic distance between him and his family’s residence.”

Kim’s mother, Seung Joo Kim, who was proposed as a custodian if her son was released, traveled to last Monday’s hearing from Seattle and testified through a Korean interpreter that she saw Kim every day on a screen while he played video games with his brother. She had previously told pretrial services that she rarely talked to her son.

Youchah seemed troubled by that apparent discrepancy and wrote in her order that Kim’s ties to his family were “too attenuated to find this connection is a sufficient deterrent to ameliorate danger.”

Solinger said the interpreter provided for Kim’s mother “was not adequately translating for her,” but instead “appeared to be paraphrasing.”

At the hearing, Solinger suggested there was also confusion because Kim’s mother had spoken to pretrial services in English when she had limited English proficiency.

If she had received a better interpreter, Youchah would have learned that Kim does not call his mother frequently, but that they talk while he video chats with his brother, Kim’s lawyer argued.

The interpreter, Jinha Jung, could not be reached for comment. The Nevada U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment. Solinger said Kim’s mother would not have a comment.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Operskalski previously argued Kim’s mother had changed her story and was not trustworthy.

Bruce Adelson, a former Department of Justice attorney who enforced federal civil rights requirements for language interpretation, said inadequate interpretation is rarely raised as an issue and has to be significant for a court to overturn a decision.

It can be challenging to provide literal, word-for-word interpretation, he said, and paraphrasing a comment would not necessarily mean an interpreter’s translation was subpar.

Kim was arrested March 26 and faces federal and local charges, including arson, possession of an unregistered firearm and possessing, manufacturing or disposing of an explosive or fire device.

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