Category: crime & punishment

I have been stared at and my wife called names in Korea, but I knew getting in any altercation would only lead to me being the loser legally which is what this sergeant is about to find out:

A U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) sergeant in his 30s is under investigation for allegedly assaulting an 18-year-old male student in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, leaving the teenager with severe injuries.

According to the police, the sergeant, identified as A, is accused of punching the teenager, B, in the face near Pyeongtaek Station around 12:30 a.m. on Nov. 17. The attack caused significant injuries, and A has been charged with assault. The Pyeongtaek Police Station booked Sergeant A on charges of assault.

The victim’s father described the severity of the injuries during an interview with JTBC on Nov. 19. “The doctor said it was hard to believe this injury was caused by a person’s fist,” he said. “In all his years as a plastic surgeon, he had never seen bones damaged to this extent from a punch.”

He added that B would need to wear oral prosthetics and keep his jaw stabilized for at least eight weeks. “The injuries are so severe that he might suffer lifelong complications,” the father said.

The sergeant claimed that he was also assaulted by B, prompting police to charge the teenager with assault. However, CCTV footage from the scene does not show B physically reacting to the sergeant’s actions.

The altercation reportedly began when A confronted B, asking, “Why are you staring at me?” Witnesses mentioned that A had been arguing loudly with a Korean woman at the time, which attracted the attention of passersby.

The father added, “The Korean woman with the sergeant cursed at my son, asking why he was staring. My son responded that he wasn’t looking, but she kept pointing at him and approaching. As she continued swearing and pushing his chest, the sergeant punched my son when he was unprepared.”

Korea Times via a reader tip

You can red more at the link, but the sergeant be ready to pay a large compensation payment to the man he punched.

This incident does remind of an incident 20 years ago when a Korean female that worked at Gyeongbokgung Palace started screaming at me and falsely claiming I was laughing at her.

I was leading a group of Soldiers with one of my KATUSAs to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace. When we arrived we were excited to see that a changing of the palace guards was taking place. The guards wore armor and carried medieval weapons and marched around with flags.

I asked my KATUSA what the flags represented and he didn’t know. So he told me he would ask one of the people who worked at Gyeongbokgung if they knew. He walked over to a young lady in a traditional hanbok who obviously worked at the palace and asked her if she knew what the flags meant. She didn’t know and my KATUSA asked the other palace people if they knew. None of them knew.  My KATUSA walked back over and told me that none of them knew. I then checked a tourist brochure of Gyeongbokgung and I started laughing because all the definitions for all the flags was in the brochure the whole time while we were trying to find out what they meant.

Right after this the young female worker came over and started screaming at me in Korean and then in English she said that this is an anti-American area that we cannot go here and we should leave. I told her if she is anti-American that is her problem, not mine because I get along with Koreans just fine.  She then began screaming at my KATUSA in Korean saying that we were laughing at her because she didn’t know what the flags meant and wanted me to apologize. My KATUSA told her we were not laughing at her and she misunderstood what we were laughing at. We were laughing at having the brochure with us the whole time and not knowing what the flags meant. She kept going on in Korean screaming at us trying to get me to apologize.

By this time everyone was now staring at me getting screamed at by this Korean woman in hanbok. We just walked away and left, but fortunately no one punched me in the face like this sergeant did to the Korean man for supposedly staring at his wife. Like what happened to me, it was probably just a misunderstanding that the sergeant overreacted to.

I don’t think you have to be female to think something is wrong at this university:

Students at Seoul Women’s University rallied outside Nowon Police Station, Tuesday, protesting a defamation lawsuit filed by a professor accused of sexual misconduct. The demonstration was organized by the university’s feminist group, “Rhinoceros Horn.”

Around 500 participants, including students, alumni and professors, demanded that police dismiss the case against students who had posted statements criticizing the professor.

The protest stems from allegations that a German language and literature professor, identified as “A,” sexually harassed and assaulted students. After receiving a report in July 2022, the university conducted an investigation and imposed a three-month pay reduction as punishment.

Students learned of the incident over a year later in September 2023 and criticized the university’s handling of the case. They posted statements urging the separation of the perpetrator from campus and stronger protection for victims.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but if this professor sexually assaulted students he of course should have been fired, but why weren’t the police involved?

I am surprised that auditors did not catch this spending irregularity sooner on the government credit card:

A regional court on Thursday fined the wife of opposition leader Lee Jae-myung 1.5 million won ($1,070) for providing free meals during her husband’s run in the party primary to select the candidate for the 2022 presidential election.

Kim Hye-kyung, wife of Democratic Party of Korea Chair Lee, was indicted after providing meals worth 104,000 won to the wives of three former and current party lawmakers and three of her aides at a restaurant in Seoul in August 2021, shortly after Lee declared his bid for the party election.

A corporate card from the Gyeonggi Province government, of which Lee was governor at the time, was allegedly used for the payment.

The Suwon District Court found Kim guilty of having her secretary, surnamed Bae, pay for the meals with her “permission” and imposed the fine.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but probably not coincidentally the Korean opposition party decided today to vote for the third time for a special investigation into President Yoon’s wife. The vote symbolic because it will fail again due to a Presidential veto.

It looks like someone crazy got behind the wheel in Gangnam which fortunately no one was killed from:

The court will review an arrest warrant for a woman who rammed into seven cars and drove the wrong way along a boulevard near Gangnam Station in southern Seoul.

The review will be held in Seoul Central District Court at 3:30 p.m. Monday, after police requested the warrant the previous day.

The woman in her 20s was caught driving without a license after causing an accident on the street near Exit No. 12 of Gangnam Station at 1:39 p.m. on Saturday, according to local media.

She was reportedly pulled out of the vehicle by police even as she insisted on continuing to drive.

According to reports, the suspect had hit a woman and her stroller in Songpa-gu, southern Seoul about 30 minutes prior.

A total of 11 people, including a 4-year-old child in the aforementioned stroller, reportedly sustained light injuries in those accidents.

In a police investigation, the woman stated that she took a tranquilizer before driving. No signs of drunk driving were found and she tested negative in a simplified drug test, according to local media.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

More legal troubles for former President Moon’s daughter:

Police have secured CCTV footage of a studio apartment owned by former President Moon Jae-in’s daughter as part of an investigation into allegations that she illegally operated a house-sharing business without official declaration, officials said Monday.

The announcement came as police have been conducting a preliminary investigation into suspicions that Moon Da-hye illegally operated her studio apartment in Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo district and a house on the southern Jeju Island for house sharing without the necessary official declaration.

Under the Public Health Control Act, owners of studio apartments, known as “officetel,” must file a declaration with the district office and install the necessary equipment to operate their properties for house sharing.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

I think for Moon Da-hye, illegal parking and running a red light is probably the least of her legal troubles at this point:

A  vehicle reportedly driven by Moon Da-hye appears to enter an intersection in Yongsan District, central Seoul. Moon disregarded traffic signals while allegedly under the influence of alcohol on Saturday, according to camera footage. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Former President Moon Jae-in’s daughter, accused of drunk driving in Itaewon, Yongsan District, is also suspected of illegally parking her car for hours in the area, according to media reports on Monday.

Moon Da-hye, daughter of the former president, is accused of parking her Hyundai Casper — a small SUV — in front of a construction site in Itaewon, close to a busy street and several restaurants.  
  
According to the Yongsan District Office, the area is marked with a yellow dotted line, which prohibits drivers from parking in the space for more than five minutes. If she had been caught, she would have faced a fine of 40,000 won ($30). 
  
Moon is suspected of parking her car at 6:57 p.m. Friday before heading to a nearby restaurant. The car remained parked for about seven hours until she returned at around 2:15 a.m. on Saturday, allegedly inebriated. 
  
She is also accused of driving through a red light and making an improper left turn at an intersection. She then collided with a taxi while changing lanes in front of the Hamilton Hotel in Itaewon at 2:51 a.m., according to Yongsan police. 
  
Moon has been booked on charges of drunk driving in violation of the Road Traffic Act. Her blood alcohol level was reportedly 0.14 percent, significantly above the legal limit of 0.08 percent, which is the threshold for revoking a driver’s license.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

More legal problems for the Moon family:

Lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party criticized former President Moon Jae-in’s daughter Sunday after she was booked the previous night for driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol.

Rep. Kim Jang-kyom said in a Facebook post that Moon Da-hye should have listened to what her father said during his time in office that drunk driving amounts to an act of murder. 

“The one who lived together with her at Cheong Wa Dae said drunk driving amounts to murder,” Kim said, referring to the former presidential compound. “Even though her father said a lot of nonsense, she should listen to what she should listen to.” (……..)

According to police, Moon Da-hye’s car collided with a taxi while she was changing lanes in the Itaewon neighborhood of Seoul’s Yongsan district at 2:51 a.m., causing minor injuries to the taxi driver. Her blood alcohol concentration was reportedly measured at 0.14 percent, well above the 0.08 percent threshold for license revocation.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but Moon Da-hye is in more legal trouble than just this DUI. When Moon was elected President Moon Da-hye and her now ex-husband moved to Thailand for an executive position with T’Way Airlines. A position he had no experience or qualifications to attain. Coincidentally the owner of T’Way was later appointed to a high ranking government position. Prosecutors are investigating former President Moon for bribery to determine if his son-in-law was given the executive job in return for T’Way’s owner getting the government position.

Another day and yet another taxi cab related incident involving a 2ID Soldier:

A U.S. service member stationed in South Korea pleaded guilty to assaulting a taxi driver in Seoul and was fined roughly $2,250 last month. The unidentified service member admitted to entering the taxi in the Gangnam district of the capital city at 4:11 a.m. Feb. 17, according to an Aug. 14 verdict sheet from the Seoul Central District Court.

South Korean law enforcement agencies and courts typically do not identify defendants except in extreme cases, such as homicide. After getting into the back seat of the taxi, the 52-year-old driver told the service member that another passenger had already reserved the taxi, according to the court document.

The service member then exited the taxi and walked toward the driver, at which point the driver also left the taxi. The service member then pushed the driver’s chest, choked him and punched him in the face several times, according to the court record.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the Soldier also paid a settlement to the taxi driver which was smart. Paying the settlement usually leads to much lesser punishment.

Usually I do not have much sympathy with taxi drivers in Korea when they try and rip off Soldiers. But in this case a $50 fair for a ride from Seoul to Dongducheon is actually a pretty fair price:

Police plan to recommend assault charges against a U.S. soldier accused of throwing a 73-year-old taxi driver to the ground after complaining his fare was too high. On Sept. 1, a 21-year-old enlisted soldier from Camp Casey hailed a taxi with three other people in Seoul’s Map district, a Dongducheon police officer told Stars and Stripes by phone Friday.

South Korean officials customarily speak to the media on condition of anonymity and typically do not identify individuals suspected of crimes until they are formally charged. The taxi driver dropped the soldier’s companions off before heading to the final destination near Casey in Dongducheon, the officer said.

The soldier slept during the ride and was woken up by the driver upon arrival. After being asked for the $50 fare, the soldier complained it was too high and threw the driver to the ground by his neck, the officer said. The driver immediately reported the incident to police and said he suffered an orbital fracture and scratches to his face.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.