Category: crime & punishment

Here is an interesting development in the U.S. military’s legal system:

An Army judge’s novel ruling to require a unanimous guilty verdict in an upcoming court-martial has drawn an array of characterizations by military law experts: totally wrong, partially right, rogue and brave among them.

But all the analysts interviewed for this story agreed on one thing. They said the ruling will most likely be overturned by an appellate court. 

Col. Charles Pritchard, a judge in Kaiserslautern, Germany, issued the 16-page ruling this month in response to a motion by the defense for Lt. Col. Andrew Dial, who is charged with three counts of sexual assault.

“This judge obviously put a great deal of effort into it and used his noggin,” said Eugene Fidell, a military law professor at New York University. “It takes some courage for a judge to do this, so my hat’s off to him.” 

Pritchard held that allowing a split guilty verdict would violate Dial’s constitutional rights under the Fifth Amendment guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law. 

In essence, he said the military must accord Dial the same right to a unanimous criminal jury guilty verdict as civilian defendants have been afforded in federal, and, since 2020, state courts.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but the ruling will likely be overturned according to the article because Congress sets the rules for the military’s justice system. It is unlikely they will change the split verdict system because it will lead to a likely decrease in sexual assault convictions.

Justice in this case happened quickly:

A woman accused in the September killing of a U.S. soldier’s 3-year-old son was convicted Friday by a South Korean court and sentenced to 18 years in prison. 

Jamaica Eblacas, 30, was found guilty of killing the boy, Noa Calhoun, the son of Army Pvt. James and Kourtney Calhoun, by a three-judge panel at the Pyeongtaek Branch of the Suwon District Court.

Neither James nor Kourtney Calhoun appeared in court on Friday.

Eblacas admitted during a November court appearance to killing the child. She was charged with murder in conjunction with child abuse, which carries a minimum of three years in prison and a maximum penalty of death under South Korean law. Prosecutors had recommended a 30-year sentence.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Let this be a lesson to not hand your kid over to be watched overnight by a juicy girl you hardly know:

 South Korean prosecutors recommended a 30-year prison sentence for the woman accused of killing a U.S. soldier’s 3-year-old boy left in her care in September.

Jamaica Eblacas, 30, displayed a “weak-willed repentance” for the death of Noa Calhoun, the son of Army Pvt. James and Kourtney Calhoun, prosecutor Kim Jin-kyu told a three-judge panel at Suwon District Court on Wednesday. Eblacas was back in the Pyeongtaek branch court Wednesday to continue a sentencing hearing begun earlier this month.

James Calhoun, a 2nd Infantry Division soldier stationed at Camp Humphreys, was introduced to Eblacas, a Filipina bartender, by a mutual acquaintance, he told Stars and Stripes on Dec. 7. Calhoun said he left Noa and his 7-year old brother in Eblacas’ care before hanging out with friends the night of Sept. 5. He said he expected to pick them up the following morning.

Police responded to a disturbance call in the morning and discovered the child’s bruised body in a home near Eblacas’ workplace.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This is just another example of why there is a crime wave in America, the city government spends more time going after Hyundai to add more security to their cars instead of catching the criminals and putting them in jail:

Milwaukee, Wisconsin is grappling with an unprecedented spate of car thefts. Since last year, stolen vehicle reports in the city have more than doubled, according to WISN 12 ABC, and nearly tripled since 2019. At a rate of nearly 30 thefts per day, Milwaukee is on track to surpass 10,000 this year. By sheer volume, it outpaces Chicago—a city with six times Milwaukee’s population. Worryingly, at least half of the suspected thieves are minors, and they have an unusual penchant for easy-to-steal Hyundais and Kias. This has led the city to seriously consider suing the automakers under its public nuisance laws.

Vehicles from these two Korean makes account for two-thirds of thefts in the city, police say. WISN reports Kia and Hyundai thefts have exploded to 2,500 percent year-over-year as of June. Citing “car experts,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel identifies Kias (to which Hyundais are often mechanically similar) as popular targets as they can reportedly be broken into via the rear window without activating the car’s alarm. From there, thieves can enter the vehicle and peel open the steering column with a screwdriver, allowing them to start the car without a key. So many cars have been stolen in this way that parts to repair the steering column are reportedly back-ordered.

The Drive

You can read more at the link, but according to the article the city has only prosecuted 2% of the criminals that stole these cars. Additionally the article said this is leading to vigilanteism with people shooting at the cars that are stolen from them. If the prosecutors would put these people in jail that would be a deterrent to the thefts, but not prosecuting them just gives more crooks the green light to steal cars.

Here is the latest on the Seongnam Development Scandal that has become a key issue in the Korean presidential race:

 An official at a public development company was found dead Tuesday in an apparent suicide amid a probe into a corruption-ridden development project, which political foes allege involves ruling party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung. 

Police in Seongnam, south of Seoul, said they discovered the body of Kim Moon-ki, head of the development division at Seongnam Development Corp., in an office of the company in the city at around 8:30 p.m.

Police were searching for Kim after his family reported him missing at 8:13 p.m. Authorities are investigating the exact cause of death.

Kim has been probed over his possible involvement in a massive corruption scandal surrounding a public-private apartment development project in the city. It was launched in 2015 when Lee, presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party, served as Seongnam mayor. 

Kim allegedly played a role in removing from the project contract a clause that would allow the city government to recoup excessive development profits from private investors.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

These two actually got off light in the Korean court system by not having to go to jail. However, they are probably being chaptered out of the Army with a possible bad conduct discharge:

Two American soldiers have been given suspended prison terms for smuggling cannabis into South Korea from the United States, a court said Monday.

One of the soldiers was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, suspended for 3 years, for hiding two cannabis cartridges in his baggage and flying to Incheon International Airport from Atlanta in April, the Suwon District Court said.

The other soldier received the same sentence for purchasing four cannabis cartridges and other cannabis products from an overseas website and attempting to smuggle them through an international flight in March.

The soldier was found to have again placed the same order for the drugs the following month after his first attempt was caught by customs authorities here.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but how much of a pothead are you that you get caught once and yet you try to order your marijuana again?

I just can’t wrap my mind around how anyone could do this to an 8-year old kid. Also how did no one at the elementary school not realize what was going on?:

 An appellate court on Wednesday upheld a lower court’s 30-year prison sentences for a couple in their 20s convicted of abusing and starving their 8-year-old daughter to death. 

The third-year elementary school child died at their home in Incheon, west of Seoul, in early March after suffering nearly three years of maltreatment and violence by her biological mother and stepfather, 28 and 27 years old, respectively. 

The case became known after the couple called for emergency help, saying their child was not breathing.

Rescuers dispatched to the scene found the child dead with many bruises on her body. Her weight was only 13 kilograms, nearly 10 kg less than those of her peers.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This has to be the largest rape case I have ever heard of:

Nearly 70 foreign students at a local university have been accused of alleged statutory rape of a teenage girl, according to police, Tuesday. 

Gangwon Provincial Police Agency said it is questioning 69 foreign students and graduates of a university in the province for allegedly engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with the middle school student on nearly a 100 occasions since last December.

The students were all of foreign nationalities, including those from Nepal and Bangladesh.

According to the police, they lured the victim into having sex through social media by offering snacks and asking her to hang out at their house. The law enforcement authorities viewed this as statutory rape as the students were aware of the fact that the victim was a minor. 

Under the Korean law, adults who engage in sexual activity with a child younger than 16, or the age of consent, may be charged with child sexual abuse or rape, if they were aware of the victim’s age at the time of the incident.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is another case of a USFK service member ruining his career by drunk driving. I have little sympathy for these drunk drivers in Korea with the abundant mass transit available:

 An American airman stationed in South Korea is under suspicion of driving under the influence after crashing into a parked car and attempting to flee the scene, local police said.

A 42-year-old technical sergeant assigned to Osan Air Base is under investigation from the Gangnam Police Station in Seoul, a senior police officer told Stars and Stripes by phone Tuesday. The officer declined to provide the service member’s name due to the country’s identity protection laws.

Police said the airman is suspected of hitting a parked car in a backstreet of a neighborhood shopping area frequented by foreigners and young adults at around 8:55 p.m. Friday. The owner of the parked car, an unnamed Korean man, drove after the service member while calling the police.

“I am chasing a hit-and-run foreigner,” the caller said, according to the senior police officer.

Authorities apprehended the airman roughly 10 minutes after the crash, the police officer said, adding that the service member was compliant but had “much alcohol on his breath.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This is one of these cases where the is guy is guilty of something for causing the death of his girlfriend while driving drunk, it is just a matter of determining what he is guilty of:

The prosecution has asked a local court to hand down a sentence for a 15-year jail term to a man who “intentionally” caused a car crash on Jeju Island which led to the death of his girlfriend in the passenger seat. 

Lawyers representing the man, however, claimed the prosecution lacks sufficient evidence for him to be found guilty of murder.

During a hearing at the Jeju District Court, Monday, the prosecution sought the jail term for the man, 34, alleging willful negligence on his part. 

On Sept. 10, 2019, the man was driving a convertible car with the victim, 28, as a passenger, during their trip to the resort island. The man was found to be driving under the influence with a blood alcohol level of 0.118 percent, far above the level that warrants cancellation of a driver’s license. The car hopped a curb and rammed into a farming vehicle parked on the side of the road. The woman, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was thrown from the car as the roof of the convertible was open.

She suffered severe head wounds and underwent surgery three times after the accident but remained unconscious until she died on Aug. 23, 2020.

The bereaved family and the prosecution claimed the man caused the accident deliberately because she had refused his demands to end the relationship multiple times. The couple were quarreling over the issue moments before the accident, with their conversation recorded on the victim’s phone.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.