Category: crime & punishment

This is a creative defense when this sailor probably just dozed off at the wheel after climbing up Mt. Fuji:

A U.S. naval officer, facing 4 ½ years in a Japanese prison, described in court Tuesday how he lost consciousness driving home from Mount Fuji and caused an accident that ultimately claimed the lives of two people.

Lt. Ridge Hanneman Alkonis, 33, crashed his car into pedestrians and parked vehicles at a soba restaurant parking lot in Fujinomiya on May 29, according to an indictment. The city is about two hours from Yokosuka Naval Base, where Alkonis is assigned to the destroyer USS Benfold as a weapons officer.

Alkonis, who is charged with negligent driving resulting in death, said he lost consciousness due to acute mountain sickness, a common set of symptoms that occur with a trip to high altitude.

Killed in the crash was a woman, 85, who died that day, and a man, 54, who died in a hospital on June 11. A second woman, 53, suffered bruises to her knees and elbows.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

What gets me is this guy just got three years probation and no jail time. Korea needs to give these people at least some jail time as a deterrent:

A 51-year-old gym teacher at a U.S. military base in South Korea was sentenced to three years of probation for attempting to smuggle morphine and oxycodone into the country, according to South Korean court filings earlier this month.

The unnamed American working at an unnamed U.S. military base in Pyeongtaek city, Gyeonggi Province, attempted to smuggle 120 oxycodone tablets and 315 morphine-based tablets by mail on Dec. 17, according to records at the Incheon District Court.

Pyeongtaek is home to two U.S. installations, Osan Air Base and Camp Humphreys, the latter of which is the largest U.S. military base overseas. Camp Humphreys is home to six K-12 schools while Osan Air Base has two.

The teacher requested the illicit substances from an unnamed source, who sent the tablets in a box containing chocolates, according to a sentencing document.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The problem with this bill is who defines what fake news is? The last ROK President was impeached in part with help from fake news which the people pushing this bill didn’t mind at the time:

Ruling Democratic Party (DP) members on a parliamentary committee Thursday approved a bill that would impose a five-fold increase in penalties on media outlets that make false or fraudulent news reports, ignoring protests from opposition lawmakers and media associations.  
   
The proposal – an amendment to the existing Press Arbitration Act – was passed at a plenary session of the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee by its DP lawmakers and after a boycott by protesting opposition lawmakers. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but it is arguable that the Korean left is trying to control the media prior to next year’s Presidential election.

It looks like another member of the ROK military is about to go down for sexual harassment:

A Navy court on Saturday issued an arrest warrant for a senior chief petty officer suspected of having sexually harassed a female subordinate who was found dead in an apparent suicide earlier this week.

The issuance of the arrest warrant for the officer, whose identity was withheld, came after a pre-trial detention hearing held at the Navy’s general military court in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometers south of Seoul. The suspect was immediately imprisoned at a detention facility of the Navy 2nd Fleet.

The victim, known only as a female chief petty officer, was found dead at her residence in Pyeongtaek on Thursday after reporting days earlier that she had suffered sexual harassment from the suspect in May.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this incident happened shortly before the ROK Air Force sexual harassment suicide case back in early June.

Lee got caught up in a political prosecution of former President Park Geun-hye, so everyone kind of knew he would eventually get released early and now it has happened:

The justice ministry said Monday it will release jailed Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong on parole later this week, a decision fiercely protested by civic groups and welcomed by Samsung Group and other business leaders.

The vice chairman of Samsung Electronics Co. has been serving time since he was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison by the Seoul High Court on Jan. 18 in a retrial of a bribery case involving former President Park Geun-hye. (……)

The ministry considered “the country’s economic situation and the conditions of the global economy amid the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic” as factors behind the decision, Park said in a briefing.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Just another example of the breakdown of civil society in major U.S. cities:

I wonder if this day care center had the calmest kids in Korea?:

Five people have been detained on suspicions of violating the law on narcotics for allegedly growing cannabis at a daycare center and several wetland sites along the west coast, the Korea Coast Guard said Monday. 

Fourteen others were booked without physical detention for purchasing marijuana from them and using it. 

The five people allegedly grew 13 cannabis plants in the hallway, back yard and on the rooftop of a daycare center run by the mother of one of them from March to July last year. The Coast Guard did not specify the location of the center.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is probably good for Yoon that this trial is done and out of the way before the campaign season really heats up. However, I expect the Korean left will try and link him to this case even if it is not true:

The mother-in-law of former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, a leading presidential hopeful, was sentenced to three years in prison Friday, kicking off a political firestorm ahead of the 2022 election.

The local district court in Uijeongbu, 23 kilometers north of Seoul, convicted the 74-year-old, surnamed Choi, of collaborating with three business partners to establish a medical foundation and open a long-term care hospital for senior citizens in February 2013, despite having no medical qualifications.

Choi was also convicted of fraud for accepting 2.29 billion won (US$2.02 million) in state benefits from the National Health Insurance Service until 2015 to run the hospital.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If you are a male soldier stationed in Daegu here is something to be aware of:

Male soldiers based at Baumholder in Germany were more at risk of being sexually assaulted than at any other Army post, according to a service-commissioned study that found two other posts in Germany with similar risks.

A Rand Corp. report released Friday examined sexual assault data at U.S. Army bases worldwide and found elevated risks of male sexual assault at Vilseck and Landstuhl in Germany.  (……..)

When adjusting for key factors such as age, marital status and education, LRMC rated as the riskiest, followed by Baumholder and Daegu, South Korea, the report said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but for sexual assaults on women Camp Humphreys and bases in Daegu ranked 7th and 8th across the Army which is really high as well.

I like how the parking attendant is supposedly hospitalized after being pushed to the ground. I an sure some settlement money will help him quickly heal which is what this USFK employee should be quickly putting together to resolve this incident:

South Korean authorities are investigating a U.S. Forces Korea civilian employee accused of assaulting a Seoul parking lot attendant over the weekend.

Police were called out to a disturbance at the Hongdae Street lot on Saturday evening and witnessed the altercation, a Mapo District Police Station official told Stars and Stripes by phone on Thursday. He spoke on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing investigation. 

Video footage obtained by South Korea’s MBC News shows a man pushing the uniformed parking attendant while tripping his leg. The attendant was injured and hospitalized, according to police.

The USFK employee, whom South Korean police are not identifying due to privacy laws, was not intoxicated when officers arrived, the police official said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I also found it interesting that an activist group was protesting at the U.S. embassy over this. Talk about not having a life.