Category: crime & punishment

This is typical behavior from the usually mentally handicapped or drug addicted homeless people in Seattle:

A Seattle man was charged Monday with a hate crime after police say he attacked two Korean tourists on Christmas because of their race, nationality and ancestry.

According to court documents, 30-year-old Aaron Charles Rowe followed a group of Korean men visiting Seattle and attacked two of them near the AMC movie theatre at Pacific Place.

The group told police they hid inside the theater until it closed, but were followed by Rowe when they walked out.

The Korean tourists told police Rowe punched one of them in the back and hit another one in the face. In court documents, they say he yelled, “I hate Chinese,” and “F***ing Chinese” and “Coward” at the group.

The four men were visiting Seattle from California, Missouri and Korea.

Rowe was arrested later that night after stealing two umbrellas from the valet station at the Hyatt Regency and trying to smash a hotel window.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, this was Rowe’s third booking into the King County Jail this month.

“Visitors to Seattle deserve to feel safe in the heart of our city,” said a spokesperson for the Downtown Seattle Association. “With a string of recent arrests, it’s clear this individual isn’t getting the help he needs. We need to fix a system that is failing both the community and the repeat offender.”

Rowe has had 16 warrants for his arrest since 2016. He was convicted of felony assault in 2004 and 2016. He has nine gross misdemeanor convictions.

When arrested, Rowe told police his address was at a nearby homeless shelter.

KOMO News

Anyone want to make any bets that this guy will be back out on the streets again?

I do find it interesting that the Korean courts put former President Park Geun-hye n pre-trial confinement for fear of evidence destruction and fleeing the country, but they did not put Cho Kuk in jail. Is this a sign that the fix is in to protect him?:

Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk managed to avoid pretrial detention on Friday, as a local court turned down the prosecution’s request for an arrest warrant to investigate his alleged abuse of power during his service at the Blue House. 

Judge Kwon Deok-jin of the Seoul Eastern District Court announced his decision to reject the prosecutors’ request to take Cho into custody at 1 a.m. on Friday, saying Cho is not a flight risk and there is no possibility of evidence destruction, although the prosecution has proven the criminal charges against the former justice minister. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

It appears the fix may be in to get Cho Kuk’s wife as little punishment as possible for her crimes:

Prosecutors are challenging the impartiality of a judge presiding over the trial of Chung Kyung-sim, the wife of scandal-plagued former Justice Minister Cho Kuk. 

The JoongAng Ilbo learned Friday that the Seoul Central District Court has failed to accurately record prosecutors’ arguments made during a session of Chung’s trial on Dec. 10. At the time, prosecutors complained to Judge Song In-gwon for 10 minutes after he rejected their request to revise indictments against Chung. The court’s official record of the session, however, said, “The prosecution said it has no special opinion.” 

Prosecutors from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office asked Judge Song to change some specifics in their indictment of Chung. The prosecutors said they had been in a hurry to file the indictment against Chung. 

Chung, a professor at Dongyang University, was first indicted on Sept. 6 for allegedly creating a Dongyang University presidential award for her daughter – without the knowledge of the president of the university – and secretly placing the president’s seal on the award.

Prosecutors normally indict a suspect after they’ve been questioned, but Chung was indicted that night without any questioning because the statute of limitations for her charge was about to expire the very next day, Sept. 7.

In the following weeks, prosecutors managed to detain Chung and question her multiple times, which led to their determination last month to indict her on 14 more charges, including obstruction of business, fraud, embezzlement and instigation of tampering, hiding and destroying evidence.

After the follow-up questioning, the prosecution attempted to revise their Sept. 6 indictment of Chung for forgery. They wanted to change the date, location and method of the alleged forgery, but the court refused the request. “If the prosecution was to change just one aspect, I would allow it,” Judge Song said on Dec. 10. “But they are trying to change five key factors.” 

Prosecutors strongly protested the decision. “The court’s decision is unfair,” a prosecutor said. “We will review the rejection closely and ask again.”

As the prosecution continued its protest, Judge Song raised his voice in anger. “If you continue, I can remove you from the courtroom,” he said. “My judgment may be wrong. You can appeal after the sentencing.” 

The court, however, recorded in the official minutes of the session that the prosecution presented “no special opinion” on the matter.

“This is a serious issue,” a prosecutor-turned-lawyer told the JoongAng Ilbo on Friday. “Civic groups could file a petition to accuse the court of tampering with an official document [the minutes].”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

There is yet another corruption probe into the Blue House where a key witness was found dead:

An investigator at the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office who was previously dispatched to work for the Blue House was found dead on Sunday afternoon in an apparent suicide, just hours before he was scheduled to appear for questioning in a widening election-meddling probe.

The investigator, who was only identified as a 48-year-old man, was found dead on Sunday at around 3 p.m. in an office owned by his acquaintance in Seocho District, southern Seoul, according to police.  

Police found in the office what appeared to be a handwritten note, in which the investigator apologized to his family. Police said the memo did not contain anything about the probe he was involved in.  

Just three hours later, he was supposed to appear at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office as a witness to offer his testimony about his time in the Blue House senior secretary for civil affairs office. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but this investigator was going to testify about Blue House officials that had improperly tampered with the election of the city of Ulsan’s mayor. This alleged tampering allowed a left-wing candidate with close ties to President Moon win the election.

There is yet another corruption scandal involving the Blue House:

Prosecutors raided the Blue House Wednesday for documents related to allegations that the presidential office covered up a probe into the former Busan vice mayor and accusations that he took bribes. 

The Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office announced that it dispatched its prosecutors and investigators to the Blue House at 11:30 a.m. to accept related documents from Blue House officials without physically entering the main Blue House premises. 

It was the third time that prosecutors carried out a raid of the Moon Jae-in Blue House, all conducted in a manner that respected the security sensitivity of the area.

Yoo Jae-soo, Busan’s former vice mayor for economic affairs, is under investigation for allegedly taking nearly 50 million won ($42,400) in bribes. On Nov. 27, a court in Seoul issued a pretrial detention warrant for Yoo, and he’s now detained at the Seoul Eastern Detention Center in Songpa District, southern Seoul.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but the corruption at the Blue House links backed to ousted Justice Minister Cho Kuk and claims the government was spying on private citizens.

A good trend in South Korea is that people convicted of committing rape are at least going to jail now, even popular K-Pop stars:

Two disgraced South Korean singers — Jung Joon-young and Choi Jong-hoon — were given heavy prison sentences Friday after being convicted on rape and other charges.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Jung, a disgraced singer and TV personality, and Choi, a former member of boy band FT Island, to six and five years, respectively, in prison on charges of sexually assaulting women in 2016.

Jung and Choi, both 30 years old, were indicted on charges of raping women during drinking parties in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province, in January 2016 and in Daegu in March of the same year, together with other members of a mobile chat room.

Jung was given a heavier prison term, as he was additionally indicted on charges of secretly filming himself having sex with women and sharing the footage with friends on mobile chats.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Should blackmailing someone with sex videos be considered sexual assault? In Korea that may become the law:

The suicide of a popular South Korean singer has prompted calls in the country to overhaul laws on sexual assault and to more harshly punish revenge porn.

Koo Hara, 28, was found dead at her home in Seoul on Sunday. Her last message on Instagram showed her staring into a camera lens from beneath blankets on her bed with a message of “good night.” Police say a note was found at the scene in which she expressed hopelessness.

Many in South Korea were already aware of her past that included assault by a former boyfriend who she alleged was threatening to release a sex video of her. The two most popular hashtags on social media in South Korea this week called for punishment of the ex-boyfriend and for the definition of sexual assault to be revamped.

A petition filed with the president’s office demanding changes to laws had one quarter of a million signatures. Lawmakers said it is time to push forward measures stalled in Parliament that make it easier to impose harsh penalties on those who engage in revenge porn or clandestinely take sexually charged videos.

Bloomberg

You can read more at the link.

This guy is the definition of a Jody:

Scott, an Apache helicopter pilot, met the woman — the wife of a deployed sergeant first class assigned to the 19th Special Forces Group — in May 2015 at a spin class she was teaching at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The two soon began dating, according to court documents.

Unaware for some weeks that she was married, Scott introduced the woman as his girlfriend to co-workers. By October, the command had learned the woman was married and Scott’s supervisor, a colonel, ordered an end to the romance. Scott did not comply.

After the sergeant’s wife ended the relationship in January, Scott began harassing her by text message, alternately threatening her, demanding sex and professing his love, court documents say.

In one message, Scott sent the woman a link to a news story about a Special Forces soldier who had been killed in Afghanistan, and asked if her husband was dead.

When she responded that his unit was surrounded and that members of the unit had been killed, Scott “suggested that she might get lucky if (her husband) were to be killed in action,” according to the Army Court of Criminal Appeals case summary. He also told her, “No man wants a whore for a wife.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

Is anyone really surprised that audience vote rigging was going on with some of these singing shows?:

Police said Tuesday that they booked 10 people, including producers of a K-pop audition TV show and officials of CJ ENM, in connection with allegations they had rigged the results of audience voting. 

Police are looking into whether high-ranking officials from music labels were involved, whether there was any vote rigging on former seasons of the Mnet audition shows and whether bribes were given in return for allegedly manipulating the votes.

“I think an investigation into alleged vote rigging should be conducted thoroughly to achieve a fair society,” Lee Yong-pyo, the commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, said at a press briefing.

The 10 people who were booked include Kim Yong-bum and Ahn Joon-young, respectively chief producer and director of Mnet’s “Produce X 101.” The “Produce 101” series is a recurring fan-voting K-pop competition through which popular bands such as Wanna One have debuted.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

I still can’t believe how the ROK media continues to obscure her face when everyone related to the Park Geun-hye impeachment had their face splashed all over the news media:

 State prosecutors filed additional charges against the arrested wife of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk on Monday as they apparently prepare to summon Cho for questioning in connection with alleged irregularities by his family.

Chung Kyung-sim, a professor, was indicted on 14 counts related to her daughter’s college admission and her dubious investment in a private equity fund (PEF).

Her detention, originally set to expire at midnight, will be extended with the indictment.

Chung was arrested last month on 11 charges relating to alleged irregularities surrounding academic favors and a financial investment.

The prosecution added three charges, including fraud and violation of the real-name financial transaction law.

She is already standing trial on alleged forgery of a presidential citation for her daughter.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.