Tag: crime

For every crazy child sex story in Korea, Japan always finds a way to top it:

An elderly Buddhist priest, who also headed a nursery school attached to his temple in Hiroshima, has been arrested for child prostitution, police said Friday.

Itsushi Ehara, 73, chief priest of Komyoji Temple in Aki-ku, Hiroshima, and director of an affiliated nursery school, is accused of violating the Anti-Child Prostitution and Pornography Law.

He admitted to the allegations during questioning. “I did it to alleviate my work stress,” he was quoted as telling investigators. He has also confessed to having been a member of a child prostitution club and paid several high school girls to have sex with him on more than 20 occasions.

In the specific case for which he was arrested, Ehara paid 80,000 yen to a girl, who was a 15-year-old, first-year high school student, to have sex with him at a hotel in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, in August 2004, Tokyo police said.

Work stress? WTF?

Hat Tip: Japundit

The Osan Shakedown Scandal leader’s light 2 year sentence will stand according a US Air Force general after doing all of this:

Davis pleaded guilty to running illicit police undercover operations, accepting gifts and cash from club owners, maintaining illicit sexual liaisons with bar girls, breaking the U.S. military’s curfew that the town patrol had the duty of enforcing, being drunk and disorderly, having sex with women who were not his wife, illegally possessing weapons, illegally keeping an off-base apartment, using racial and ethnic slurs, filing a leave request with false information as to his intended destination and maintaining an improper relationship with a subordinate airman.

He is lucky he didn’t get caught doing BAH fraud as well because he might have actually done some real time.

Let me get this right, this guy gets 18 months for BAH fraud and this guy gets 6 months for adultery, conduct unbecoming of an officer, and giving classified information to a KGB agent. WTF?

The Osan Shakedown scandal has taken another interesting turn:

Lawyers for the Air Force officer convicted in an Osan Air Base bar district shakedown scandal in September say final steps in the case have met with post-trial delay.

Arguing that the delay poses a legal hindrance to their client, 1st Lt. Jason D. Davis, they’ve asked the Air Force to reduce his prison sentence. Until his arrest in March, Davis headed the 51st Security Forces Squadron’s police team patrolling the bar district outside Osan Air Base.

Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Dillow, Pacific circuit military judge, sentenced Davis on Sept. 21 to dismissal from the Air Force and two years in prison. Davis now is in the Charleston Naval Brig in Charleston, S.C.

But final post-trial action is still pending because the official trial records” including a transcript of legal proceedings and trial exhibits” have yet to be given to Air Force Lt. Gen. Garry R. Trexler.

Now because of a possible court clerical error Davis may now have more time taken off his already amazingly lenient two year sentence he has already received. The continuing strangeness of this case just makes you wonder if the conspiracy theories are true.

This is definitely one of those only in Korea stories that actually happens more often than you would think. This guy just got caught, but what an outrageous story anyway:

A U.S. soldier admitted in Korean court Wednesday that he had cheated on his wife and promised to marry his girlfriend in return for a sexual relationship, both crimes under Korean law.

Sgt. Jin-hong Han, 35, who is assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division, didn’t know he was committing crimes when he began an affair with a Korean woman this fall, his lawyer, Jung Jin-sung said in Uijeongbu District Court on Wednesday morning.

Still, through his lawyer, Han admitted to both crimes, and the Uijeongbu prosecutor requested a sentence of 18 months in prison. Judge Kim Byung-ju will sentence Han on Jan. 11.

So this guy is looking at a year and half in Korean prison, so that once again proves that SOFA agreement between the US and Korea does in fact work yet I’m curious if the Korea Times will proclaim that this is the first time a US soldier is to stand trial in Korea every time a US soldier stands trial in a Korean court.

Anyhow, the jail sentence seems more likely than him ever meeting the monetary settlement being demanded:

During Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Kim asked Han if he wanted to deny anything his lawyer said. Han told the judge his lawyer was telling the truth.

Kim asked both sides if a settlement was possible in the case. According to Han’s lawyer, the wife has asked for $10 million.

$10 million dollars! Even if this guy was an O5 he couldn’t afford $10 million. He needs to just suck it up and go to jail. The Choenan jail isn’t that bad. Make sure you read the rest of the article because this guys act was so elaborate it was humorous.

In the latest strange incident to come out of 2ID, an NCO apparently is in hot water for calling off a marriage proposal with a Korean woman:

A U.S. soldier faces up to two years in Korean jail after promising to marry a South Korean woman, having sex with her, then reneging on the engagement, according to Korean court and prosecution officials.

(…)

Sgt. Han Jin-hong, a 35-year-old soldier with the 2nd Infantry Division, faces the prospect of that punishment, according to the Uijeongbu prosecutor’s office.

Han, who is married, also faces a charge of adultery in Korean court, according to Yang Seung-seok of the Uijeongbu prosecutor’s office.

U.S. Forces Korea officials confirmed that Han is assigned to 2nd ID, but no further information was available Tuesday afternoon from military officials.

According to the Korean prosecutor, Han met a 36-year-old Korean woman through an Internet chat room. He told the woman he was a lieutenant colonel and single, and he promised to marry her, Yang said. They had a sexual relationship from June to September, meeting in both Seoul and the Uijeongbu areas, Yang said.

I have a feeling that this case will probably just be handed over to USFK to deal with after the NCO makes some kind of payment to the woman to settle the matter which is a common practice in Korea. However, he will still be in hot water because adultery and impersonating an officer under the military justice system are serious offenses that will end his career and can put him in jail.

I’m curious if charges like this have ever been prosecuted against a Korean men or US soldiers before?

Of course you can go over to Nomad’s site for more opinions on this topic.

Becareful who you pick up on at a nightclub is the moral of this story:

A 29-year-old woman was sentenced to life imprisonment for injuring her husband, ex-husband and family members to receive insurance money, and fatally burning others.

The Seoul Central District Court yesterday handed down a life imprisonment sentence to a woman, identified as Uhm, who was arrested on 10 counts of charges including murder and arson.

A panel of judges said in a ruling statement that Uhm had shown no sign of regret for her cruel acts against her two husbands, family members and others.

Uhm stabbed her former husband, identified as Lee, in the eyes after feeding him sleeping pills in a quarrel over his low wages in May, 2001.

She also abused her ex-husband by pouring hot oil on Lee’s face and received insurance money for his injuries by disguising it as an accident.

She pocketed a total of 280 million won before her ex-husband died of complications.

It only gets better, check this out:

However, she continued to commit further miserable crimes against her current husband, identified as Lim, who she met in a nightclub right after her former husband’s death.

Lim also went blind after being stabbed with a sharp instrument and burned by Uhm, who pocketed about 38 million won in insurance money.

She also blinded her mother, identified as Kim, 52, and brother, 29, in July and November 2003, respectively, five months after her second husband died of burns.

Uhm also set fire to her sister’s house, for fear that her wrongdoing in pocketing money from the sale of her family’s apartment in January this year might be revealed.

Unbelievable. At least she got a life sentence.

One of the groups protesting the US base expansion in Pyeongtaek is now considering wether or not to protest the light sentence given for corruption of the former leader of the Osan Town Patrol:

South Korean activist groups will consider mounting a campaign of protest rallies if the U.S. Air Force secretary lets 1st Lt. Jason D. Davis resign and avoid the prison term he received at his court-martial last week, an activist leader said Friday.

And they said they will seek legal advice on whether to urge South Korean prosecutors to charge Davis with rape, a charge Air Force prosecutors brought but later dropped when the alleged victim declined to go forward.

I actually hope they push this issue to try him in Korean courts because for whatever reason Davis did get a pretty light sentence. I can only guess why the Korean authorities push to arrest the driver of the LMTV that in an obvious accident, killed a elderly Korean woman jaywalking in Dongducheon, but they don’t decide to go after Davis? Here is why the authorities say they can’t go after Davis:

Kim said he’ll ask South Korean lawyers whether the nation’s legal system gives South Korean prosecutors avenues to pursue a rape case against Davis. If so, said Kim, his organization will press for that prosecution.

Jung Yu-seok, chief of the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center, said Friday that South Korean authorities typically will not pursue a rape case if the alleged victim declines to testify or otherwise aid an investigation.

However, Jung added, a third party such as Kim’s organization could call on authorities to prosecute a case, but it is unlikely the prosecutors would do so unless first provided with the amount and type of evidence they would need to build a strong case.

Why would the Korean woman that was responsible for bringing attention to this case to begin with suddenly disappear and not testify? There are plenty of opinions on this matter but one thing for sure is that the Songtan business owners are eager to get back to business as usual:

.C. Lee, Songtan Chamber of Commerce president, said he was satisfied with Davis’ sentence, adding that now it’s key that the Air Force ensure such abuses are not repeated lest they inflame anti-U.S. feelings.

Nowadays many different kinds of groups have their own voices and then they can say, Oh, Yankees no good or, Americans no good, Lee said.

That kind of things we would like to prevent for future times.

I was reading the Stars and Stripes today and saw that the former Osan town patrol officer, 1LT Jason Davis was sentenced to 2 years in prison for his actions. The Stars and Stripes will have the article on their site tomorrow. Here is what 1LT Davis had to say in the article:

“I set a bad example for a lot of people. I’m here because I screwed up and I’m an idiot… My actions set back town patrol… Those guys deserved the recognition and they didn’t deserve the recognition that I bought them… I got no excuse.”

Everything that I have heard about 1LT Davis is that he is in fact an idiot and deserves what he got. However, I can’t help but think that I have seen soldiers get more time in military prison for charges not nearly as serious 1LT Davis’. I wasn’t at the trial and maybe the defense lawyers did a good job showing what a great guy 1LT Davis is to get so little jail time. I don’t know, however I was tipped off to this article by Mark who was commenting over at Nomads site.

The site Military Corruption.com brings up some good points worth sharing. First of all that the court martial was executed during Chusok to avoid Korean press coverage was slick. Secondly, the fact that the Korean girl that Davis had a romantic relationship with that exposed his activities to begin with didn’t testify I also found interesting. It seems like she would have been the key witness in this whole court martial. Thirdly, the site believes the fix may have been in for this trial to keep Davis quiet about how far up the chain the corruption went. After seeing this light sentence, who knows, you can be the judge on that one.

1LT Jason Davis who was formerly in charge of the Osan town patrol, has pleaded guilty to the numerous charges that were brought before him during his on going court martial:

Air Force 1st Lt. Jason D. Davis pleaded guilty to charges stemming from running illicit police undercover operations; accepting cash from club owners; maintaining illicit sexual liaisons with bar girls; violating the U.S. military’s curfew that his police team had the duty of enforcing; being drunk and disorderly; having sex with women who were not his wife; illegal weapons possession; illegally maintaining an off-base apartment; using racial and ethnic slurs; filing a leave request with false information as to his intended destination; and maintaining an improper relationship with a subordinate airman.

Right now Davis is looking at up to 21 years in prison for his actions. However, he is still waiting to see if the Secretary of the Air Force will approve his request to resign in lieu of a court martial. I highly doubt the request will be approved and since he pleaded guilty already some pre-trial agreement for sentencing has probably already been worked out, which means he will not serve the full 21 years.

The article did shed some light on some of the details of this case, like the weapons charge the Koreans are bringing against him:

In addition, Dooge testified, Davis fired plastic pellets at him from an airgun, locked him for about 30 minutes in the squadron’s women’s dressing room and refused to release him.

Here are some more details that are proving some of the earlier rumors to have some merit:

The court also heard testimony from Lee Hye-chin, who said she got to know Davis while she managed the off-base Zone Club.

Lee testified Davis would pay about $200 to bar fine various female club workers.

And on one occasion, according to Lee, Davis pressured her unsuccessfully to arrange a liaison, free of charge, with bar girls.

He want to have Korean or Russian girls, Lee testified. He want me to hook up for him.   He want me to get for him free.

When she declined, she said, Davis raised the possibility that he could use his position as head of the Town Patrol to have the club put off-limits.

Earlier in the proceedings, Davis told Dillow he’d maintained a sexual relationship with Kim Mun-hui, a woman with family ties to another local club.

Kim, Davis said, lavished numerous gifts on him, including a Chrysler Sebring car, a Rolex watch, Louis Vuitton slippers and cash.

We also took a vacation to Guam, Davis told Dillow.  I also accepted free drinks from bar owners.