Tag: DUI

It has been quiet on the GI crime front until this past weekend:

A United States Forces Korea (USFK) service member was arrested after causing an accident while driving under the influence with a stolen vehicle, police said Monday. 
  
According to the Goyang Police Precinct, a USFK soldier in their 20s deployed at a base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, stole a car in Mapo District, western Seoul, between Saturday night and early Sunday. 
  
The soldier drove the stolen car and hit two vehicles, including a truck, while they were waiting for the traffic light to change at 6:17 a.m. Sunday.

Police apprehended the soldier after the crash. 
  
Two people were injured in the accident, according to the police. 
  
The soldier was found to have stolen a parked car, in which the owner left their keys, after drinking alcohol in the Hongdae area.

Joong Ang Ilbo via a reader tip

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.

Bus driver charged with DUI https://t.co/eCe5k4IYdW

— KingSejong (@KingSejong) September 16, 2017

It seems the US Embassy is punishing Kang Jung-ho more than the Korean justice system is willing to do after his third DUI conviction:

Pittsburgh Pirates’ third baseman Kang Jung-ho has been denied a U.S. work visa following a recent DUI conviction, a source close to the matter told Yonhap News Agency Saturday, casting further doubt on his status for the 2017 major league season.

The source confirmed a report on Friday by the local network KBS that the U.S. Embassy in Seoul recently rejected Kang’s application for a visa to enter the country. The news came exactly three weeks after Kang received an eight-month sentence, which was suspended for two years, for leaving the scene of a DUI accident in Seoul last December. It was his third DUI arrest in South Korea and his driver’s license has been revoked.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but if he is not allowed to enter the US to play, Kang would assuredly be on the hook to lose millions of dollars from his Major League Baseball contract.

It is too bad the ROK authorities did not hold these two idiots up and force them to go through the ROK justice system for their shenanigans:

Police booked two drunk expat elementary school teachers who stole a car, according to Busan Saha Police Station on Monday.

Police said the teachers, 26 and 24, stole the car near a residential area at around 2:35 a.m. on Feb. 22 after the owner had forgotten to take out the keys.

Their escapade lasted five minutes because police stopped them at a checkpoint and booked them for drunk driving and driving without a license.

The teachers left the country soon after the incident, avoiding prosecution.

“The teachers had just finished their contract and were set to go home,” a police official said. “Because there were no injuries or deaths, we could not issue an arrest warrant to stop them leaving.”  [Korea Times]

You would think with the millions of dollars this guy has made as a major leaguer he could at least afford his own driver or at least a taxi:

Seoul police said Wednesday they’re seeking to indict Pittsburgh Pirates’ infielder Kang Jung-ho on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Police have handed the case over to prosecutors after investigating Kang for leaving the scene of a DUI accident in the nation’s capital on Dec. 2.

It was Kang’s third DUI arrest, which resulted in revocation of his license.

Kang fled the scene after crashing into a guard rail on his way to his hotel in southern Seoul. In the immediate aftermath, a friend of Kang’s in the passenger seat, only identified by the surname Yoo, reported to police as the driver of the vehicle. Police analyzed the black box inside the vehicle and determined that Kang had actually been behind the wheel.

Police are also seeking indictment of Kang’s friend. They said they couldn’t clearly establish that the two had intentionally misled police or that Kang had specifically asked Yoo to offer false testimony at first.

Kang, who has two major leaguer seasons under his belt, also faced sexual assault allegations that emerged in Chicago in July.

He was named to the South Korean national team for the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) scheduled for March, but will likely be dropped from the 28-man roster as early as Wednesday.  [Yonhap]

It looks like this guy may be too self destructive to remain a major league baseball player considering he only hit .255 last year with 21 home runs.

Like I have always said, with such a large population of servicemembers on Okinawa these incidents are going to keep happening regardless of how many restrictions are put on troops.  So the anti-US activists are going to continue to find reasons to bash the US military presence on Okinawa:

A U.S. airman was taken into custody after being pulled over for driving erratically around 4:30 a.m. Monday and then failing a Breathalyzer test, according to a police spokesman in Okinawa City.

Staff Sgt. Christopher Aaron Platte, 27, assigned to Kadena Air Base, was driving in the Chatan area near the Jagaru highway intersection when police spotted a car moving in a zigzag manner, the spokesman said.

Police conducted a Breathalyzer test after smelling alcohol on his breath. They said he denied drinking, then tested just under 0.04 percent blood alcohol content, above Japan’s legal limit of 0.03.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

A policeman has a driver breathe into Breathalyzer in a street in downtown Seoul during the day on June 14, 2016. The random crackdown on drunk drivers was conducted across the nation on that day as the number of victims of drunken driving has increasingly risen as of late. (Yonhap)