Category: crime & punishment

This is a horrible tragedy over in Daegu:

A fire apparently caused by arson killed seven people and injured 50 others at an office building in the southeastern city of Daegu on Thursday, officials said.

Police pinpointed a 53-year-old man as the suspected arsonist responsible for the blaze based on CCTV footage. The man was killed at the scene, they said.

The fire started at around 10:55 a.m. on the second floor of the five-story building housing lawyers’ offices in Daegu, about 300 kilometers south of Seoul, according to firefighting officials. 

The fire killed seven people, including an attorney and five assistants from a law office on the second floor. 

Fifty others were hurt, suffering burns and inhaling smoke, and 30 of them were sent to nearby hospitals. Many others were evacuated to safety.

Police suspect the alleged arsonist set fire to a lawyer’s office handling a case involving him.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Any bets if the argument with the cab driver had to do with not running the meter and charging an exorbitant fee?:

Two Secret Service employees — an agent and an armed physical security specialist — in South Korea to prepare for President Joe Biden’s impending arrival are being sent home after an alleged alcohol-fueled incident that ended with a report being filed with local police, according to two sources briefed on the situation.

The personnel were assigned to help prepare for the presidential visit when they went out for dinner and then stopped at several bars, the sources told ABC News. As the evening progressed, the two Secret Service staffers became apparently intoxicated and the agent wound up in a heated argument with a cab driver, according to the sources.

ABC News

You can read more at the link.

This isn’t the first and likely not the last large corruption case to happen at Camp Humphreys:

More than two dozen South Koreans, including several employed by the U.S. military, were indicted on charges of employment fraud following a two-year investigation, South Korean police said Monday.

Twenty-six people, including 10 current and former U.S. Forces Korea employees, pocketed roughly $138,700 in exchange for preferential treatment of Korean job candidates between April 2018 and December 2020, the Daegu Metropolitan Police statement said. 

USFK is the military command in charge of roughly 28,500 troops on the Korean Peninsula.

Two defendants, including an official with the USFK Labor Service Corps, were arrested according to police. The labor official and others are suspected of receiving between $23,800 and $31,700 from five job seekers in exchange for favorable reviews during their interviews.

The defendants allegedly created fake certifications required for employment. Police confiscated around $126,800 from the defendants prior to their arrest.

The investigation was launched after the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division obtained information about the bribes and relayed it to South Korean authorities. An Eighth Army spokesman declined to comment on whether the suspects were privy to sensitive military information.

“These arrests involved persons and activities that may be related to the Korean Service Corps and are currently the subject of a criminal investigation,” Army Lt. Col. Neil Penttila said in a statement Tuesday. “We will withhold further comment until the completion of that investigation.”

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

This nut job who attacked the Democratic Party chief for supporting US-ROK military exercises has apparently committed suicide:

 A Youtuber who was arrested for attacking former ruling Democratic Party (DP) Chairman Song Young-gil with a hammer was found dead in an apparent suicide in a Seoul prison Sunday, according to correctional authorities. 

The 70-year-old, only identified by his last name Pyo, was found dead at around 3 a.m. by a fellow inmate at the Seoul Nambu Detention Center, prison officials said. He was sent to a hospital but was pronounced dead. 

Prosecutors are considering an autopsy to figure out the exact cause of death, as Pyo reportedly left behind a note, officials noted. 

Pyo struck Song’s head several times with a hammer while he was campaigning in Seoul’s Sinchon area on March 7, three days before the presidential election, causing him injuries requiring stitches. 

The man was known to have opposed South Korea-U.S. military exercises on his Youtube channel and targeted Song after he said last year the joint drills should be conducted as planned.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

At least this guy is no longer in classroom and behind bars where he belongs:

An elementary school teacher has been sentenced to seven years in prison for inducing more than 100 teenage girls to film sexually exploitative materials and sexually assaulting a 13-year-old, a court said Monday. 

The man, in his 30s, who had taught at an elementary school in Seoul since 2012, was indicted on charges of possessing 1,910 items of sexually abusive content filmed by about 120 teenagers he met through social media between 2015 and 2021. 

He was also found to have sexually assaulted then a 13-year-old girl in 2020 at a motel.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

What is wrong with people? This is a horrible way to slowly kill a child:

Police on Friday transferred to the prosecution a woman suspected of leaving her six-year-old child to starve to death.

The woman, whose identity was withheld, was arrested for allegedly leaving her disabled son alone at home in the central city of Asan for three weeks, the South Chungcheong police agency said.

The child was found dead last Friday by police officers who rushed to the home after receiving a report from the mother’s acquaintance. 

The deceased child is said to have been smaller than other kids of his age.

The National Forensic Service recognized the possibility of the child having died of hunger, according to the agency.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This woman seemed to have gotten away with the crime until someone dropped a tip to police about her:

A woman who allegedly killed her husband for insurance compensation in 2019 was arrested in the north of Seoul with her accomplice, the police said Saturday.

The police arrested the 31-year-old murder suspect, Lee Eun-hae, and the 30-year-old accomplice, Cho Hyun-soo, at a residential building in Goyang, just northwest of Seoul, at around noon, according to the Incheon Metropolitan Police.

As they arrived at a police station in Goyang, Lee and Cho declined to comment to reporters. 

Investigators were able to locate the two as Lee’s father told police their address, saying his daughter is willing to turn herself in. The two did not resist during the process, the police added.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but she is alleged to have tried to poison her husband earlier in 2019 as well before successfully drowning him.

I feel horrible for this little girl who must have been terrified being dropped off and abandoned by her mom in the middle of country road:

A 35-year-old woman admitted to abandoning her 4-year-old daughter on a deserted road on a freezing cold night during a court hearing on her child abuse case Monday.

A 25-year-old man, known as the woman’s acquaintance, also pleaded guilty to taking part in her act of child abuse in the hearing at the Incheon District Court in Incheon, 50 kilometers west of Seoul.

The woman, whose identity was withheld, was indicted on child abandonment and neglect charges after abandoning her young daughter on a back road near her daycare center in Goyang, northwest of Seoul, at about 10 p.m. on Nov. 26 last year, when the temperature dropped below zero.

The man, who allegedly became acquainted with the woman through an internet game, was also indicted for taking part in her child abuse.

They are accused of having gone to a nearby motel after getting the child out of the man’s car and leaving her on the deserted road.

The woman told police earlier parenting was difficult for her and her acquaintance suggested abandoning the child.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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.