Category: crime & punishment

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.

I guess we will see how far the ubiquitous Korean defense of “I was drunk” works for this Mongolian judge:

A high-ranking Mongolian official accused of groping a South Korean flight attendant last week appears to have backed down from his initial denial of charges during his latest questioning, police said Thursday.

Dorj Odbayar, the chairman of Mongolia’s Constitutional Court, is alleged to have touched the buttocks of a female flight attendant and intimidated a Mongolian crew member on a Korean Air flight from Ulaanbaatar to Incheon, west of Seoul, on late Oct. 31. 

During an interrogation by airport police last Friday, he flatly denied the charges, saying he was mistaken for another Mongolian man, who actually committed the crime. He left the country immediately after the probe. 

Odbayar returned to South Korea on Wednesday and was detained for a second questioning by the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency. 

He testified that he did not remember what happened because he was drunk at the time of the incident, according to the Incheon police.

“If the victims made such claims, (I) might have done so under the influence of alcohol,” Odbayar was quoted as saying during the nine-hour interrogation. He was released at midnight. 

He had planned to depart for Mongolia in two days, but the authorities had already banned him from leaving the country for 10 days pending the probe. 

Police also requested Interpol put on its wanted list a Mongolian official accompanying him, who has been accused of molesting another stewardess, including wrapping his arms around her shoulders.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is an odd story involving a Korean student attending Boston College:

Alexander Urtula was all set to graduate from Boston College at 10 a.m. on May 20. The 22-year-old was an exemplary student, a biology major and a member of the school’s Philippine Society, and his parents were in town from New Jersey to watch him receive his diploma. But just hours before the ceremony, Urtula leapt to his death from the top floor of a parking garage in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood. 

According to a press release from the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, his girlfriend of 18 months, 21-year-old Inyoung You, has been indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter over his suicide. She was “physically, verbally and psychologically abusive” towards Urtula, according to the DA’s office, and repeatedly told him to “go kill himself” and to “go die.” The abuse, which has allegedly been documented in their more than 75,000 text messages, became “more frequent, more powerful and more demeaning” in the hours leading up to his death. You, a fellow Boston College student from South Korea, had tracked Urtula’s location on her phone, and was there when he jumped.

According to the DA’s press release, an investigation revealed that You knew about her boyfriend’s “spiraling depression and suicidal thoughts” brought on by the texts—still, she wrote him and encouraged him to die.

Elle

You can read more at the link, You left school in August and returned back to South Korea. U.S. authorities say they will try and extradite her if she does not voluntarily return for trial.

I absolutely called this one that the next time we see Cho Kuk’s younger brother he would be in a wheelchair. He had earlier tried to avoid arrest by claiming he had a bad back, now he is wheelchair bound and even added a neck brace for added dramatic effect:

The prosecution again sought an arrest warrant for a younger brother of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk on Tuesday over a hiring scandal and an alleged fake lawsuit surrounding a private school foundation run by his family.

State prosecutors asked a Seoul court to issue a warrant to formally detain the 52-year-old man over charges, including breach of duty, bribery, obstruction of justice and aiding and abetting destruction of evidence.

The brother, who worked at the Woongdong school foundation, is alleged to have leaked test questions and answers to two people who applied to teaching posts at a middle school run by the foundation and received 210 million won (US$180,102)

He is also suspected of incurring financial losses to the school foundation by filing a fraudulent lawsuit against it over construction costs.

The prosecution claimed the younger Cho should be arrested, given that two brokers who gave the money to him were already taken into custody. A court review of the request will be held probably on Thursday.

The prosecution earlier sought an arrest warrant for him, but a local court rejected to issue it on Oct. 9, saying the charges are disputable.

If the warrant is issued, he would be the third member of the former minister’s family to be arrested.

Chung Kyung-sim, Cho’s wife, was arrested last week on a total of 11 counts of charges including an alleged forgery of a school award for her daughter and a dubious investment in a private equity fund. A son of Cho’s cousin involved in the fund was also arrested in mid-September.

Yonhap

As you can see the Korean media continues to blur the faces of those involved with the Cho Kuk scandal. For this brother they don’t even give his name instead call him the younger Cho. This very much unlike what they did with everyone involved with the President Park Geun-hye impeachment who the media did everything possible to personally destroy.

I wonder why the media is blurring out her face when everyone accused of wrong doing in the Park Geun-hye impeachment had their faces widely published across the Korean media?:

Chung Kyung-sim, wife of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, attended a hearing at the Seoul Central District Court Wednesday to challenge the prosecution’s request to put her behind bars as it investigates corruption allegations against her. 

Chung, a professor from Dongyang University, entered the court building in southern Seoul around 10:10 a.m., making her first appearance before the press since the prosecution started its probe 57 days ago. Chung is being investigated for possible irregularities in her daughter’s admissions application to medical school and alleged corruption in managing the family’s wealth.

Following dozens of raids including her residence and seven rounds of questioning of Chung, the Special Investigation Department II of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office asked the Seoul Central District Court on Monday to issue a warrant to detain Chung. In its warrant application, prosecutors listed 11 charges against her, which they say require pretrial detention. They also claim that evidence destruction is a worry. 

About 100 reporters asked Chung various questions, but she only replied, “I will faithfully face the hearing,” before entering the building.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Anyone surprised by this news?:

Prosecutors investigating former Justice Minister Cho Kuk’s family appear to have found evidence that Cho’s younger brother, who faces allegations of receiving bribes from teachers at a school operated by the Cho family, did not fall and hurt his back as he claims. 

Sources with knowledge of the ongoing probe at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office told the JoongAng Ilbo earlier this week that prosecutors thoroughly reviewed CCTV footage from the area where Cho’s brother asserted he fell but found zero proof to corroborate his claims.

Prosecutors are planning to submit the footage to a court in the coming days when filing a second request to detain him before his trial, the sources continued, in order to dissuade the court from striking down the pretrial detention warrant because he’s injured.

The Seoul Central District Court dismissed the prosecution’s first warrant for him last week, saying his allegations were “open to doubt” and enough evidence collection has already taken place. The court also cited the younger Cho’s health in explaining why they decided not to detain him.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but next we will probably see him in a wheel chair.