Hopefully this will be the last we hear about the Nut-Rage case:
Heather Cho
The top court upheld a lower court ruling that acquitted former Korean Air Executive Vice President Heather Cho, Thursday, of the “nut rage” case three years ago that triggered nationwide outrage over the rich and powerful abusing their positions.
Cho is the eldest daughter of Chairman Cho Yang-ho of Korean Air, the country’s largest full-service carrier.
In the first 13-member full-panel ruling deliberated by the 13 Supreme Court justices including chief justice Kim Meong-su after he took the top post, the court said she did not violate aviation law by ordering the plane to change its air route, an offense that carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
“The air route, the point of contention here, should be interpreted as referring to the aircraft’s course when it is flying, not when it is taxiing on the ground,” the court said.
“The lower court’s ruling was apt in making such a determination, and there was no misinterpretation of the law that requires a review.” [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but this whole incident seemed to me to be all about over charging her to appease public sentiment and then quietly letting the appeals court over turn the conviction. Remember Korea is a rule by law and not a rule of law society. This case is a perfect example of it.
Two Saudi Arabian students have been arrested for sexually assaulting a woman, Seoul police said Wednesday.
The two brothers, 25 and 23, are suspected of assaulting a Korean office worker in her 20s at their home Saturday. They were detained Monday.
The students, studying here in a university exchange program, met the victim through a chat app and drank together in their room, according to the Seoul Seongbuk Police Station.
The woman made an emergency call to police, and investigators found evidence from CCTV footage taken nearby their residence. The men told police they do not remember what happened because they were intoxicated. [Korea Times]
I find it amazing that this guy was given a command of any unit considering this outrageous behavior with a subordinate officer:
Neuhart testified Tuesday and Wednesday that they discussed having sex at her house before they left the hotel. He said he “waffled” about it because he is married, with five children, and because he was her superior officer — a violation of military fraternization rules.
Tag said the hotel video showed Kristin repeatedly pushing Neuhart away, including keeping her arms up between her body and his as they kissed. Neuhart testified that he recalled “her resting her arms on his chest” in a tender way.
He also said he asked Kristin if she wanted a “safe word,” which he understood would mean that she was feeling safe as their flirting led to sex. Neuhart said she told him “no,” which he took as the safe word she had chosen. He said that in the context of their time together, “no” meant “yes.”
After letting Neuhart into her house, where they kissed and hugged, she ordered him out. He went around to the back door and set up his cellphone to record on video his repeated efforts to get inside again. Neuhart testified that he did so to have proof that, if they had sex, it was consensual.
When the video was shown to jurors, Neuhart is shown loudly knocking on the door and tugging on the handles while Kristin yelled at him to stop and go away. But, she eventually let him in and could be heard crying and screaming for him to stop.
A neighbor who heard her called 911. As San Diego police arrived, Neuhart ran out the back and into a canyon, with his still-recording cellphone in his pocket. He fell — fracturing his leg. Officer caught him and arrested him. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but anyone who has sat through US military sexual assault training knows that no means no when it is said.
Picture of construction during the Camp Humphreys expansion project.
South Korean prosecutors have raided the offices of one of the nation’s largest conglomerates amid allegations it offered multimillion-dollar kickbacks to the US Army in exchange for construction contracts.
Dozens of investigators were dispatched to the headquarters of SK Engineering and Construction in downtown Seoul on Friday to confiscate computer hard disks, documents and other material related to construction projects at a new US army base in South Korea’s Pyeongtaek county.
The prosecutors are investigating allegations that the company — an affiliate of the nation’s third-largest conglomerate, SK — gave almost $3m to a US army officer in 2010 to steer a $420m dollar construction contract in its favour.
The officer, Duane Nishiie of the US Army Engineers Corp, was indicted in September in Hawaii on charges including bribery, wire fraud and money laundering related to the case. Lee Seung-ju, a former officer in the procurement department of Seoul’s defence ministry, was indicted on the same charges.
SK Engineering and Construction declined to comment. US Forces Korea was not immediately available to comment.
“The raid was needed to look into the bribery claims linked to a US military contract,” the prosecutor in charge of the investigation told the Financial Times. [The Financial Times]
Here is a power tip to anyone using religious rituals to fight demons, make sure you get consent from the person you are holding the ritual for to take their clothes off before doing so:
A shaman has been found guilty of sexual assault for undressing a young woman in public during an invocation rite as she wielded a knife.
Busan District Court sentenced the female shaman, 53, to six months’ jail, suspended for two years, and 40 hours of sexual harassment treatment.
Although the shaman was performing a ritual, the court ruled the act was a sexual assault because it went against sexual ethics.
According to the written judgment on Sunday, a woman, aged in her 20s, and her mother went to the shaman because the daughter was feeling pain.
The shaman told the mother, “We have to remove the male spirit that is stuck on her body.” The shaman told the daughter to lie down, removed the woman’s undergarments, and then wielded a large knife around her.
The ritual was performed in front of a crowd that included males, which humiliated the woman
Before the ritual, the shaman asked the woman about her sex life and did not inform her about what would happen during the ritual. [Korea Times]
If this woman was able to so easily fool the VA for years to receive benefit money it just makes me wonder how much more fraud is going on?:
A woman faked the birth of a son to collect the veterans benefits for 17 years, according to court documents.
The man who the woman claimed was the father of the child was killed in High Point in 2006.
Elizabeth Hayes Cox, 60, claimed she gave birth to the son of Randall Cox, who was a military veteran receiving Veterans Administration benefits, according to an indictment. Records show she claimed Randall Cox’s benefits should be paid to her for child support, and she fraudulently collected $103,000 in benefits from March 2000 through May of this year. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but you would think the VA would ask for something as simple as a birth certificate to prove her claim?
Some of these sex offenders should be physically castrated, but chemical castration I guess is a start:
The National Assembly passed an amendment on Friday that would allow chemical castration as punishment for people found guilty of attempted rape, expanding the scope of a law punishing sex offenders.
The bill also stipulates that sex offenders whose acts lead to injury or the death of minors are added to the list of those subject to chemical castration.
Under the amendment, chemical castration does not apply to people who film parts of people’s bodies using a hidden camera.The government had proposed that the secret photographing of people be included under the scope of the law.
The law came into effect in 2011 — the first Asian country to adopt this type of treatment — amid public outcry over a series of rapists reoffending following their release.
Chemical castration involves administering medication — either via injection or tablets — to take away sexual interest and make it impossible for a person to perform sexual acts.The effects are reversible after the person stops taking the drug. [Korea Times]
At least this scumbag is out of society for the rest of his life:
Kenneth Franklin Gadson was given life in prison for the slaying of 20-year-old Okinawan office worker Rina Shimabukuro, Friday, Dec. 1, 2017.
The former U.S. base worker accused of raping and killing a 20-year-old Okinawan woman last year was sentenced to life in prison with hard labor after being convicted of her murder Friday at Naha District Court.
A panel of three judges and six jurors found Kenneth Franklin Gadson, 33, guilty of murder, rape resulting in death and the illegal disposal of a body in the slaying of Uruma office worker Rina Shimabukuro. He will spend the rest of his life behind bars at Yokosuka Prison in Kurihama, barring a successful appeal.
“The life of the victim — who had just celebrated her adulthood — was suddenly taken and her body was abandoned in the bushes,” chief judge Toshihiro Shibata said when reading the verdict.
“Her body was not found until it was reduced to bone; her sorrow is immeasurable … even giving consideration to the fact that the body was found by the concession of the defendant and he had no previous criminal record, there is no reason to find a lighter sentence than life imprisonment,” he added. [Stars & Stripes]
A 55-year-old woman surnamed Lee and her son were both arrested on Thursday for burying her friend alive on her husband’s farm. The two face charges of murder and abandoning a corpse, while Lee’s husband has since committed suicide after police came to search his property.
On July 14, Lee called up her 49-year-old friend for a drive in Seongnam, Gyeonggi. They were longtime friends, having met at a social club in Seongnam over a decade ago. Lee’s 25-year-old son drove while Lee handed her friend a cup of coffee laced with sleeping pills. The mother-and-son pair drove to the farm of Lee’s husband in Cheorwon County, Gangwon, where they buried her friend alive.
Police began investigating the disappearance on Aug. 10, leaving open the possibility that the friend was being held against her will, given the inactivity they saw on her phone and bank account.
In September, police received reports that Lee had met the victim before her disappearance, and were able to confirm that Lee’s son had rented a car and driven to Cheorwon. Last Friday, the court issued an arrest warrant for Lee and Park on suspicion of holding the victim in confinement. Police arrested the two on Nov. 28.
The same day, police went to search the property of Lee’s husband. Though the 62-year-old husband was not regarded as a suspect, he hung himself in a storage room when they arrived, after excusing himself to the bathroom.
Lee and her son confessed to the crime late Tuesday. “She made me look like a thief,” Lee said.
In June last year, the victim had asked Lee to bring her some belongings from the home she was sharing with her abusive partner. But after the victim’s partner reported Lee to the police for larceny, the victim did not defend Lee. Lee was subsequently convicted and fined. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but hopefully the mother and son spend a long time in prison because that is a horrible way to die.
