Category: crime & punishment

Stories like this make me wonder how much more fraud is going on in regards to VA disability payments?:

An Army deserter from Morganton is accused of receiving tens of thousands of dollars in veteran benefits by faking war wounds and military honors.

Roy Lee Ross Jr., 64, faces up to 35 years in prison on charges of executing a scheme to defraud the Veterans Administration, making false statements in connection with the delivery of VA health care benefits, stealing from the VA and making a false claim for travel benefits from the VA.

According to a federal indictment released on Friday, Ross enlisted in the Army in 1973 and was stationed stateside and in West Germany.

But he never served in Vietnam or Korea, was not in the Special Forces and never was wounded as he claimed, according to the indictment.  [Charlotte Observer]

You can read more at the link, but this guy did not make just one claim with the VA, but went back three times for additional claims and was able to get his monthly disability check increased to $2,906 per month and then even after getting this money he went and filed for travel reimbursement.

I believe there has to be more to this story because why is this allegation coming to light now when this guy has been retired since 2009?:

The Air Force is investigating a sexual-assault report against a retired four-star general who was on active duty at the time of the alleged incident, service officials said Friday.

Details about the case are scant, but Col. Patrick Ryder, an Air Force spokesman, said the service will conduct a thorough investigation of Gen. Arthur J. Lichte, who retired as head of Air Mobility Command in 2009. Ryder declined to provide additional details, saying it would be inappropriate to do so.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but like I have always said people who have been victims of sexual assault need to immediately report the crime because as time goes by the more difficult it will be to prosecute.  It will be interesting to see how this case proceeds.

Here is a horrible story about the decapitation of a 25 year old woman in Siheung, Gyeongi province by her own family that claimed that she was possessed by an evil spirit:

On Friday at around 6:30 a.m., the mother, son and daughter were in their living room, having spent the whole night awake chatting, said police. The son is 26 years old and works for a company. The daughter was 25 and unemployed.

The suspects claimed they had eaten nothing for four days, without saying why.

Tension escalated swiftly when their poodle, which they have had for five years, started barking loudly for no reason, the mother claimed.

Assuming it was possessed by a demon, the three took turns stabbing the dog with a knife and striking it with a baseball bat, eventually killing it.

When the three moved to a bathroom to clean up, the daughter’s hands started shaking. She moved toward the mother as if to strangle her, said the son. Thinking that the demon had exited the poodle and taken over the daughter, the mother and son forced her to lie down on the bathroom floor.

The mother stabbed her daughter’s neck with a kitchen knife, while the son beat his sister’s midriff and head with a hammer. Autopsy results indicated that the victim died due to neck and head injuries.

The son called his father, a 54-year-old shoe repairman who was working at the time, to confess the murder. The father called the police hours later and told them the suspects would turn themselves in.

When police arrived at the scene, the victim’s head was found detached from her body. Police are investigating when that occurred.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I would not be surprised if drugs or alcohol were not involved in this in some way.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out because I would think every lawyer in America is now going to try the “Clinton Defense” to defend spilling classified information:

A sailor who pleaded guilty to photographing classified submarine systems hopes to receive leniency by comparing his case to Hillary Clinton’s ongoing e-mail controversy, his lawyers said in a court document.

Petty Officer First Class Kristian M. Saucier, 29, will be sentenced Friday for a felony charge of retaining national defense information. He pleaded guilty in May on the charge that he photographed classified workings of the propulsion system of the nuclear powered USS Alexandria.

The photos taken in 2009 showed parts of the reactor configuration, according to the memo filed last week in support of a probation sentencing by Saucier’s lawyer, Derrick Hogan. Saucier knew the system was secret and prohibited from being documented, but he wanted to show his future family what he did in the Navy, the court filing states. [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

Here is a horrible story of murderous firefighter in Anseong:

A 50-year-old firefighter was arrested on Wednesday after attempting to rob a house to pay back his gambling debts, only to be caught by the two homeowners, who he then murdered before burning their house to cover his tracks.

According to the police in Anseong, Gyeonggi, the firefighter broke into a two-story house located around Dangwang-dong, Anseong, at around 3 p.m. on Aug. 1, where a 64-year-old man and his 57-year-old wife were living.

The firefighter was not listed as a usual suspect by police at the time, but his crimes were revealed when he attempted to commit suicide by drinking herbicide and throwing himself off from the rooftop of an apartment at around 4:50 p.m on Wednesday.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

A British DJ has been arrested for drug smuggling in Korea:

A Grammy-nominated British DJ was arrested in Korea for alleged drug smuggling, police said Thursday.

Video footage shows him at a customs checkpoint at Incheon International Airport with a 1.5-liter bottle filled with an alleged illegal drug, they said.

Sources said he was Mark Lewis. Lewis, 52, was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2005 in the category of Best Electronic/Dance Album for “I Found U” that he produced.

Sources said Lewis allegedly smuggled 3.78 liters of gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), also known as the date rape drug, into Korea four times from January to June. The value is estimated at 370 million won ($340,000) and the quantity enough to dose 1,000 people. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

This is a horrible story out of Wonju:

A 75-year-old woman in Wonju, Gangwon, was arrested for allegedly killing her husband of 56 years with a hammer.

The suspect admitted the crime, according to police, saying she couldn’t stand her husband’s verbal and physical abuse any longer.

Wonju police filed a pre-trial detention warrant for the suspect. A local court will review it as early as today.

The alleged murder took place around 6 a.m. Wednesday, police said, after the 74-year-old victim fell off a chair while changing a lightbulb in a bathroom in the couple’s house.

The suspect heard a loud thump and went to check on her husband, and he allegedly berated her, saying, “It’s all because of you!” The woman told police during questioning that her husband’s head was bleeding and his eyes had rolled back.

The wife said she feared he would have to be hospitalized for a long period, which might prove expensive. She said she didn’t want to have to be his caregiver.

“I’ve put up with him all my life,” she said according to police. “I have even had to go to the hospital several times after he hit me.”

She left the bathroom, found a hammer and returned to finish him off. Autopsy results indicated she had hit him in about 20 different areas all over his body, including his face and neck. The direct cause of the victim’s death was “multiple injuries.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

What a jerk this ajushi is:

A mom with a 7-month-old baby was slapped in the face after she asked a man in 50s to “put out a cigarette” in a no smoking area.

Seoul Seobu Police said Saturday that a man in his 50s was accused of slapping a mom in the face while she was pushing a stroller carrying her baby.

According to the police, the man was smoking at around 5 p.m. on July 30, near the entrance of Eungam Station in Seoul, when the woman asked him to put out his cigarette or go elsewhere.

They were caught on CCTV, with the man following the woman and slapping her on the face while she tried to cross the street at a crosswalk with a stroller, the police said.   [Korea Herald]

You can read more at the link.

It looks like an area of the UCMJ that will need to be updated is to include same-sex prostitution as a crime.  This reminds of the Air Force colonel trying to get his adultery charges dropped because the UCMJ does not include same-sex adultery as a crime:

An Army medic charged with murder in connection with the stabbing death of his wife was sentenced Saturday in military court to 27 months in federal prison and a dishonorable discharge for possession of child pornography and soliciting others to engage in sex for money.

Sgt. Michael Walker, who was assigned to Tripler Army Medical Center, pleaded guilty Saturday to three counts of solicitation and not guilty to one count of possession of child pornography before a military judge at Wheeler Army Airfield’s courtroom.  (…………)

Walker, who has been in the military for 12 years, was charged with solicitation instead of prostitution because the Uniform Code of Military Justice, under which Walker was found guilty, defines prostitution as between a man and a woman.

In his court-martial, Walker admitted to placing two ads in September 2014, seeking people to have sex with in exchange for money. He said in the ads that he was looking for “generous men to spend time with” or “looking to have some fun.”

In court, he said, “My purpose was to find people to have sex with and at the same time to give me money.”

Walker said he met with three men that fall and had sex with them for money on multiple occasions. He said one man paid him $400 for an encounter.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read much more at the link, but this guy still faces even more time in jail when his murder trial comes up.

I have never heard of an military arms rooms getting broken into.  Considering the security that goes with an arms room I think this has to be an inside job by someone who had access to the arms room.  Has any ROK Heads ever heard of an arms room getting broken into?:

Special agents from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command are investigating the theft of guns and other military equipment from a base arms room in Stuttgart, military officials said.

“Several semi-automatic pistols, one small-caliber automatic rifle and a shotgun were among the items taken,” said Chris Grey, a CID spokesman.

The Army did not identify all the items stolen or the unit targeted, citing the active investigation. A possible breach of the base fence is also part of the ongoing probe.

“We are looking at all possibilities as the investigation continues, but at this point in the investigation it does not appear that an outside entity stole the firearms and equipment or breached the fence line, but we have not completely ruled it out,” Grey said.  [Stars & Stripes]

I would think the first person to ask what happened would be the unit armorer who has the code to enter into the arms room.  For example did he give the code out to someone else that wasn’t authorized to open the arms room?