Below are the USFK court martial and ROK criminal prosection results for August 2014 that were posted on the USFK website. The court martial results have a number of sex offender cases with a couple of people actually found not guilty of the crimes. Then in the ROK criminal prosecution there is a major that was convicted of an indecent at and has to take sex offender classes and register as a sex offender. He looks like a candidate now for officer cuts, but I wonder if the sex offender label in Korea follows him to the US as well? That would be worse punishment than being discharged from the Army in my opinion.
Trial Results August 2014
Results of Army Courts-Martial for August 2014
On 1 August 2014, at a Summary Court-Martial, SPC Kristopher Hester (1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 2d Infantry Division) was found not guilty of two specifications of Article 120, Abusive Sexual Contact, and found guilty of Article 128, Simple Assault. He was sentenced to reduction to the grade of Private (E-1) and forfeiture of $1021.
On 4 August 2014, at a Special Court-Martial, SFC Vincent Irvin (1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 2d Infantry Division) was found guilty of one specification of Article 128, Assault Consummated by Battery. SFC Irvin was sentenced to reduction to E-4, forfeiture of $1000.00 pay per month for 4 months, and to be confined for four months.
On 8 August 2014, PV2 Devin L. Goetsch (19th Personnel Company, 501st Special Troop Battalion) was convicted at a Special Court-Martial of one specification of failure to obey a lawful general order (Article 92, UCMJ); and two specifications of wrongful possession of controlled substance ( Article 112). He was sentenced to reduction to Private (E-1); forfeiture of $800.00 pay for five months; to be confinement for five months; and to receive a Bad Conduct Discharge.
On 11 August 2014, at a Summary Court-Martial, a Specialist from 1st Armored Brigade Combat Team, 2d Infantry Division was found not guilty of one specification of Article 120, Abusive Sexual Contact.
On 26 August 2014, PFC Kenneth A. Elmore (595th Maintenance Company, 498th Combat Sustainment Support Battalion) was convicted at a General Court-Martial of one specification of failure to obey a lawful order (Article 92, UCMJ); and one specification of Sexual Assault (Article 120). He was sentenced to reduction to Private (E-1), confinement for 14 months; and to receive a Bad Conduct Discharge.
Results of ROK Criminal Prosecutions for August 2014
In Daegu District Court on 8 August 2014, SPC Matthew D. Wright, 188th MP Company, USAG Daegu, was convicted of Assault with a dangerous Instrument and Hit and Run. He was acquitted of the charges of DUI and Infliction of Bodily Injury. His adjudged sentence was imprisonment for 1-1/2 years, suspended for 2 years.
In Uijeongbu District Court on 13 August 2014, SGT George Watts, 55th MP Company, USAG Casey, was convicted of Assault with a Dangerous Instrument, Assault and Infliction of Bodily Injury. His adjudged sentence was imprisonment for 1-1/2 years, suspended for 3 years.
In Uijeongbu District Court on 13 August 2014, SPC Donnell T. Francis, E Btry, 2-1st ADA, USAG Daegu (Carroll), was convicted of Infliction of Bodily Injury. His adjudged sentence was imprisonment for 6 months, suspended for 1 year.
In Uijeongbu District Court on 19 August 2014, SGT Ricky W. Hoerlein, D Co, 4/7th Cavalry, USAG Casey, was convicted of traffic law violations including DUI. His adjudged sentence was a 3,000,000 Won fine.
In Suwon District Court on 19 August 2014, PVT Terrance T. Tolbert, D Co, 3-2 GSAB, USAG Humphreys, was convicted of Assault. His adjudged sentence was a 1,000,000 Won fine.
In Seoul Central District Court on 20 August 2014, MAJ Mario R. Mesa, HHB, 8th Army (I&S Co), was convicted of Indecent Act by Compulsion. His adjudged sentence was imprisonment for 8 months, suspended for 2 years. He was also ordered to enroll in a sexual crimes prevention class for 40 hours and register as a sex offender with the local authority.
In Seoul Central District Court on 20 August 2014, SSG Marcus C. Polarchy, HHB, 8th Army (HSC), USAG Yongsan, was convicted of Infliction of Bodily Injury. His adjudged sentence was a 3,000,000 Won fine.
In Seoul Central District Court on 20 August 2014, Airman Federico F. Garza, 51st Munitions Squadron, Osan Air Base, was convicted of Larceny. His adjudged sentence was a 2,000,000 Won fine.
In Uijeongbu District Court on 20 August 2014, SFC Timothy M. Caruana, HHC, 1/72d Armor, USAG Casey, was convicted of traffic law violations. His adjudged sentence was a 2,000,000 Won fine.
In Daegu District Court on 20 August 2014, PFC Zachary T. Hamilton, C Btry, 2-1st ADA, USAG Daegu (Carroll), was convicted of traffic law violations. His adjudged sentence was a 500,000 Won fine.
In Daegu District Court on 20 August 2014, MSG Wilbert Cassidy, Jr., HHC, 501st S-Brigade, USAG Daegu (Carroll), was convicted of traffic law violations. His adjudged sentence was a 1,000,000 Won fine.
In Daegu District Court on 21 August 2014, CPT Bernard Harper, HHD, 6th Ordnance Battalion, USAG Daegu, was convicted of traffic law violations. His adjudged sentence was a 1,000,000 Won fine.
In Suwon District Court on 25 June 2014, SFC Jeremy L. Johnson, D Co, 2-2 Assault, USAG Yongsan, was convicted of DUI and Hit and Run. The Soldier requested a formal trial, but on 25 August 2014, he withdrew the request. His adjudged sentence was a 7,000,000 Won fine.
In Uijeongbu District Court on 27 August 2014, SPC Joshua G. Wade, 629th MCAS, USAG Casey, was convicted of Damage of Property and Infliction of Bodily Injury. His adjudged sentence was a 3,000,000 Won fine.
In Daegu District Court on 27 August 2014, SGT Michael A. David, HHD, 25th Transportation Battalion, USAG Daegu, was convicted of DUI and Infliction of Bodily Injury through Dangerous Driving. His adjudged sentence was a 5,000,000 Won fine.
In Daejeon District Court on 28 August 2014, SrA Juan C. Azenon-Baries, 51st LRS, Osan Air Base, was found not guilty of Quasi-Robbery, but guilty of Larceny. His adjudged sentence was a 2,000,000 Won fine.
A man in Wonju came home to find a burglar robbing his home and proceeded to put a beat down on him that has now cost him his freedom:
A 20-year-old man is serving his jail term that he received for assaulting a 50-year-old burglar, YTN reported Friday.
Choi received an 18-month prison sentence in a trial on charges of making the thief brain dead by hitting him with a drying rack.
The thief, identified as Kim, broke into Choi’s house in Wonju, Gangwaon Province in March. Choi came home at around 3 a.m. after a drink with friends and found the thief rifling through drawers. Choi called the police and fought off the intruder.
He claimed self-defense in assaulting the 50-year-old man with the “light, aluminum” drying rack, but the court ruled against him.
The court found the drying rack was a “dangerous material” to use to defend himself against the thief who was unarmed and trying to run away. [Korea Observer]
You can read more at the link, but the beat down he put on the burglar resulted in him going brain dead. So the judge felt this was excessive force. If a criminal is in your house and you surprise him how is the home owner supposed to know what this guys intent was? This guy could have had a knife for all he knew. When it comes to crimes like this I definitely lean towards favoring the home owner rather than the criminal.
It seems like this guy needs to see a psychologist instead of going to prison:
A man is to face jail time for sexually harassing a call service operator working for a telemarketing company.
The man, identified as Park, age 49, had initially requested to be connected to a specific line, when the operator explained such services could not be provided.
Park then started lashing out at the operator in foul language, using words “objectifying women,” according to Yonhap News Agency.
He was reported to have called 9,982 times since May last year, using offensive speech.
Various other workers at the telemarketing company also said they felt “humiliated.”
The Seoul Central Criminal Court sentenced Park to 18 months in prison after finding him guilty of sexual violence and work disturbance on Oct. 15.
He is sentence also included 80 hours of mandatory participation in a program on sexual violence. [Korea Times]
To me it is amazing that a guy that did not commit a violent act was convicted of sexual violence and sentenced to 18 months in prison just because he used offensive speech over the telephone.
Prosecutors indicted three teenagers on charges of sexually and physically abusing a 15-year-old high school girl, local media reported Sunday.
Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office found that a 16-year-old girl broke into the victim’s house with her two teen friends and brutally assaulted her on Aug. 8 for speaking ill of her.
The victim and one of the perpetrators were classmates.
The three perpetrators allegedly dragged her out of the house and locked her in the basement of a deserted building for five days.
The victim was stripped of her clothes and forced to engage in “pseudo-sex” while being photographed. Moreover, the perpetrators forced the 15-year-old victim to eat her own excrement, swallow cigarette butts and lick their spit off the floor. [Korea Observer]
You can read more at the link, but hopefully these teenagers receive very harsh punishment for this horrible crime and not get off light like the teenagers involved in the Miryang gang rape case a few years ago.
Who the heck tries to rape somebody on an airplane?:
A Japan Airlines flight returned to Honolulu after a male passenger sexually assaulted a female passenger in the airplane’s bathroom, the FBI said.
FBI agents arrested Michael Tanouye on Saturday night at Honolulu International Airport for interfering with flight crew and for aggravated sexual assault aboard an aircraft. The 29-year-old resident of Hilo, Hawaii, was scheduled to be arraigned on Tuesday.
An FBI affidavit says the flight was en route to Kansai International Airport when the attack allegedly occurred.
The woman, who was returning home to Japan with her mother after a four-day vacation in Hawaii, went to use the restroom about an hour and 45 minutes after takeoff. Tanouye allegedly forced his way inside, grabbed her by the shoulders and began to forcefully pull down her pants and underwear. [Japan Times]
You can read more at the link, but fortunately this guy was not able to complete the rape of this woman because she was able to push the emergency button in the bathroom to get help to subdue this loon.
A Marine has been detained following the suspected murder of a transgender Filipino at Subic Bay.
Media outlets in the Philippines, quoting a police report, said Monday that the victim, Jeffrey Laude, 26, also known as Jennifer, was found dead on a floor inside the Celzone Lodge in Olongapo City.
A witness said he saw Laude enter the hotel with a short-haired male foreigner, aged 25-30, around 10:55 p.m. on Saturday, the reports said.
Later, Laude’s naked body, partially covered with a blanket, was found in a bathroom at the hotel.
The incident comes at a sensitive time for U.S.-Philippine relations.
The close allies are getting ready to implement an Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement — signed by President Barack Obama during a state visit in April — that will see large numbers of U.S. troops rotate through bases in the Philippines over the next decade.
Patricio Abinales, a University of Hawaii expert on the Philippines, said in an email Monday that Filipinos are likely to be angry about the alleged involvement of a Marine in Laude’s death, but that the incident won’t cause widespread opposition to a greater U.S. troop presence. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but since the Philippines is eager to host US troops again as a security guarantee against growing Chinese aggression I doubt the Filipino government will try and demagogue this incident for political advantage. I guess we will see what happens, but it will interesting to see if the US government turns him over or not to face trial in the Philippines.
Anyway, this incident reminds of a transgender story I have from my days in Dongducheon. The majority of the transgendered Koreans I have seen in Korea were in Dongducheon. They would flock to the clubs up there to hit on drunk GIs. I was at the infamous Rendezvous Club one time and saw this soldier hanging all over what was obviously a transexual, but he was too drunk to tell the difference. I sat by him and then pulled him a side to explain to him his folly. He got pissed and wanted to throw down because he thought I was trying to steal his chick. Since he was so enamored with his new girlfriend, I left him to his folly. I never saw that soldier show his face ever again in that club.
It seems like every few months someone in the Korean media feels the need to make sweeping accusations against foreigners in Korea to drive page view traffic I suppose to their site. Via the Marmot’s Hole comes this latest example from the Donga Ilbo:
In May, a young man by the name of Kim got a urgent Kakao Talk from a female acquaintance of his who’d gone to a club in Yongsan. She was passing out and worried something might happen to her. He went to the club, found her passed out and surrounded by two foreigners, and rescued her. The next day, she told him that the foreigners gave her something to drink which had apparently been spiked.
She was rescued, but the Dong-A reports that there are women, defenseless against foreigners will ill-intent, who have been sexually assaulted. For instance, on Sept. 10, a 20-year-old woman was sitting at a Gangnam club with two foreign guys and a Korean guy. They gave her a drink which they’d spiked with sleeping pills. They brought her to a nearby motel, where they began filming parts of her anatomy with a cellphone. When she protested, they beat her. After a two week investigation, the cops arrested three guys for sexual assault, including a French guy and some model. [Marmot’s Hole via a reader tip]
You can read the rest at the link, to include a lively discussion on this topic in the comments section. I just like how the article makes no mention about sexual assault in Korea by Koreans which has been a significant issue that has gained increased attention in recent years. By the way this is not the first time the Donga Ilbo has been spreading lies, I called them out a few years ago when they were spreading lies about GI crime in Korea.
What else I found of interest is how the Donga Ilbo has pretty much did a recycle of the reporting done on the English Spectrum incident. I guess their reporters are even too lazy now to find new xenophobic angle to report on.
I wonder how many of the 10 Koreans killed in the Philippines this year had organized crime connections?:
The Foreign Ministry said Friday that a man whose body was found in the Philippines in July has been positively identified as Korean. The latest discovery raises the number of Koreans killed in the Philippines this year alone to 10.
A ministry official said, “The Philippine police asked the Korean Embassy to identify the body discovered on the outskirts of Manila in late July. After analyzing the fingerprints, the body was determined to be that of a 45-year-old Korean surnamed Lee.”
The body was discovered in a plastic container and bore a gunshot wound to the neck. It appears Lee was murdered and his body was dumped. Philippine police were reportedly tipped off that Lee had connections to narcotics smugglers. [Chosun Ilbo]
