Category: crime & punishment

From the Joong Ang Ilbo:

Two American soldiers were arrested yesterday on charges of beating and attempting to rape a female police officer in downtown Seoul last month, prosecutors said. The soldiers, identified only as a 23-year-old sergeant and a 21-year-old private first class from a U.S. base north of Seoul, are accused of attempting to sexually assault a plainclothes officer in an office bathroom in Seoul on April 5.

The suspects were caught when a janitor heard a scream and alerted police, officials at the Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office said. Earlier on the day of the assault, the two men were interrogated at a nearby police station for the alleged sexual harassment of another local woman, police said. The soldiers were released after the woman told police she did not want to punish them. The sergeant confessed to the charges, but the private denied them, the officials said.

What I find weird about this case is that it has been over a month since the incident and the police are just now bringing charges against them? Usually the charges get filed against US soldiers much more quickly, especially in a high profile case like this. 

From the Stars and Stripes:

The trial of a sergeant first class accused of soliciting and raping a female soldier, sexually assaulting another and coercing a third to make a false statement entered its third day Friday.

Sgt. 1st Class Carlos L. Reynolds, acting first sergeant with the 2nd Infantry Division’s 302nd Brigade Support Battalion, pleaded not guilty to all charges. One charge of insubordination was dropped earlier this week. (…)

Prosecutors say Reynolds raped a private after three other junior enlisted soldiers left Spc. Renee Hoist’s barracks room on June 22.

Defense lawyers questioned whether penetration had occurred, citing statements the private made to investigators.

Prosecutors countered that her testimony met the legal standard of rape, which requires at least a slight penetration, they said. She screamed at Reynolds to express lack of consent, they added.

Sounds pretty grim right?  Well this is why it is important to presume innocence until proven guilty:

Kincaid said the private’s statements to investigators and defense lawyers were inconsistent, with differences about her clothing and whether she told her mother of the alleged rape.

The private’s former supervisor, Sgt. Shalika Worlds , rated the alleged victim’s trustworthiness as a two on a scale of one to 10.

“She’s a habitual liar, sir. She’s untrustworthy,” Worlds told Kincaid.

“I wouldn’t believe anything she told me unless I had actual proof,” former co-worker Sgt. 1st Class Jeffrey Murphy said.

Soon after the alleged rape, the private received Article 15 nonjudicial punishment for making false official statements and disrespecting a different sergeant, Foxtrot Company commander Capt. Donald Little testified.

It will be interesting to see how this trial turns out, but this just goes to show that rape cases are not always a cut and dry thing.  However, even if this NCO is found not guilty, from reading the whole article it does sound like this guy is definitely guilty of some bad judgment.  You never go into a female’s room without having a witness with you.  If you do that you are opening yourself up to not only accusations like this, but most commonly the rumor mill which can be just as destructive to a unit. 

Via Gar, comes what will probably be one of the most disgusting news stories of the year out of South Korea:

Police in Korea arrested five people for trafficking 443 underprivileged people, including the disabled, to sea farms and slave ships on remote islands. Three more suspects possibly involved in the smuggling ring are wanted by authorities.  (…..)

Then they sold a 25-year-old mentally retarded man who visited them for a job to an owner of a fishing boat. Before that, they bought drinks for him, made him have a sex with a prostitute and burdened him with 5 million won of debt, the police said.

They also charged him 13 million won in pre-paid wage; he tried to escape from the boat three days after he was sold.

I sure hope there is some outrage over this. 

Prominent K-blog commenter and lawyer Brendon Carr offers some outstanding advice in today’s Stars and Stripes newspaper. Brendon hits on a number of potential issues with soldiers who get in trouble in Korea. Here is probably the most telling statement from the article:

Beyond language difficulties is the prospect that South Koreans who give testimony might feel it culturally acceptable to lie, especially if it will increase their chances of winning bigger damages, Carr said.

This culture, Carr said, does not place the same value on truth or view the truth through the same prism that Americans do. There is very little social disapproval of making false official statements in order to achieve an objective for your friend or relative or for a tribemate.

Once it breaks down to ˜those Americans versus us Koreans, many, many Koreans will perceive it as their duty to make sure that the Korean is the winner of the dispute. So there’s a lot of lying when witnesses come forward, Carr said.

(more…)

Ironically enough considering recent events in USFK, April is sexual assault awareness month:

I guess these two didn’t get the memo.

There has been another incident involving a USFK soldier, which is really one of the oddest incidents I can remember seeing in recent years:

Police said Friday they have detained two U.S. Army soldiers for attempted rape of a policewoman.

The soldiers, identified only as a 23-year-old sergeant and a 21-year-old private first class from a U.S. base north of Seoul, tried to sexually assault the plainclothes officer in an office bathroom in downtown Seoul around 9:20 p.m. Thursday, a police spokesman said.

More from the Stars and Stripes here. What makes this story even weirder is that these two guys were picked up just hours before by the Seoul police for sexually harassing another woman in the same area. Reading through the newspaper reports, if true, which is often not the case in the Korean media it appears these two are sexual predators because this appears to me more than just some guy getting drunk and assaulting a female as we have seen happen recently before.

This latest incident has of course caused commenters on various K-blog sites to blame everything from recruiters, 2ID, the Iraq War, PTSD, gangs, to General Bell for recent incidents. Unfortunately none of this has anything to with what is going on. First of all, 2ID is not solely to blame for indiscipline in Korea. For every 2ID incident I can name another incident caused by another USFK unit. It just so happens that 2ID has the most memorable incidents especially of the taxi cab related kind.

Here is run down of incidents involving a USFK member and off post incidents over the past two years and I broke them down by Area 1 soldiers and soldiers stationed in Seoul or further south:

(more…)

How much of a scumbag do you have to be to do something like this?:

A particularly annoying trend for law enforcement officials is the growing number of people who are faking their own kidnappings for ransom. As most of the victims of the spoof kidnappings are the suspects’ own family members, police are complaining that there is little legal ground for them to arrest the perpetrators.

Last Sunday, detectives at the Socho Police Station in southern Seoul received a call from a young woman who claimed that her father, a 43-year-old Chung, had been kidnapped by his creditors for failing to pay off 58 million won in debts.

More than 2,000 police officers were deployed around Chung’s house to search for his whereabouts. However, the search was called off a day later when it was revealed that the abduction was a hoax, a scam organized by Chung himself.

Chung, a jobless man, said he was trying to trick his own family into paying the ransom, which he was going to use to pay off the husband of a 44-year-old woman he was having an extramarital affair with.

Often I hear people say that they feel that there are more incidents involving US soldiers and Korean nationals than in the past. I have long demonstrated that overall the number of incidents is down compared to just ten years ago and that GI crimes in Korea are much less per capita than the general Korean population especially sex crimes. The occassional spike still does happen that draws attention to USFK, but overall the numbers remain low. So what causes this perception of out of control GIs to continue to resonate? It is the Korean media that treats every GI incident as being worthy of front page news coverage while ignoring similar crimes committed by Koreans. In the past this wasn’t the case but it is now which has created this perception of out of control GIs.

In order to help people see the types of crime committed and judge for themselves the discipline level of USFK personnel I am currently building an archive of USFK crime incidents for people to refer to. My overall goal is that I hope to expand this to include crimes against USFK personnel by Koreans along with crimes against expats and foreigners. This is still a work in progress and if anyone has any incidents they would like to add or any corrections that need to be made please leave a comment. Thanks for reading.

Area 1

Incident, Date, and Number of Soldiers Involved

Trespassing / JAN08 – 1 Casey Soldier
Assault / DEC07 – 2 Stanley Soldier
Bodily Injury / NOV07 – 1 Jackson NCO
Assault / NOV07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Prostitution / SEP07 – 1 CRC NCO
DUI / AUG07 – 1 CRC NCO
Meth Smuggling Case / JUN07 – 2 CRC Spouses
Fraud Case / MAY07 – 1 Casey NCO
Police woman sexual assault / APR07 – 2 Stanley Soldiers
Grandma Rape Case / JAN07 – 1 Casey soldier
MP Sexual Assault / OCT06 – 1 Casey soldier
Bus Theft / OCT06 – 1 Soldier
Police Biting Case / OCT06 – 1 Soldier
Uijongbu Bus Escape / SEP06 – 2 Soldiers
Beat Down Case / SEP06 – 1 Soldier (Soldier convicted for assault though beaten by a mob of 10 Koreans. Best example that self defense laws do not apply in Korea)
Bicycle Hits Taxi / JUN06 – 1 Chuncheon soldier
Acosta Case / APR06 – 3 Soldiers (Koreans later convicted for role in fight and another example that self defense laws do not apply in Korea)
False Marriage Proposal Case / JAN06 – 1 CRC Soldier
Stuff em in the Trunk Gang / DEC05 – 5 CRC Soldiers
Another Taxi Cab Assault / NOV05 – 2 Casey Soldiers
Taxi Cab Assault / OCT05 – 1 Soldier
2ID Okinawa Taxi Assault / AUG05 – 1 CRC Soldier
Taxi Cab Assault / JUL05 – 3 CRC Soldiers
Beer Bottle Assault / JUL05 – 3 CRC Soldiers
LMTV Accident / JUN05 – 1 Casey Soldier (Soldier was later acquitted for the accident)
Subway Assault / SEP02 – 3 CRC Soldiers
Armored Vehicle Accident / JUN02 – 2 Camp Howze NCOs

Other Areas

Incident and Number of Soldiers Involved

Bodily Injury / JAN08 – 1 Humphreys Soldier
DUI & Hit & Run / JAN08 – 1 Chinhae NCO
Assault / DEC07 – 2 Humphreys Soldier
Bodily Injury / DEC07 – 1 Daegu Soldier
Quasi-Robbery / DEC07 – 1 Humphreys Soldier
DUI / NOV07 – 1 Humphreys WO
Larceny / NOV07 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
Larceny / OCT07 – 1 Suwon Soldier
DUI & Larceny / OCT07 – 1 Suwon Soldier
DUI / OCT07 – 1 Suwon Officer
Bodily Injury / SEP07 – 2 Yongsan Soldiers
Rape / SEP07 – 1 Taegu NCO
Assault / AUG07 – 1 Taegu Soldier
DUI / AUG07 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
DUI / JULY07 – 1 Yongsan NCO
DUI / JULY07 – 1 Yongsan NCO
Trademark Violation / JULY07 – 1 Yongsan Major
Trademark Violation / JULY07 – 1 Yongsan NCO
Assault Case / JUNE07 – 1 Yongsan NCO
DUI / JUNE07 – 1 Suwon NCO
Bodily Injury / JUNE07 – 1 Suwon NCO
DUI / MAY07 – 1 Yongsan NCO
Aggravated Assault / APR07 – 3 Humphreys Soldiers
DUI Hit & Run / APR07 – 1 Humphreys CPT
MSG DUI / APR07 – 1 MSG, Yongsan
Kunsan Taxi Beatdown / APR07 – 2 Kunsan Airmen, 1 US civilian
Taxi Cab Knifing / APR07 – 2 USFK dependents in Taegu
MP Taxi Cab Assault / MAR07 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
Itaewon Brawl / NOV06 – 3 Yongsan Soldiers
Assaulted Cab Driver / NOV06 – 2 Yongsan Soldiers (Update)
Tip Jar Theft / APR06 – 2 Yongsan Soldiers
Driver Kills Korean Civilian in Road / APR06 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
Kangnam Taxi Cab Assault / MAY06 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
Gwangju Gochu-gate / FEB06 – 3 Kwangju Soldiers
Beer Bottle Attack on 18 Year Old Girl / FEB06 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
Attempted Abduction / AUG05 – 1 Humphreys Soldier
Beer Can Assault / AUG05 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
Inchon Bar Fight / JUL05 – 1 Camp Market Soldier
Mapo-gu Assault / JUL05 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
Beer Bottles Thrown at Bus / JUL05 – 3 USFK dependents
Drunk Driving E7 Hits Civilian / APR05 – 1 Soldier
Osan Shake Down / MAR05 – 1 Air Force LT
Major Murders Wife / NOV02 – 1 Yongsan Officer

On Post Incidents:

Incident and Number of Soldiers Involved

Adultery / JAN08 – 1 CRC NCO
Assault / JAN08 – 1 Yongsan Officer
Drugs / JAN08 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
Adultery / JAN08 – 1 Humphreys NCO
Drugs / JAN08 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
Assault / JAN08 – 1 CRC Soldier
Larceny / JAN08 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
Rape / JAN08 – 1 Osan Airman
Assault / DEC07 – 1 Humphreys Soldier
Adultery / DEC07 – 1 Yongsan NCO
Rape / DEC07 – 1 Stanley NCO
Drugs & Fraud / DEC07 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
Rape / DEC07 – 1 Humphreys Soldier
Larceny / DEC07 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
Assault / NOV07 – 1 Humphreys Soldier
Larceny / NOV07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Larceny / NOV07 – 1 Yongsan NCO
Larceny / NOV07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Attempted Rape / NOV07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Percocet Case / NOV07 – 2 Osan airman
Drugs / OCT07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Larceny / OCT07 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
Larceny / OCT07 – 1 Yongsan NCO
Child Porno / OCT07 – 1 Humphreys Soldier
Larceny / OCT07 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
Larceny & Marijuana / OCT07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Robbery / OCT07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Percocet Case / OCT07 – 3 Osan airman
Assault / SEP07 – 1 Casey soldier
Assault / SEP07 – 1 Humphrey soldier
Adultery / SEP07 – 1 Casey WO
Percocet Case / SEP07 – 1 Osan airman
Assault / SEP07 – 1 Yongsan soldier
Rape / SEP07 – 1 Taegu soldier
Larceny / SEP07 – 1 Osan Air Force NCO
Drunk and AWOL / AUG07 – 1 Humphreys Soldier
Larceny / JULY07 – 1 Osan Airman
Maltreatment of Soldier / JULY07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Barracks Beatdown / JULY07 – 1 Casey NCO
Larceny / JULY07 – 1 Humphreys NCO
Drunk & Disordlery / JULY07 – 1 Yongsan NCO
Indecent Assault / JUNE07 – 1 Yongsan NCO
AWOL & Internet Posting / JUNE07 – 1 Kunsan NCO
Drunk & Disorderly / JUNE07 – 1 Osan Soldier
AWOL & Larceny / JUNE07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Child Porn / JUNE07 – 1 Humphreys Soldier
Adultery / JUNE07 – 1 Humphreys Soldier
Child Porn / MAY07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Assault Case / MAY07 – 1 Humphreys Soldier
Drunk & Disorderly Conduct / MAY07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Larceny and Bad Checks / MAY07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Inappropriate Relationship / MAY07 – 1 Yongsan NCO
AWOL Case / MAY07 – 1 Casey NCO
AWOL Case / MAY07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Mail Fraud Case / MAY07 – 1 Yongsan Soldier
4th Chem Rape / MAY07 – 1 Casey Soldier
4th Chem Sexual Assault / MAY07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Child Porn Case / MAY07 – 1 Casey NCO
Stealing for Juicy Girl, Again / MAY07 – 1 Casey Soldier
Mr. Hot Pants / APR07 – 1 Osan Soldier
Stealing for Juicy Girl / APR07 – 1 Casey Soldier
First Sergeant Rape Case / APR07 – 1 Casey NCO
NCO Groping Case / JAN07 – 1 Yongsan NCO
Hover Safe Burgulars / DEC06 – 2 Hovey Soldiers
Chair Assault / DEC06 / 1 Camp Henry Soldier
Water Dumping Case / JUL00 – 1 Yongsan Civilian

The Marmot is reporting that AAFES employees are involved in black marketing of beer in Korea:

Police have busted a ring that was distributing some 33,000 cases of imported beer that was delivered to U.S. military installations [Yonhap News, Korean] but later slated for disposal after its expiration date passed.

Seoul police announced Sunday it had arrested two people, including a Mr. Yu, who was in charge of waste disposal for USFK’s exchange service (AAFES, I’ll assume), on charges of selling USFK beer whose shelf life had expired by some six months to local entertainment establishments. They also booked without detention 12 others, including a USFK exchange employee by the name of Baek, and are looking for four others who have fled.

According to police, the ring had delivered some 33,000 cases (225 tons) of old beer to local food importers between October 2005 and recently, making some 2.2 billion won in the process. The crew forged documents making it seem as if they left the beer with unlicensed waste disposal firm S, when in fact they took the beer and sold it through food importers in Namdaemun Market in Seoul, the International Market in Busan and other places.

(more…)

The soldiers involved in a brawl in Itaewon last November have been sentenced:

A South Korean judge sentenced three U.S. soldiers Friday for their participation in a Nov. 11 bar brawl in the Itaewon entertainment district.

Two soldiers — Pvt. Sylvester Antely Clark, 19, and Spc. Tydes Whiten, 27, — were sentenced to 18 months in prison for punching and striking a U.N. Club bouncer with beer bottles during the fight.

But judge Han Yang-seok suspended both sentences for two years, saying he took into account that both soldiers paid compensation to the bouncer, had no prior convictions and “had worked diligently to defend the country” as soldiers here.

Pfc. Mario Duprey, convicted of assaulting a police officer, was fined the equivalent of about $3,000.

The two soldiers involved in the brawl have been maintaining their innocence that they were not the ones who hit the bouncer with a beer bottle.  Judging by past altercations involving Koreans falsely accusing GIs of assault, this claim may quite possibly be true.  However, there is not enough information available compared to the Acosta case, to really make a determination on this and the fact that PVT Clark was led into the courtroom in shackles I found quite interesting:

Clark, who was escorted in and out of the courtroom by Army criminal investigators and restrained with his hands shackled to a belt around his waist, declined to comment.

The fact he was led into the courtroom into shackles leads me to wonder what other trouble he has gotten into to be the only one shackled in the courtroom.  No one is going to jail, but they are definitely lighter in the pocketbook and hopefully other soldiers can take some good lessons learned from this incident, especially like when you are drunk don’t go to the police station and start crap there.Â