Category: crime & punishment

This is an interesting legal question that has just come up with the recent arrest of a Korean Army soldier as a US Army deserter:

A South Korean soldier may be a U.S. military deserter after he left his U.S. base and joined the South Korean army, apparently to avoid a tour of duty in Iraq, the defense ministry in Seoul said on Thursday.

The South Korean army private second class, whose identity was given only as Kim, joined the U.S. military in 2003 to become a permanent U.S. citizen on condition that he would serve in Iraq, a ministry official said.

In 2005, he visited his home country on leave just before his U.S. unit was to be deployed to Iraq and never went back, the South Korean defense ministry official.

Instead, as he still held a South Korean passport, he was called up by the South Korean military and began serving late last year due to mandatory military enlistment.

Kim’s trouble with the U.S. military came to the surface when he went to the U.S. army headquarters in Seoul this month hoping to clear his name but was arrested on the spot.

I think the soldier in question will probably just receive a bad conduct discharge as I have seen other soldiers who have deserted in the last few years receive as well, but I’m no JAG so maybe some of you Army lawyers out there have a better understanding of what will happen to this soldier. 

HT: Marmot and Nomad

The Marmot is reporting that the soldier involved in the despicable grandma rape case has been sentenced to 4 years in prison.  The Marmot thinks that the soldier got off light.  In a US court system and especially a military court it appears he did get off easy.  Take the 2003 Camp Jackson sexual assault case for example, the NCO involved in the rape of a KATUSA soldier was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

However, if you compare the soldier’s sentence to Korean rape cases he was actually punished quite heavily.  Take this case of a Korean national raping a US Army private just arriving in country and missed the bus to Yongsan and instead decided to take a taxi.  Instead of a ride to Yongsan she was raped by the cab driver.  What happened to the cab driver you may ask?  Not much:

The Seoul High Court yesterday overturned the conviction by a lower court of a 49-year old taxi driver who had been charged with the rape of a 19-year old U.S. female soldier.
The man had received a 10-month prison term in the original trial after being convicted of luring the newly-arrived servicewoman from Incheon International Airport to a hotel near there where the woman said he raped her.

The woman reported the incident to U.S. military authorities, who asked for assistance from Korean prosecutors.  The appeals court ruled that the woman had shown no evidence of having refused the man’s advances, and that he used not enough violence to constitute rape.

Fortunately a higher court later over turned this ridiculous ruling and gave the guy a sentence of two and half years in prison.  But still two and half years for a predator that raped a 19 year old soldier?  Isn’t this rape case just as disgusting as the rape of a 67 year old woman?  At least this rape had some one arrested for it unlike when a US Army officer was raped by a Korean man in Taegu.  How about this rape of an English teacher in Seoul that is particularly unsettling.  Here is my personal favorite of a Korean man whose only punishment for attempting to rape a woman in his car was to lose his license.  Most recently the ROK Army soldier who sexually assaulted a US female soldier on Camp Casey only received a sentence of 4 years probation.

Going by the Korean standard of recent sentencing of sexual assaults against foreigners, the convicted USFK soldier in this rape case should have received up to two and half years in jail to a minimum of four years probation and possibly lose his driver’s license.

For all the talk about the unfair SOFA Agreement, this is just one case in many I have seen where if the military tried the case the criminal would have probably spent more time in jail.  Perfect example is the Camp Jackson case I mentioned earlier.  Either way the criminal is in jail and justice was served, but it would be nice to see justice served against the criminals committing sexual assaults against foreigners as well.

This story and this story of an Osan airman and a Osan Captain being tried for rape is just another example to female servicemembers that they need to be extra careful when drinking because as history has shown sexual predators are looking for overly intoxicated women to take advantage of.

Clifton Choy who worked for AAFES for 36 years has been fired over his involvement in the SSRT corruption scandal.  He joins his AAFES partner in crime Lee Holloway in the unemployment line.  The Air Force OSI continues to investigate the two and if the allegations are true let’s all hope they spend a long time behind bars for their involvement in screwing over soldiers to make a quick buck.

UPDATE: Thanks to the comments section it has been clarified that this ROK Army soldier will do no jail time.  He will be on probation for four years and as long as he doesn’t sexually assault anyone during that time he will do no jail time.  Incredible, especially when you consider all the righteous outrage when ever a USFK soldier sexually assaults a Korean national.  I don’t know of one USFK soldier getting a suspended sentence for sexually assaulting a Korean. 

What is even more telling is when you compare this case to the case where a US soldier was sentenced by a US military court to 30 years in prison for sexually assaulting a Korean KATUSA soldier at Camp Jackson while this Korean ROK Army soldier receives no jail time for sexually assaulting an American female.  I’m not saying the ROK Army soldier should get 30 years in jail because every case is different, but no jail time at all?  Come on, if this sentence was given to an American GI for sexually assaulting a Korean I can only image in the righteous outrage over it, but since it was an American that was sexually assaulted, nobody cares. 

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The ROK Army soldier who sexually assaulted a US female soldier has been sentenced by a ROK Army court:

A South Korean 6th Infantry Division soldier was sentenced Wednesday to 2 ½ years in prison for sexually assaulting a female U.S. soldier during a joint training exercise.

However, the sentence was suspended for four years, according to a South Korean 6th ID spokesman.

The South Korean military refused to allow Stars and Stripes to cover the court-martial.

The male soldier, whose name was not released, was arrested on the last day of the U.S. Army 2nd Infantry Division’s Warfighter exercise.

It is great the guy was punished but what is the four year suspension for?  It just doesn’t seem right that this guy is allowed to walk around for four years before doing his jail time.

Additionally, I found it interesting how the Korean media has not touched this story.  None of the English language Korean media sites had anything on this story plus I checked over at the Korean language Naver and Yonhap and didn’t see anything there either.  If someone else sees something in the Korean media on this story let me know.  Providing little to no coverage of the rapes and sexual assaults of USFK soldiers and foreigners in Korea is nothing new.  What will be most interesting is to compare the news coverage this story is getting to the news coverage of when the 2nd Infantry Division soldier is sentenced for last months alleged sexual assault of an elderly Korean woman.

You can do an experiment yourself and ask a Korean if USFK soldiers have been raped by a Korean before.  They more than likely will tell you no.  Then ask them if USFK soldiers have raped Koreans and they will obviously tell you yes.  This is all because of the slanted news coverage.  If you really want to have fun with them ask them when the last time a murder involving a Korean and a USFK service member happened.  They will probably tell you one of the infamous juicy girl murders when in fact the last murder between an USFK service member and a Korean was when a Korean man murdered an American major in Itaewon.  I haven’t met a Korean yet who heard of that crime when I asked them, just like very few will ever hear of the crime the ROK Army soldier committed as well. 

This guy is just weird:

A staff sergeant assigned to the 31st Civil Engineering Squadron received a six-year sentence Friday after being found guilty of three specifications of indecent assault.

Staff Sgt. Duane M. Forehand also was found guilty of four specifications of housebreaking and one of peeping by a six-officer military jury.

The charges involved incidents at Aviano and Osan Air Base in South Korea from 2002 to 2005. According to evidence presented in the court-martial, Forehand entered the dorm rooms of young male servicemembers on three occasions and touched their legs or genitals. Each servicemember had been drinking and was sleeping during the early morning.

Forehand, whose 14-year Air Force career ends with the conviction, served as a dorm manager — and thus had access to all dorm rooms on base — during the last incident.

UPDATE: The commenter claiming to be PFC Dupry looks like a fraud but the lessons learned from it are still valid.

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The USFK soldier who was beat down by Itaewon police for reasons still unclear has spoken out about what happened at the Marmot’s Hole.  The soldier PFC Mario Dupry also made another posting at Lost Nomad proclaiming his innocence.  After reading what he has to say and the media reports I think it is very clear he was unfairly beat down by the Itaewon police, however am I surprised?  Not at all.  Were the policemen in the wrong by beating him as severely as they did?  Yes and I would be very surprised if anything happens to them.  Like it or not the Korean police are the legal authority and they will cover for each other, especially against accusations from a drunk GI.

This should serve as a lesson to all USFK personnel, especially if you have been drinking, to don’t go start sh** in a Korean police station.  You will only make the situation worse.  Go get an MP to go with you to the police station or if for some reason you can’t find one call your platoon sergeant or somebody in your unit’s leadership.  You should contact your unit leadership even if you find an MP because the MP doesn’t carry as much weight with the Korean police compared to somebody in the unit leadership going down to the police station to handle whatever happened.  One drunk PFC is not going to help the situation at all at the police station, it will only make things worse. 

I have been able to on a few occasions to get soldiers out of hot water with the Korean authorities for minor offenses by going to the police station as a member of the unit leadership and apologizing for the soldiers behavior and promising that the unit would punish the individual.  I stress the word minor offenses because if you do something major like stab somebody or better yet start a brawl in the police station forget it the Korean police are going to prosecute you.  Usually for minor offenses the police will hand you over for the unit to process an Article 15 punishment on. 

Since PFC Dupry didn’t do any of the above he is in deep, but escapable trouble.  My best advice to him would be instead of bitching at the Marmot’s Hole about his predicament, to instead go to the police station with his lawyer and unit leadership and make a sincere apology to the police officers involved even though they Rodney King-ed him.  If he does this he will probably escape with a small fine.  If he thinks he can fight for his innocence in the courts because he was Rodney King-ed he will receive a much stiffer penalty.   It didn’t work in LA, it sure the hell won’t work in Itaewon. I don’t know of one soldier that has ever been found not guilty in a Korean court.  The soldier will be found guilty of something, it is in his interest to minimize the damage.  You have to swallow your pride.

This leads me to another point, the soldier says he joined the Army to help his wife and family.  When people get into hot water they always tell me to take their family into consideration before punishment and my response is always why didn’t you take your family into consideration before you got yourself into trouble?  Why is someone that is married with a family hanging out drunk in the the ville to beginn with?  Nothing good happens at late hours in the ville, especially when you are drunk.  Stay in the barracks and play Playstation like many other married soldiers I knew would do or go to on post club if you are looking to drink a few beers.

PFC Dupry also says he is facing a Chapter 14 discharge due to this incident.  Here is a good link for all you soldiers out there of AR 635-200 Active Duty & Enlisted Administrative Separations.  This is what a Chapter 14 is defined as:

This chapter establishes policy and prescribes procedures for separating personnel for misconduct because of minor disciplinary infractions, a pattern of misconduct, commission of a serious offense, conviction by civil authorities, desertion, and absence without leave.

If this soldier is being chaptered for a pattern of misconduct that means he has a documented history of bad behavior.  If this is the case it takes a lot of documentation to support a pattern of misconduct which means this guy is somebody the Army really doesn’t want around.   However, it is possible in this case that he could be chaptered for conviction by civil authorities, however his unit leadership cannot chapter him until he is convicted.  It seems premature to start a chapter on someone when they haven’t been convicted of anything yet.  Also keep in mind the unit leadership is not obligated to chapter him if convicted anyway.  For example if the soldier is just fined for the incident in the police station; I don’t see any reason why the unit leadership would chapter him if he is a quality soldier.  That is why I tend to think this soldier may have more discipline issues than he cares to let on if the unit is pushing to chapter him out of the military. 

The Chosun has the latest on the Ansan murder investigation:

Parts of a dismembered human body were found in a toilet in Ansan subway station on Line 4 around 4:30pm Wednesday. The partial remains, which consist of a woman’s trunk and two arms, were found packed in a suitcase by a subway worker identified as Chae.

Police revealed CCTV footage that shows a man in his 30s throwing the suitcase into the toilet for the disabled. Chae first saw the man around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday as he was carrying the suitcase which was dripping blood. Chae and another worker Yun blocked the man from boarding the train.

No where in the article does it say the police is looking for a foreign suspect but for some reason the Chosun felt like slipping this in at the end of the article:

The area near the subway station, Wonkok-dong, Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, has a large community of illegal foreign workers from China, Russia and Southeast Asia.

Is the Chosun implying a foreigner committed the crime?  If not why slip this passage in at the end of the article?  Anyway no matter who it is, this is one disturbed individual and hopefully the police capture him quickly.

The soldier being held for the alleged rape of a 67 year old South Korean woman definitely doesn’t seem to be the brightest of people:

In a handwritten letter to the woman, which defense attorney Jin Hyo-guen provided to Stars and Stripes, the soldier apologized to the woman but said he didn’t remember anything because he was heavily intoxicated.

On Friday, Jin said the soldier is adjusting well in the Seoul Corrections confinement facility.

Jin said he’s tried repeatedly to meet with the woman and her family but they refuse to see him or to talk about his client.

“I understand that,” he said. “It seems that it takes time for them to get stabilized.”

You can read more about this case here.

This guy has made an apology which in the Korean court system is a good thing, but now he just needs to shut up because it is beginning to appear he is harassing the victim.  He needs to start getting money for a big restitution payment because even if he didn’t do the rape, just the fact he has been arrested means he will be found guilty of something because GIs are never aquitted in Korean courts.  By paying restitution he will help reduce his jail time. 

Nomad is right, this is different:

A South Korean soldier faces trial in a military court, accused of sexually assaulting a female U.S. soldier at Camp Casey on Dec. 19, 2nd Infantry Division and Ministry of National Defense officials confirmed this week.

The soldier’s first hearing in the South Korean military court is scheduled for Feb. 2 in Dongducheon but will be closed to the public, a defense ministry spokesman said.

The 6th Infantry Division soldier has been jailed since his arrest, the spokesman said.

I can guarantee you that if the soldier is found guilty the ROK Army will punish him much more severely than the light sentences handed out to South Korean civilians who have raped US soldiers in the past.  In my unit a few years back we had a senior KATUSA go to ROK Army jail for 2 months just for hazing a soldier.  Worst of all for him was that his time in jail did not count against his two year ROK Army commitment.  His hazing crime?  He would make new KATUSAs sing patriotic Korean songs in front of the unit. Finally one new KATUSA complained and the next thing we knew the senior KATUSA was in jail.  I can only imagine how long a sexual assault conviction would land a soldier in ROK Army jail, especially when you consider the ROK Army is really going to want to save face with their USFK allies.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out when you consider in 2003 a similar incident happened between a USFK a soldier sexually assaulting a KATUSA trainee at Camp Jackson:

A U.S. military court on Thursday sentenced an American soldier to 30 years in jail for sodomizing a South Korean soldier, the U.S. military said. Two other American soldiers suspected of involvement in the assault are under investigation.

Sgt. Leng Sok was court-martialed at Camp Casey in Dongducheon, north of Seoul, on charges of aggravated assault, indecent acts, sodomy, submission of a false official statement and conspiracy.

Sok “has been found guilty in all five charges,” said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, a spokesman for the U.S. Eighth Army.

The victim’s family actually handed over jurisdiction of the case from Korean authorities, despite protests from anti-US groups, to the US military because of the light sentences given for sexual assaults in Korean courts.  The convicted sergeant in this case received 30 years in jail.  That’s sending a message and I expect the ROK Army will probably want to send a message as well.

Anyway as OFK points out the irony of this rape is quite evident when you consider all the righteous outrage from sectors of Korea over the US soldier who is alleged to have a raped a Korean woman a couple of weeks ago. I haven’t seen anything about this case in the Korean media yet compared to the instant headlines the US soldier made after his arrest two weeks ago. This is just the continuation of a trend of when crimes are committed against US soldiers little if any articles in the Korean media are written about it compared to instant headlines every time a US soldier commits any crime no matter how small against a Korean civilian.  The soldier doesn’t even have to commit a crime, it just has to appear he did to make headlines.  This is how the Myth of GI Crimes is cultivated in Korea.