Category: crime & punishment

I hope this idiot learned his lesson:

Pvt. John S. McCombs of the Army¿s 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade was sentenced June 24 to reduction from E-2 to the Army¿s lowest pay grade, E-1, plus 150 days in jail. A five-member jury handed up the sentence in a court-martial that began June 23 at Camp Humphreys. Earlier, the jury found McCombs guilty of assaulting a noncommissioned officer and of drunk and disorderly conduct.

The Army tried McCombs under its rules for special courts-martial before Lt. Col. Mark Sposato, a military judge. The events that led to the court-martial began the night of March 17 at a taxi stand outside Osan Air Base, prosecutors said.

There, McCombs and two companions looked to take a taxi to Suwon Air Base, their duty station. An Air Force master sergeant also stationed there asked if he could share the cab ride. Three of the servicemembers sat in back, the airman in the middle and McCombs on his left, according to the prosecution.

Enroute to Suwon, McCombs addressed the airman, who was in civilian clothes, with ¿the N word,¿ prosecutors said. Both McCombs and the airman are white. The airman identified himself as a senior NCO and told McCombs his use of the racial slur was inappropriate and not to use it again.

At that point, the prosecution said, McCombs attacked the NCO, punching him repeatedly in the head.

At least he didn’t assault the taxi driver. Anyway I’m all for sending these idiots to jail. The Camp Humphreys Confinement Facility is no country club, so five months there should hopefully send a message to other people who like to get drunk and disorderly to modify their conduct.

2ID soldiers may excel at taxi cab related incidents, but the airmen in Osan have quite a record of stupid crimes themselves. The latest is a pair of government travel card fraud cases:

Two airmen were sentenced in separate trials here Wednesday for putting thousands of dollars in wrongful charges on their government credit cards, officials said.

Senior Airman Duane Jones of the 51st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron was sentenced to reduction to the lowest military pay grade, E-1, and a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force. Jones, 33, had been in the Air Force six years.

A four-member jury found Jones guilty of putting $8,400 in unauthorized charges on his government travel card between January and December 2005.

Staff Sgt. Michael D. Glover of the 51st Communications Squadron received a court reprimand after pleading guilty to putting $4,200 in unauthorized charges on his government travel card between May 2005 and this February.

These guys are not the first and most assuredly will not be the last to commit government travel card fraud. I don’t know how they expected to get away with the crimes when the command has visibility over travel card purchases. I’m actually surprised they got away with it as long as they did.

Careers and lives ruined over a few thousand dollars.

Remember the guy that exposed himself on the Gwangju subway? Well he has now been fined by a Korean court:

Pfc. Joseph B. Freydenfeldt of Battery B, 2nd Battalion, 35th Air Defense Artillery Brigade, drew the sentence from Gwangju District Court on May 4 and was given one month to pay, a court official said. The court fined him 1 million South Korean won, or $1,077. Freydenfeldt and two other soldiers involved in the incident also have been punished by their unit under Article 15 of U.S. military law, a spokeswoman for 8th U.S. Army in Seoul said Monday. Gwangju police said Freydenfeldt exposed himself while the other two laughed, made sexually explicit motions and took digital pictures as Freydenfeldt sat next to a female passenger.

What a bunch of idiots. The fine from the Korean court may seem pretty light but keep in mind that he was also hit with an Article 15 that was assuredly a Field Grade level one after his battalion commander and command sergeant major had to apologize to the city mayor for their conduct. A field grade article 15 means the soldier can be knocked down two ranks which means a significant loss of pay along with taking a half months pay for two months, not to mention the 45 days of extra duty and restriction they will have to endure. Those were some extremely expensive photos.

From the Chosun:

Police on Saturday booked a man in his 50s over a scuffle with a woman on Line 2 of the Seoul subway.The man identified as Park got on the train at Seoul National
University Station at around 7 p.m. when he saw the woman identified as Ju sitting in a seat reserved for the elderly. You’re young, what do you think you’re doing sitting here? Get out of the way, he was quoted as shouting. When Ju refused to budge, Park pulled her out of the seat by her arm and slapped her in the face. However, police investigation revealed that Park, a carpenter by trade, was in fact the younger of the two at the age of 55, while his hapless victim was 56. Police quoted Park as saying Ju’s face looked so fresh he was convinced she was younger. He has been booked for assault.

He should have known better; you can only assault USFK soldiers on the subway and expect to get away with it.  In fact you can assault, kidnap, beat, and force them to make coerced statements on national TV and get away with it.

SGT Han the CRC soldier convicted and sent to Korean prison for cheating on his wife and lieing to his mistress may have his prison sentence reduced if he can pay off his mistress:

After a U.S. soldier in trouble for his relationships with two Korean women offered a $21,500 payment to his wife, a South Korean judge dropped one of two charges against him.

Sgt. Jin-hong Han, an American, pleaded guilty in December to adultery and breaching a promise of marriage.

He was in Uijeongbu District Court on Friday to be sentenced on an appeal decision from Chief Judge Bae Jun-hyun. Han had appealed his sentence, saying he felt remorse for his actions and didn’t realize he was breaking local laws.

The judge dropped the adultery charge after hearing of Han’s settlement offer to his wife.

But Han told the judge that he has yet to find his ex-girlfriend to offer her a similar settlement, a common action common in South Korean criminal cases that can lessen a defendant’s final jail sentence.

What does the mistress think of this?:

Have you ever made any contacts with Kim Hyo-jin? the judge asked Han of his former girlfriend.

Ues, I have, Han said. But I wasn’t able to get through to her. I think that she is not in Korea.

So before issuing a final decision on Han’s current 10-month sentence, the judge gave Han two more weeks, postponing his sentencing until May 26.

Stripes, however, was able to contact Kim on Friday at a telephone number she said she’s used for years. She said she has not heard from Han.

He never intended to make any settlement with him; I never will, Kim told Stripes. Even if he would offer me billions and billions [of] won. I cannot forgive him because he completely destroyed my life and my future.

It looks like SGT Han better get used to jail for a little while longer.

Despite what the anti-US hate groups say the SOFA Agreement continues to work just fine:

Five soldiers were found guilty and sentenced to prison in Uijeongbu court on Tuesday for the Christmas-night assault and robbery of a taxi driver.

Pvt. Kidrem Cortez Porter, 21, received four years in prison, minus 67 days of time served at a Seoul detention center.

Four others received sentences of three and a half years in prison: Spc. Nicholas John Durkin, 21; Pfc. John D. McCall Jr., 21; Pvt. Javon Joshua Reid, 20; and Spc. Ivey Nathaniel Westbrook, 21, who received credit for two days of time served in detention.

You are all military personnel of the U.S. Army and therefore must respect Korean law,lead judge Cho Yun-shin said through an interpreter.

Pretty stiff sentences because I have seen plenty of people do far worse and receive less punishment through the Korean courts, but I really don’t feel sorry for them. Hopefully this will send a message and end these taxi cab related incidents.

I have to agree with Nomad, when will these guys ever learn?:

An Air Force staff sergeant with six years of service was sentenced Monday to one year in prison and a bad-conduct discharge after pleading guilty to bilking the Air Force out of thousands of dollars in housing allowances.

Staff Sgt. Lanny Marsh of the 51st Munitions Squadron also was sentenced to reduction to the military?s lowest pay grade, E-1, in a court-martial before Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Dillow.

Dillow sentenced him after Marsh pleaded guilty to stealing $13,500 in basic allowance for housing, or BAH, payments and making a false official statement. The BAH fraud began early last year and continued until almost the end of the year.

What city did this dope pick for his BAH you ask? Just guess:

Auditors grew suspicious of Marsh?s claims and alerted Osan-based agents of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. The agents had their OSI counterparts in the San Francisco area check the address at which Marsh claimed his family was living.

?No one there knew who this Marsh family was,? Meador said.

These people committing BAH fraud are truly idiots when they put San Francisco down for BAH. Putting San Francisco on your finance forms is just like a beacon for CID agents to investigate you because it is the location with the highest BAH rate. To make this guy even look stupider is the fact that the finance people when you inprocess warn you explicitly about BAH fraud and San Francisco in particular. Don’t commit BAH fraud, it just isn’t worth it. Ask this guy.

The lawyer for the Camp Red Cloud Sergeant Jin-hong Han has now appealing to have his 10 month prison sentence reduced.  However, his former wife and fooled fiance say that 10 months is not enough:

In the months and years they knew Han, he lied about his income, Army rank, marital status and intentions, both women said in separate phone interviews with Stars and Stripes recently.

Na, the wife, has polio and had hoped her marriage to a U.S. Army officer would bring her a more rewarding life. Kim, the girlfriend, said she gave up her job and home in Australia to return to Seoul and marry a man who made ¿rosy promises.

Now, Kim compares her dealings with Han to a movie or soap opera: Who on Earth can guess [this] absolute nightmare happened in my life? she said.

This case is just weird.  Read the rest of the article to get the complete details.

This is why 18 year olds shouldn’t be at Hongdae at 4AM in the morning:

The first thing Jasmyn Chambers, 18, remembers from early morning Feb. 25 isn’t the pain of a jagged beer bottle slicing through her face. What struck her first was bewilderment.

She still has trouble understanding why a soldier, or any man, would slash a woman’s face so badly she would need 80 stitches.

“I can’t believe he’s a person that would do that to somebody,” said the Seoul American High School senior.

The accused soldier, Pfc. Christopher Myers, 20, of the 435th Medical Detachment at Camp Humphreys, is charged with multiple offenses including aggravated assault and underage drinking.

This soldier is undoubtedly going to face stiff military punishment and will possibly also be subjected to punishment from the Korean authorities as well. This guy has to got to be quite a scumbag to hit an 18 year old girl with a beer bottle.

Now why an 18 year old girl is clubbing at Hongdae, well that is open to debate.

Who would of thought a Russian music degree would be so valuable:

Prosecutors said Sunday that they have arrested a South Korean woman on charges of selling fake Russian music degrees to about 120 South Koreans in collusion with a Russian professor.

The 51-year-old woman, identified only by her family name Do, was charged with selling counterfeit Russian music doctorates to 21 South Korean professors and musicians and fake master’s degrees to about 100 other Koreans, prosecutors said.

Do is believed to have colluded with a Russian professor, who now serves as the dean of a Russian music college, identified only as its initial, V, they said…….

“Do advertised her institute as a Korean campus of the Russian university and the Russian college dean came here along with a couple of other Russian professors for about 10 days a year to provide lessens,” said a prosecutor. “Each student paid about 4 million to 5 million won in lesson fees per semester.”

Do, who runs a private musical institute in southern Seoul, was accused of receiving about 2.5 billion won (US$2.4 million) from the buyers of the fake Russian degrees, said the prosecutors, adding that the illegal proceeds were equally shared with the Russian professor.

So why would someone buy a fake Russian degree you may ask:

The 21 Koreans who bought fake doctorates are now teaching in universities or performing in symphony orchestras after registering their forged degrees with the Korea Research Foundation.

It kind of pisses me off that many people work hard for many years to get through college and earn real degrees and people like this take good jobs away from these people with their fake credentials.