Category: crime & punishment

The Camp Red Cloud sergeant convicted for a false marriage proposal in exchange for sex has now filed an appeal to his 10 month jail sentence:

A married U.S. soldier sentenced last week to 10 months in South Korean prison in connection with an adulterous relationship appealed the sentence Friday, his lawyer and U.S. military officials confirmed.

(…)

“He is under the watchful eye and supervision of his command,” said Maj. Karl Ivey. Ivey confirmed that Han had submitted an appeal.

Officials at Uijeongbu District Court said the appeals process could take up to two months.

Apparently the sergeant is going to claim that he didn’t know the false marriage proposal law existed in South Korea:

During the sentencing, the judge acknowledged that the crime of sexual intercourse under the pretense of marriage exists in South Korea but not America.

Still, the judge considered that Han grew up in South Korea, lied to his girlfriend about his marriage and his rank, and even hired a person to portray his father when he met his girlfriend’s parents.

Han, a U.S. citizen, moved to the States during high school and joined the U.S. Army in 2000.

I don’t think it matters if he knew about the law or not, he still broke the law and was held accountable for it in a Korean court per the SOFA agreement. The only way I see this guy not doing jail time is if he makes a compensation payment to the victim, which from all that I have seen, he has not done.

I can remember the 2001 St. Patrick’s Day night that the American student Jamie Penich was murdered in Itaewon very clearly because I was out on the town that night and actually visited the bar that Penich was last at, though not at the same time so I never saw her. The murder definitely sent waves through the USFK community because it was suspected that a USFK servicemember was the person responsible for the murder. Many servicemembers were questioned about what they saw in Itaewon that night but no arrests were ever made.

This case took so many twists and turns that it could be made into a movie, but ultimately Penich’s friend was the only person charged with the murder which included allegations of lesbianism and a confession from the suspected killer to US authorities. However, the case continued to take more twists and turns as the suspected murderer withdrew her confession during the Korean court trial and was found innocent and now that not guilty verdict has been upheld:

The Supreme Court upheld yesterday a lower court ruling acquitting an American student on charges of murdering another U.S. student in Korea in 2001. The court said there was insufficient evidence to convict Kenzi Snider, 24, of killing Jamie Lynn Penich. Ms. Snider had been accused of beating Ms. Penich to death in a motel in Itaewon in March 2001.

The court said it did not accept Ms. Snider’s confession to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation because it was later retracted. After questioning in Korea, Ms. Snider was questioned by the F.B.I. in the United States and confessed to the murder. Extradited to Korea in 2002, Ms. Snider disavowed her confession at her trial here. The court said evidence from another country’s authorities is only admissible if the suspect confirms it to a court here.

I highly recommend that everyone read this Court TV report on the murder because the twists and turns this case takes is truly amazing, while the murderer is still at large. I wonder if the authorities could have solved this murder if they didn’t just focus on the GI murderer stereotype from the beginning of this case like they did? There will probably never be any justice for Jamie Penich’s family, but read the report to draw your own conclusions.

The Osan Shakedown scandal has taken another interesting turn:

Lawyers for the Air Force officer convicted in an Osan Air Base bar district shakedown scandal in September say final steps in the case have met with post-trial delay.

Arguing that the delay poses a legal hindrance to their client, 1st Lt. Jason D. Davis, they’ve asked the Air Force to reduce his prison sentence. Until his arrest in March, Davis headed the 51st Security Forces Squadron’s police team patrolling the bar district outside Osan Air Base.

Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Dillow, Pacific circuit military judge, sentenced Davis on Sept. 21 to dismissal from the Air Force and two years in prison. Davis now is in the Charleston Naval Brig in Charleston, S.C.

But final post-trial action is still pending because the official trial records” including a transcript of legal proceedings and trial exhibits” have yet to be given to Air Force Lt. Gen. Garry R. Trexler.

Now because of a possible court clerical error Davis may now have more time taken off his already amazingly lenient two year sentence he has already received. The continuing strangeness of this case just makes you wonder if the conspiracy theories are true.

This is definitely one of those only in Korea stories that actually happens more often than you would think. This guy just got caught, but what an outrageous story anyway:

A U.S. soldier admitted in Korean court Wednesday that he had cheated on his wife and promised to marry his girlfriend in return for a sexual relationship, both crimes under Korean law.

Sgt. Jin-hong Han, 35, who is assigned to the 2nd Infantry Division, didn’t know he was committing crimes when he began an affair with a Korean woman this fall, his lawyer, Jung Jin-sung said in Uijeongbu District Court on Wednesday morning.

Still, through his lawyer, Han admitted to both crimes, and the Uijeongbu prosecutor requested a sentence of 18 months in prison. Judge Kim Byung-ju will sentence Han on Jan. 11.

So this guy is looking at a year and half in Korean prison, so that once again proves that SOFA agreement between the US and Korea does in fact work yet I’m curious if the Korea Times will proclaim that this is the first time a US soldier is to stand trial in Korea every time a US soldier stands trial in a Korean court.

Anyhow, the jail sentence seems more likely than him ever meeting the monetary settlement being demanded:

During Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Kim asked Han if he wanted to deny anything his lawyer said. Han told the judge his lawyer was telling the truth.

Kim asked both sides if a settlement was possible in the case. According to Han’s lawyer, the wife has asked for $10 million.

$10 million dollars! Even if this guy was an O5 he couldn’t afford $10 million. He needs to just suck it up and go to jail. The Choenan jail isn’t that bad. Make sure you read the rest of the article because this guys act was so elaborate it was humorous.

Well known commenter USinKorea has posed an interesting question in regards to a debate he was having over on USFK Forums over the perceived notion that GI’s regulary get away with murder and crimes in Korea. Here is the question he has posed:

I want to know from you other people who have been to the ville and around GIs a lot more than I have….

Is what we see in the press just 1% of what goes on with 99% of the real crimes having the US authorities obstructing the Korean police?

What have you seen? Did you frequently see GIs busting bottles over the heads of Koreans and the MPs stepping in to save the GIs from the Korean police? (A specific claim in the discussion on the other site).

What has been your experience?

I have stated before that much of the petty crime that happens in the ville is not reported in the Korean media and why should it? For example a soldier steals a laptop computer from a drinky girl club and is caught. The Korean police will hand him over to the MPs to deal with even though they have jurisdiction over him. The KNPs don’t want to bother with the paperwork and since the property has been recovered and returned it is easier for the KNPs to let the US military deal with such violators. This is a scenario I have personally seen happen.

Another example would be someone caught urinating in public. Yes this pops up on the blotter from time to time. The KNPs have the authority to prosecute these cases if they want too but they don’t and let the military’s UCMJ process take over instead.

First of all, though much of the petty crime is not reported, but why should minor crimes like those described make the news at all? Why should some minor altercation with a taxi cab driver be splashed acrossed the nation’s newspapers when such incidents like this happen every day in Korea between Koreans? The only reason I can see such minor incidents receiving publicity is the desire of the media to convey an anti-GI message to the Korean public.

Secondly, people who think soldiers get off lightly for alcohol related offenses are sadly mistaken. It may look that way from the outside looking in when people only see the MPs take someone away but the reality is much different.

In my unit it is an automatic Field Grade Article 15 which leads to a loss of two ranks, pay, restriction to the unit area, and extra duty and a second offense will get you chaptered from the Army. Plus the loss of rank leads to additional loss of pay because if an E4 gets knocked down to an E2 he is losing about $700 a month and will probably take about a year to get back to E4. That means the soldier lost $8400 in one year, which is actually even more if the E4 was close to getting promoted to E5 and is now an E2 and this is on top of the money taken from him from the Article 15 which can be over a $1000. One alcohol related incident can quickly turn into one expensive night out in a hurry.

What happens to a drunk Korean that gets caught pushing a taxi driver or urinating on a building? I am willing to bet that they don’t receive the amount of punishment I have listed above if any punishment at all much less get media coverage.

Also the notion that GI’s get away with murder is also humorous when there is a Korean prison in Pyoengtaek with GI murderers sitting in it right now.

I would like to turn the tables and pose the question of how many Koreans are getting away with crimes against GI’s? For example let’s start with something simple like apartment owners keeping outrageous rental deposits knowing that the GI’s PCS date is coming up and he won’t be able to do anything about getting his money back once he is gone. Yes this is a common problem.

What about the soldiers that have been kidnapped in Dongducheon and beaten and robbed. I have in fact witnessed one assault in the TDC Ville three years ago when four Korean thugs beat the heck out of soldier knocking him unconcious with a brick and then flee when other soldiers nearby including myself responded. The MP’s arrived and took over and I don’t know what the fight was about or what started it, but the bottom line is that it was 4 on 1 and they used a brick to crack the soldier’s head open. Sounds like a crime to me.

An even more telling example is the rape of a female Army officer in Daegu? Where is the outrage, candle light vigils, and demands on the Korean police to find the rapists from the Korean media and public? This story has been conveniently hidden from the Korean media while everytime a GI scuffles with a taxi cab driver the amount of media coverage it receives you would think the GI is public enemy number one and a threat to the Korean nation; when in fact the real public enemy is a rapist that is still running around freely in Korean society.

You want more examples? How about the kidnapping and assault of the 2ID soldiers in 2002 who were riding on a Seoul subway when assaulted by an anti-American group and then dragged against their will, from the subway to a college campus and forced to make coerced statements on TV. What happened to the people that committed these crimes? Nothing. Could you imagine what would happen if me and a few of my buddies kidnapped and beat some Korean youths walking by Camp Casey and brought them on post and forced them to make anti-Korean statements on AFN? Sounds like a ridiculous scenario but it is exactly what the people that kidnapped those soldiers from the subway did and they recevied no punishment.

I could go on and on with examples, but I think I have made my point. Now should I condemn the entire Korean race because of the few criminals that have committed crimes against GI’s and got away with it? That would be ridiculous because I know Korea is a very safe country and I feel much safer walking down any street in Korea than I do walking down some streets in America. It is the same way with GI’s. The vast majority of GI’s aren’t bothering anyone but the few that do cause incidents get blown way out of proportion in the media. Imagine if the US media put on the front page every crime a Korean committed against US troops no matter how insignificant it was. The American public would quickly start demanding that US troops be brought home so it is no wonder that the Korean public has such a negative image of GI’s when the Korean media is the one causing it.

So when I hear people repeat the same tired and worn accusations of GI’s getting away with murder and crimes regularly in Korea without any proof; I can’t help, but feel cynical by such comments. Just last summer Korean newspapers were reporting that the SOFA Agreement was allowing all these US soldiers to get away with all these crimes that they cannot substantiate. But perception is stronger than reality and no matter how many orphanages or public works projects USFK undertakes, it will not be enough to overcome the biased Korean media. The best way to change the Korean media is to publicize crimes committed against Americans in the US media. Notice when the MacArthur statue protests in Inchon began to receive US media attention how quickly the Korean media jumped to condemn the protesters and no more protests have occurred at the statue since. The truth can be more powerful than perceptions if people are allowed to hear it.

In the latest strange incident to come out of 2ID, an NCO apparently is in hot water for calling off a marriage proposal with a Korean woman:

A U.S. soldier faces up to two years in Korean jail after promising to marry a South Korean woman, having sex with her, then reneging on the engagement, according to Korean court and prosecution officials.

(…)

Sgt. Han Jin-hong, a 35-year-old soldier with the 2nd Infantry Division, faces the prospect of that punishment, according to the Uijeongbu prosecutor’s office.

Han, who is married, also faces a charge of adultery in Korean court, according to Yang Seung-seok of the Uijeongbu prosecutor’s office.

U.S. Forces Korea officials confirmed that Han is assigned to 2nd ID, but no further information was available Tuesday afternoon from military officials.

According to the Korean prosecutor, Han met a 36-year-old Korean woman through an Internet chat room. He told the woman he was a lieutenant colonel and single, and he promised to marry her, Yang said. They had a sexual relationship from June to September, meeting in both Seoul and the Uijeongbu areas, Yang said.

I have a feeling that this case will probably just be handed over to USFK to deal with after the NCO makes some kind of payment to the woman to settle the matter which is a common practice in Korea. However, he will still be in hot water because adultery and impersonating an officer under the military justice system are serious offenses that will end his career and can put him in jail.

I’m curious if charges like this have ever been prosecuted against a Korean men or US soldiers before?

Of course you can go over to Nomad’s site for more opinions on this topic.

Becareful who you pick up on at a nightclub is the moral of this story:

A 29-year-old woman was sentenced to life imprisonment for injuring her husband, ex-husband and family members to receive insurance money, and fatally burning others.

The Seoul Central District Court yesterday handed down a life imprisonment sentence to a woman, identified as Uhm, who was arrested on 10 counts of charges including murder and arson.

A panel of judges said in a ruling statement that Uhm had shown no sign of regret for her cruel acts against her two husbands, family members and others.

Uhm stabbed her former husband, identified as Lee, in the eyes after feeding him sleeping pills in a quarrel over his low wages in May, 2001.

She also abused her ex-husband by pouring hot oil on Lee’s face and received insurance money for his injuries by disguising it as an accident.

She pocketed a total of 280 million won before her ex-husband died of complications.

It only gets better, check this out:

However, she continued to commit further miserable crimes against her current husband, identified as Lim, who she met in a nightclub right after her former husband’s death.

Lim also went blind after being stabbed with a sharp instrument and burned by Uhm, who pocketed about 38 million won in insurance money.

She also blinded her mother, identified as Kim, 52, and brother, 29, in July and November 2003, respectively, five months after her second husband died of burns.

Uhm also set fire to her sister’s house, for fear that her wrongdoing in pocketing money from the sale of her family’s apartment in January this year might be revealed.

Unbelievable. At least she got a life sentence.

This crap in the Chosun Ilbo is incredible. Anybody think this is true:

No U.S. Soldiers Held in Hundreds of Crimes

U.S. troops stationed in Korea were reportedly involved in 780 criminal acts, three of them homicides, between 2000 and August 2005, yet not a single one of them has been brought to book here, Seoul Metropolitan Police data show. Statistics announced on Monday by Democratic Labor Party lawmaker Lee Young-soon during an audit of the police show U.S. Forces Korea personnel implicated in three murders, 19 robberies, 149 thefts and other illegal activities, but none were in police custody.

(…)

“Police do not even start questioning suspects before they are officially handed over to the U.S. because they claim there are no interpreters, while U.S. representatives are only concerned with taking custody of the suspect rather than to cooperating with the investigation,” Lee said. She urged police to be aware of SOFA guidelines on dealing with suspects and take a more active part in the initial investigation. Lee proposed creating a department that would handle all USFK-related business and boost police personnel in areas where U.S. forces are concentrated and crimes are frequent.

Where do I begin on this one? First of all, if the Korean police have custody of a soldier especially for homicide why do they hand the soldier over to the MPs to begin with? Secondly, I would like to see proof of these alleged homicides that were never prosecuted because there are plenty of soldiers in ROK jail now for homicides and manslaughter. Maybe they were handed over because there was not enough evidence and they were innocent? GI’s aren’t guilty for all the murders in Korea despite what some would like you to believe.

Thirdly, in regards to all the thefts, often if a GI for examples steals a laptop out of some juicy club in the ville and gets reported, the Korean police will contact the MPs to handle the case. The MPs will then find the soldier, locate the property, and return the property to the owner. The Korean police than let the military keep jurisdiction on the case and conduct military justice on the soldier because it is less work for the Korean police to do. They got more important things to do like sleep in their cars.

This is the same procedure the Korean police use for many low level crimes that GIs commit. Here is another example for you I have seen happen in the past, a soldier getting picked up for urinating on the side of a building. The Korean police let the US military handle these things. However the Korean police have initial jurisdiction to handle these cases due to the SOFA agreement. This is getting to the point that maybe USFK should make the police do their jobs so crap like this doesn’t get printed. Make them write up every soldier caught urinating on a building instead of sleeping in their patrol cars.

In regards to parking tickets I have no experience with this since I’m in 2ID and we can’t drive maybe Mark can provide some insight into that, but it is probably BS like the rest of this article.

Maybe I should start tallying a list of unreported Korean crimes and demand a change to the SOFA agreement to allow the MPs to take custody of these people. Just imagine how large my list would be if we reported every taxi driver that tries to rip off soldiers. A criminal activity that would really make the statistics go through the roof would be to tally every time a soldier is offered a prostitute. That’s a crime right? What about selling alcohol to minors? I could easily manipulate a statistic to push an agenda and that is what this whole article is about, pushing an agenda that GI’s are criminals. I’m not buying it, but unfortunately many Korean people are.

One of the groups protesting the US base expansion in Pyeongtaek is now considering wether or not to protest the light sentence given for corruption of the former leader of the Osan Town Patrol:

South Korean activist groups will consider mounting a campaign of protest rallies if the U.S. Air Force secretary lets 1st Lt. Jason D. Davis resign and avoid the prison term he received at his court-martial last week, an activist leader said Friday.

And they said they will seek legal advice on whether to urge South Korean prosecutors to charge Davis with rape, a charge Air Force prosecutors brought but later dropped when the alleged victim declined to go forward.

I actually hope they push this issue to try him in Korean courts because for whatever reason Davis did get a pretty light sentence. I can only guess why the Korean authorities push to arrest the driver of the LMTV that in an obvious accident, killed a elderly Korean woman jaywalking in Dongducheon, but they don’t decide to go after Davis? Here is why the authorities say they can’t go after Davis:

Kim said he’ll ask South Korean lawyers whether the nation’s legal system gives South Korean prosecutors avenues to pursue a rape case against Davis. If so, said Kim, his organization will press for that prosecution.

Jung Yu-seok, chief of the Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center, said Friday that South Korean authorities typically will not pursue a rape case if the alleged victim declines to testify or otherwise aid an investigation.

However, Jung added, a third party such as Kim’s organization could call on authorities to prosecute a case, but it is unlikely the prosecutors would do so unless first provided with the amount and type of evidence they would need to build a strong case.

Why would the Korean woman that was responsible for bringing attention to this case to begin with suddenly disappear and not testify? There are plenty of opinions on this matter but one thing for sure is that the Songtan business owners are eager to get back to business as usual:

.C. Lee, Songtan Chamber of Commerce president, said he was satisfied with Davis’ sentence, adding that now it’s key that the Air Force ensure such abuses are not repeated lest they inflame anti-U.S. feelings.

Nowadays many different kinds of groups have their own voices and then they can say, Oh, Yankees no good or, Americans no good, Lee said.

That kind of things we would like to prevent for future times.

I was reading the Stars and Stripes today and saw that the former Osan town patrol officer, 1LT Jason Davis was sentenced to 2 years in prison for his actions. The Stars and Stripes will have the article on their site tomorrow. Here is what 1LT Davis had to say in the article:

“I set a bad example for a lot of people. I’m here because I screwed up and I’m an idiot… My actions set back town patrol… Those guys deserved the recognition and they didn’t deserve the recognition that I bought them… I got no excuse.”

Everything that I have heard about 1LT Davis is that he is in fact an idiot and deserves what he got. However, I can’t help but think that I have seen soldiers get more time in military prison for charges not nearly as serious 1LT Davis’. I wasn’t at the trial and maybe the defense lawyers did a good job showing what a great guy 1LT Davis is to get so little jail time. I don’t know, however I was tipped off to this article by Mark who was commenting over at Nomads site.

The site Military Corruption.com brings up some good points worth sharing. First of all that the court martial was executed during Chusok to avoid Korean press coverage was slick. Secondly, the fact that the Korean girl that Davis had a romantic relationship with that exposed his activities to begin with didn’t testify I also found interesting. It seems like she would have been the key witness in this whole court martial. Thirdly, the site believes the fix may have been in for this trial to keep Davis quiet about how far up the chain the corruption went. After seeing this light sentence, who knows, you can be the judge on that one.