Add this to ever growing list of dubious GI convictions in the Korean court system:
Two U.S. soldiers were given jail sentences Friday for trying to rape an off-duty South Korean policewoman, though one of the soldiers claims he had nothing to do with the attack.
Pfc. Mark Feldmann, who repeatedly told the court he was outside trying to catch a taxi while Sgt. Anthony Q. Basel tried to rape the woman inside a public bathroom, shook his head as the chief judge delivered the sentences — 3 years for him, and 3½ years for Basel.
SGT Basel is a dirtbag and got what he deserved in this case. However, PFC Feldmann’s case is definitely not so cut and dry. I suspected from the very beginning that the police had a weak case because it took so long to bring charges against the soldiers. With high profile GI crime cases charges are usually brought rather quickly. When charges were finally brought against the soldiers in this case, it became clear why it took so long to bring those charges. It was because the police had to get the lone witness to change his sworn statement of seeing only one soldier to suddenly seeing two soldiers at the scene.
The conviction of PFC Feldmann was so dubious that even the judge who announced the sentence recommended he appeal the dubious conviction:
When announcing the sentence, Chief Judge Lee Han-ju said the panel of judges he heads had a “very difficult deliberation” and that he hopes Feldmann appeals the sentence.
Feldmann’s attorney, Kim Jong-pyo, told Stars and Stripes after the proceedings that his client plans to do just that. Kim said the guilty verdict was “nonsense,” and Feldmann believes the verdict isn’t fair.
Kim said the judge’s statements about hoping Feldmann appeals show he “has no confidence in his decision.”
It is times like this when I refer everyone back to the word’s of Brendon Carr:
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 a lot of lying when witnesses come forward, Carr said.
This is not the first and will not be the last time that American soldiers are subject to dubious court rulings. Korean courts aren’t about determining the truth and rendering justice, they are about validating perceptions and appeasing public sentiment. The public sentiment says that Feldman is a GI bastard that needs to go to jail, thus he never stood a chance. GIs always get convicted in Korean courts. PFC Feldmann’s best hope now is to lodge the appeal and hope the appeals court suspends his sentence. Justice is still hard to find for GIs in Korea.
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7:42 am on July 29th, 2007 1
If the panel of judges recommended Feldman appeal, then who actually convicted him?
8:22 am on July 29th, 2007 2
8:24 am on July 29th, 2007 3
I believe the Korean system is still one in which 3 judges decide the case. So, it would seem the chief judge was over-ruled by the two others. That seems like the most likely explanation for what he is quoted as having been said.
Googlers will end up claiming Carr is being an Orientalist as defined by Edward Said.
But, I repeat, one of the most common things my Korean adult students would say in answer to a general question about, “What common problems does South Korean society have” was the simple - “Koreans lie too much…”
8:52 am on July 29th, 2007 4
I don’t understand ROK court system when it comes to verdict. I understand that there is three judge system. If the head judge is making a statement by saying that convicted person should appeal, then the verdict was done to save face of these three judges? Why would he make that kind of statement when he and three others choose to convict him with very little confidence? There should be without a doubt when it comes to conviction, but it looks like there is huge doubt on this judge’s statement on appeal. Maybe I watch “Law and order” too much on US court system and I do not watch much of Korean court drama. Is there any Korean court drama like “Law and Order”?
10:18 am on July 29th, 2007 5
GIs are never found innocent in Korean courts and these judges weren’t about to be the first to find one innocent. So they convict the soldier, so no hassle on them because they push the problem to the appeals court. Judges will not find GIs innocent because they don’t want to deal with the anti-US groups coming after them.
With the conviction the police and the witness get to save face because they convicted the soldier and when it goes to the appeals court, maybe the appeals court suspends the sentence but keeps the conviction on the soldier. That way everyone all around saves face and the soldier goes free. While this all plays out the soldier sits in jail and has to live with a conviction on his record.
I would also like to point out Brendon isn’t the only who thinks Koreans lie a lot, Koreans know this as well, “A Country of Liars”:
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200507/200507030027.html
11:59 am on July 29th, 2007 6
After reading the newspaper articles and knowing the actual facts, or what they percieve to be the facts, in this case it appears to me that neither one of these young men stood a chance. Did anyone know that if Basel did not confess they told him they would recommend a sentence of fifteen years. Now it is my understanding that these young men did not know the korean system and the military did not help them one ounce. This is why he confessed to something he did not do. He ran scared while Feldmann stood by his innocent plea hoping that he would see justice. But we all know that there is no justice for American GI’s in Korean. Before one makes a judgement call maybe we should know all the facts involved. Suchas, after reading all the articles regarding this case, did you all know that it was Feldmann who groped that woman earlier that evening. So maybe that is why the other judges ruled as they did. And that they were supposedly just released from being questioned on that incident just thirty minutes before the next incident was to have occured and by all means to a policewoman. Could it be that maybe just maybe, they were upset because the woman involved in the earlier incident did not press charges and that they wanted them to be charged. And this was their way of making sure that happened. After all, reading the postings here tells me that Koreans lie to get things accomplished. There are alot of what if’s involving this case and NO justice has been done. Especially to all American GI’s now serving in Korean jails for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and their only crime was being an American GI.
12:22 pm on July 29th, 2007 7
Unless all Korean verdicts must be unanimous —- the situation here clearly seems to be one in which 2 judges ruled in the majority opinion that both GIs were guilty —— and they were opposed by the 1 judge who found himself in the minority —- but —- apparently - since he was the chief or senior judge on the panel - he could give his dissenting view to the public thanks to the fact he was the one who had to give the overall verdict in the court.
I’m basically reading this - with some exaggeration - as a senior Korean judge saying in court, because he gets to read the verdicts, “My esteemed colleagues are a bunch of idiots, but what can I do? It’s 2 against 1 up here……For the love of justice, GI, please appeal this decision which I’m sure you will win on appeal.”
That is at least a bright glimmer in what is, as GI Korea (and Carr) have noted…..a dark cloud where GIs don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of winning in a Korean court.
I also think, however, that over the years, the system has tried to check the “all guilty” problem by reducing sentences on the cases that GI’s clearly got hosed in down to small fines and such.
Trying to keep this short……I have never found a case where a GI was clearly innocent and clearly sent to prison for years unjustly.
They tried to do that with the tank accident and the 2000 water dumping case, but the US wouldn’t let them have the USFK people.
But, in all other cases I’ve been able to find, the GIs were either clearly or probably or at least significantly debateably guilty and had their sentences reduced on appeal on par with Korean-on-Korean crimes, or they had the sentence reduced to pretty much nothing on appeal if it seemed likely they were hosed in the original verdict.
It still sucks they were convicted to begin with if most likely not guilty….but…..I haven’t found a case of such a GI rotting in Korean prison for years…
(Some have told me the recently release Markle was one such convicted GI, but until I hear some convincing evidence, what all I have been able to hear on the case makes me believe the chances of his guilt are high enough to not say he is an example of a falsely accused GI hosed completely by the system)…..
…..(This is not the same as my saying there was clearly enough evidence to convict Markle per US norms……I do not know enough about the case to say that one way or another……I am just saying I’ve never been given a good enough reason to believe that the man most likely did not do what he was eventually convicted of doing….whether the trial was fair or not…..which I don’t know….because I can’t get many articles in English from back then to judge for myself…)
12:26 pm on July 29th, 2007 8
In short, even if this one judge had not said what he did in public, it seems to me the system has been one in which the clearly guilty GI would probably end up doing most of his sentence or have it reduced like other Korean criminals would —- and the most likely innocent GI would have his sentence reduced by one or more appeals to a small fine.
1:21 pm on July 29th, 2007 9
Korean Kangaroo Kourt.
2:29 pm on July 29th, 2007 10
Observer,
So you are saying that SGT Basel went into a restroom, the police sent an off duty officer to go into the bathroom, lock the door, and yell rape? If someone did that to me I would open the door and get the hell out of there but Basel stuck around. Possible scenario but unlikely. I am curious to what kind of marks were on the victim. If there was some kind of struggle in the bathroom there should have been torn clothing, bruises, etc.
A lesson to learn from this is don’t get sh** faced drunk in Korea and NCOs should not be out partying with privates. Doing these two things would have kept Basel out of prison.
7:21 pm on July 29th, 2007 11
Everybody lies. In Korea, in Canada, in America. There are liars everywhere, but especially — especially — in courtrooms, worldwide.
However, this is not to say that there aren’t cultural differences between Korean liars and American liars, and between the two cultures’ ability to deal with these liars. In an American courtroom, the discrepancy between the restaurant owner Mr. Cho’s original sworn statement and his later, materially different sworn statement, would be deadly to the prosecution.
The Korean court is quick to accept any evidence against an accused, at which point the burden of proof shifts to the defendant.
However, in the Korean courtroom, it is also generally presumed that Koreans’ statements are “worth more” or more reliable than statements by foreigners — especially the accused. Once the Korean “side” (whether prosecutors or an opponent in civil litigation) puts forward its liar, the foreign litigant has a substantial burden to disprove the statement, no matter how ridiculous, self-serving, or internally inconsistent that statement may be.
7:55 pm on July 29th, 2007 12
I’d just like to offer one point of clarification: I’ve been a foreign legal consultant here in Korea for over 10 years now, and have seen many cases in the civil and criminal spheres.
Except if your case pushes a Korean “hot button”, foreigners can expect a fair outcome in the Korean court system, especially in respect of business disputes which are civil claims. Foreign companies sue Korean companies routinely, and win. English teachers cheated out of contractual entitlements sue the hagwon owners, and win. (Judgments may not be enforceable in the end due to quirks which make it harder to break through fraudulent conveyances, but hey — you won, didn’t you?)
And foreigners accused of crimes will enjoy the same rights as a Korean accused. (Which is to say, not many rights.) I am 100% convinced that American servicemembers accused of crime in Korea cannot obtain a fair trial, full stop. If accused, they will be convicted in all cases. Their sentences will also be harsher than sentences pronounced on Korean convicts.
Servicemembers usually push two Korean hot buttons at once: They represent the Yankee imperialist yoke and remind everyone of the “unfair SOFA”, and they are often not white. Koreans are profoundly prejudiced against blacks, Hispanics, and Southeast Asians (plus they hate the Japanese, and resent whites), and presume criminality. So the droopy-drawers GI shows up to the Korean court and gets an extra spanking based on who he is and what he represents, rather than what he’s done.
Once convicted and sent to the Chonan Youth Correctional Facility, the time served will be infinitely better than in another facility. The GI prisoner gets treated a lot better, mainly because Korean jail is quite shitty and the SOFA affords them certain rights. But part of me wonders whether the Chonan facility is “cushier” than a regular Korean jail because everyone knows that a significant proportion of the prisoners there are guys like PFC Feldmann?
8:34 pm on July 29th, 2007 13
Our troops are dying for freedom and democracy in Iraq and Korean courts are denying our troops freedom and democracy, what hypocrisy.
4:35 pm on July 30th, 2007 14
Brendon,
Thanks for the great comments. Do you know of any GI ever being found innocent of a crime? I have yet to see any case of a GI being found innocent. It seems the best case one can hope for is that after paying hefty blood money the sentence is suspended.
Likewise crimes against GIs also largely go unpunished. Soldiers, have been raped, assaulted, kidnapped, stabbed, etc. not to mention all the petty fraud with many Koreans going unpunished. In some cases the Koreans that commit these crimes are lauded as heroes. This pisses me off more than the soldiers not getting fair trials.
10:43 pm on July 30th, 2007 15
11:26 pm on July 30th, 2007 16
5:09 am on July 31st, 2007 17
this makes me feel less guilty about screwing a korean roommate out of $750.
1:10 pm on July 31st, 2007 18
I served with SGT Basel in Korea and in Iraq. You couldn’t ask for a better person to be next to in a crisis. We have been through hell and back and it seems that his hell is still here. When we both arrived back to the states in 2005 we were diagnosed with PTSD. The only difference is that when our unit disbanded at Fort Carson his orders sent him back to Korea and my orders sent me into Fort Hood. Apparently that made a world of difference in regards to getting treatment we needed from the command. I have been treated with medication and counseling. When talking with Basel over the past year and after numerous attempts on his part, he was not as lucky. Unfortunately, he felt he had no choice and turned to alcohol to forget his experiences in Iraq. His command repeatedly told him that if he persued the issue it would go against him when promotion time came around. I feel really terrible that such a bad thing happened to such a nice guy. I have read the articles out there and talked with his parents. Believe me when I say that he had no idea what happened that night. He was so drunk and with PTSD you experience periods of flashback moments and blackout moments. You could be totally awake but yet not aware of what you are doing. Sgt. Basel may have confessed to the crime but he also stated he did not remember which leads me to believe that this could have all been avoided if Commands in charge of soldiers listen to their cries for help. Now can you say one is guilty when psychologically they can not remember the act in which they are being accused of. Should we place these soldiers in a jail setting instead of getting them the help they need. It seems to me that if our military does not want to deal with these issues they ship the soldiers into areas that they should not be in suchas Korea. Soldiers who experience these disorders need to be kept stateside. Our military is not addressing the issues of PTSD. They choose to keep their eyes closed and send the soldiers to slaughter.
9:33 pm on August 5th, 2007 19
10:47 pm on January 20th, 2008 20
2:44 pm on May 14th, 2008 21