By Via a reader tip comes news that the GI accused of a rape in Seoul has finally been arrested:
Prosecutors on Tuesday arrested a U.S. soldier on charges of sexually assaulting an underage South Korean girl.
The Seoul Central District Court granted the prosecutors’ earlier request for an arrest warrant, saying it feared the soldier could destroy evidence or flee. [Yonhap]
We will see how this plays out but like I mentioned before this case is not as cut and dry as the Dongducheon rape case. So how does a guy months after allegedly committing a rape destroy evidence? If the prosecutors were so concerned about him destroying evidence why didn’t they arrest him immediately after the crime?
This case is reminding me more and more of the policewoman rape case where the evidence didn’t support what happened, but the GI was indicted and convicted anyway likely due to public pressure at the time. After the media sensationalism died down the GI appealed the sentence and his conviction was overturned by the appeals court.
She hasn’t seen...
10:48 pm on December 6th, 2011 1
In more hard-hitting news of the unstoppable soldier crime wave, Yonhap reported today of an arrest of a US serviceman for….you’d better sit down for the shock…forging checks totaling a massive 800,000 won. Certainly a story that will require a great deal of national media attention.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2011/12/07/0301000000AEN20111207002100315.HTML
10:56 pm on December 6th, 2011 2
Under age? Doesn’t Yonhap know that the rape of anyone at any age is wrong
10:59 pm on December 6th, 2011 3
The police here mishandle investigations all the time. A movie has been made about the most notorious case (Memories of Murder, excellent movie by the way). Remember how they messed things up a few years ago when they investigated the murder of an American woman?
11:08 pm on December 6th, 2011 4
When did this happen supposedly?
11:17 pm on December 6th, 2011 5
#4,
About 10 years ago. 60 Minutes or one of those shows even did an episode about it if I remember correctly.
11:18 pm on December 6th, 2011 6
…basically, their main suspect was another American woman when evidence pointed at a man being the culprit.
11:23 pm on December 6th, 2011 7
No, not about the movie. When did the supposed rape of the underage Korean female happen??
11:30 pm on December 6th, 2011 8
Oh, don’t know.
But the victim of the murder I’m talking about was named Jamie Penich. Court TV used to have a long article about it.
12:36 am on December 7th, 2011 9
Hmmm … Rape cases being prosecuted even though there isn’t much evidence to support it? Where have I heard that before? We just had an article saying the US military is doing pretty much the same thing.
12:49 am on December 7th, 2011 10
BTW, the FBI just updated their definition of rape.
Beware! If your kids learn to do the Pongo, booty poking thing Korean kids like to do and they take it back to the States, they might be susceptible to being charged with rape.
12:51 am on December 7th, 2011 11
Screwed up the link closing tag
1:36 am on December 7th, 2011 12
#7 – the alleged rape happened back in September (17th I think), but they didn’t even get around to formally charging him until October 7th:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2011/10/113_96254.html
This whole case has seemed a bit ‘fishy’ – not at all a slam-dunk like the TDC case that happened just before this one…
3:47 am on December 7th, 2011 13
Teadrinker, the woman who was killed was Jamie Penich. I spoke to her mother at length about the case, giving her advice about something which now I can’t remember.
It was over St Patrick’s Day in 2001. It was Court TV that did a piece on it (link here).
I don’t think that’s correct. The Korean police were unable to solve it, but it was the FBI or some other US law enforcement agency back in the US that had another American woman, Kenzi Snider, as the culprit, and she actually confessed, though she retracted it a few days later.
The whole case was botched, but it was botched by more than just the Korean police. If I recall, a potential witness was asked to identify a GI who may have been there in a parking lot (on post?) with the potential suspect looking right at her. If that was CID, they really dropped the ball.
5:30 am on December 7th, 2011 14
#13,
You’re forgetting the man-sized boot print and the witness who claimed she saw a man with blood on his pants.
“the woman who was killed was Jamie Penich”
Urm, that’s what I said. She was the victim.
“It was Court TV that did a piece on it.”
Yeah, I finally found it after I posted. You can’t read the long article they had at their website any longer(Court TV has since changed name).
“The whole case was botched, but it was botched by more than just the Korean police.”
I agree, the whole investigation was a mess.
PS. The Korean police contaminated the crime scene, if I remember correctly. That’s what I was referring to.
6:38 am on December 7th, 2011 15
Nothing that happens in Korea is…how it seems…
1:36 pm on December 7th, 2011 16
#14,
“Court TV”…
It’s TruTV’s “In Session”
http://insession.blogs.cnn.com/
1:41 pm on December 7th, 2011 17
Hmm… when I posted that, your #5 didn’t appear, only #3 and #6.
6:04 pm on December 7th, 2011 18
As I just noted on my blog, I really hope the prosecutors are bring more than they’ve shown to the media so far:
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2011/12/08/gi-in-mapo-rape-case-detained/
6:12 pm on December 7th, 2011 19
#16,
Yes, that’s right. The problem is that you can’t access some of their old articles at their new website. But, apparently the article was expanded into a book.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061154431/hitchmagazine-20
#17,
Or maybe you spend so much time blogging that you’re starting to get cross-eyed.
7:57 pm on December 7th, 2011 20
I think the Korean Police and Italian Police should get to gather and trade notes………………………………………ON HOW TO PROCESS A CRIME SCENE!!!
10:35 pm on December 7th, 2011 21
I attended a University of Maryland public lecture on base several years back. The speaker was an American law professor who worked at one of the Korean prosecutors offices. The subject was on the differences between the Korean justice system and what we (Americans) were familiar with.
One of the more unusual things he mentioned was that Korean police aren’t authorized to do crime scene investigations until they first get approval from the prosecutor’s office.
I wonder how much that jurisdictional dispute affects some of these cases. It probably has a lot to do with some of the Koreans’ criticism of the ?supposedly SOFA caused? delays when accused GIs are handed over until charges are ready.
10:37 pm on December 7th, 2011 22
#21
correction: “GIs aren’t handed over”
11:19 pm on December 7th, 2011 23
I think a recent move by the US Senate will help put an end to these GI rape cases, and they did it without removing the rules that clamped down on ville life….
2:39 am on December 8th, 2011 24
USinKorea…
Removing beastiality laws from the UCMJ won’t change anything in USFK.
They have been doing dog and pony shows for years.
Y’all can quote me on that.
5:56 am on December 8th, 2011 25
Removing bestiality laws from the UCMJ won’t change anything
in USFK.Nothing changes. Smoke and mirrors.
Our “leadership” have taken up other important and weighty issues this year as well. The House debated whether “In God We Trust” should be the national motto. Of course, “In God We Trust” already is the national motto, guaranteed by an act of Congress in 1956 (of course this was a petty example of linking patriotism with religion during the anticommunist 50′s- and of course the gullible hoi polloi have fallen for it ever since – but that’s another rant). And “In God We Trust” had already been reaffirmed once before as the national motto, by another act of Congress in 2002. Seems the congress thinks gods need all the help they can get.
Perhaps our “leaders” can turn to the important task of determining how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
Passing a yearly budget for the federal government is a fundamental responsibility of Congress. Lawmakers do not have to spend their time naming post offices, etc. The last time the Senate passed a budget was April 29, 2009! But were are worried about the far reaching implications of bestiality in military law.
F@$K, F@$K, F@$K, F@$K!
Perhaps they can pray for a F@%KING BUDGET AND TAX CODE!!!
6:00 am on December 8th, 2011 26
Didn’t mean to thread jack but the whole thing set me off.
/back to nonsense.
//Go back to sleep.