A man downstairs who was imprisoned for 11 months instead of his nephew's sexually assaulted husband, "Unfair prison time."

■ Broadcasting: FM 94.5 (06:40~06:55, 12:40~12:55, 19:40~19:55)
■ Broadcast Date: November 13, 2024 (Wednesday)
■ Host: Attorney Lee Won-hwa
■ Dialogue: Attorney Lim So-hee

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information.

◇ Lawyer Lee Won-hwa (hereinafter referred to as Lee Won-hwa): Have you ever experienced something in your life that shook my life completely? I haven't changed anything, but my experience of turning 180 degrees from yesterday to today. Mr. A had no choice but to call the police as B, a woman who came down from the upper house, continued her misdeeds. Even after the police came, Mr. B fumed that Mr. A had sexually assaulted his nephew. However, Mr. A claimed that he had never seen or heard of Mr. B's nephew. I even sued this woman for false accusations. A year has passed like that. Mr. A was arrested in court after the first trial. But Mr. A denied his allegations to the end. I also rejected all the agreements to lower the sentence. And after 11 months, it was revealed that A was falsely accused. What the hell is going on here? Let's talk about this in detail in today's case X file. Hello, I'm Lee Won-hwa, the case X file of lawyer Lee Won-hwa. Today, we are also with lawyer Lim So-hee of Law Firm Roel. Welcome, lawyer.

◆ Lawyer Lim So-hee (hereinafter referred to as Lim So-hee): Hello, I'm lawyer Lim So-hee of LOEL Law Firm.

◇ Binaryization: This case that I'm going to deal with today, I don't think I can sleep because it's unfair to think that I've been through this.

◆ Lim So-hee: Yes, that's right. It's hard to even imagine how unfair Mr. A must feel after actually experiencing this incident.

◇ [Dualization] Let's start from the beginning to see what happened.

◆ Lim So-hee: A was a citizen who lived a normal life selling walnut snacks in Gokseong, Jeollanam-do. One evening in December 2015, a woman who lived upstairs came to A's house drunk, and the case begins with a misdemeanor, saying that A sexually assaulted her nephew.

◇ Lee Won-hwa: I think it would have been very absurd from A's point of view.

◆ Lim So-hee: Not only did A not even know B's nephew, but he was not aware of the existence of B's nephew. Nevertheless, B continued to act, and in the end, A called the police with 112 reports. However, B stated to the police that A sexually assaulted his nephew, and the police only believe in the statements of B and B's nephew and proceed with the case.

◇ Binaryization: If it's really not true, it should be innocent.

◆ Lim So-hee: At that time, A also denied all of his charges and even sued B for innocence, but the prosecution indicted A on charges of violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes around December 2016 and breaking into an innocent residence.

◇ Lee Won-hwa: Rather, A's accusation of innocence became innocent.

◆ Lim So-hee: That's right. And on March 31, 2017, the first trial court admitted all such charges and sentenced A to six years in prison, and that's how A's imprisonment began.

◇ [Dualization] So does that really happen? According to what you told me, it was the first start when B came to A's house and acted rudely. And it took almost a year for A to be arrested. Then, wouldn't the police have conducted a very detailed investigation, such as CCTV in a motel or statements made by people around them? Since something came out, you were charged and sentenced to six years in prison, right?

◆ Lim So-hee: Yes, of course it should have been, but the problem was that it wasn't in this case.

◇ Binaryization: What does that mean?

◆ Lim So-hee: It was A's daughter, not the investigative agency, who uncovered the truth in this case. Mr. A's daughter went out to find Mr. B's nephew to reveal her father's innocence, and after a long struggle, she met Mr. B's nephew in Naju, Jeollanam-do. Mr. A's daughter appealed to Mr. B's nephew in tears to tell him the truth, and eventually heard the full story of all the cases, including the fact that Mr. B's nephew had never been sexually assaulted by Mr. A.

◇ Binaryization: How on earth is this possible? First of all, why did Mr. B's nephew say that he was sexually assaulted by a man, why did Mr. B do that, and why couldn't the police investigate this properly?

◆ Lim So-hee: Mr. B's nephew was suffering from an intellectual disability. The most surprising thing here is Mr. B. In fact, it was B's husband who sexually assaulted B's nephew, and B, who did not want to believe that, beat his intellectually disabled nephew and told him to say that he was sexually assaulted by A, and made him memorize the crime location and method to be committed by the police.

◇ [Dualization] It's really absurd. Why on earth would he do this? I don't know how to understand if I was trying to extort money.

◆ Lim So-hee: According to the court that heard B's false accusations, B wanted to believe that someone other than her husband had committed the crime, but her husband pointed out the target, and B tried to blame A, thinking that A was the culprit, even though she knew her husband's words were not true. Even if there was such an abnormal behavior of B, the case would not have proceeded like this if there was a thorough investigation by the investigative agency. At that time, the police did not even check the CCTV of the motel, which was pointed out as the location of the crime, but only relied on the statements of B and B's nephew to investigate to prove that A was the culprit, excluding the possibility that he might not be the culprit.

◇ Dualization: You didn't even do the basics of investigation.

◆ Lim So-hee: Yes, but what's more absurd is that two years before this incident, Mr. B had a history of innocence similar to this case, and the police who investigated the case were also included in the investigation of this case. Mr. B said he sexually assaulted his nephew in Hampyeong, Jeollanam-do, around 2013, and he was innocent of the neighborhood, and the police cleared the neighbor of charges because B's nephew's statement was not credible.

◇ Lee Won-hwa: He was cleared of charges once at that time.

◆ Lim So-hee: Yes, but the person in charge of investigating the Hampyeong case and the person in charge of investigating this case were the same person.

◇ This is actually the most absurd part, how did you not know this?

◆ Lim So-hee: The police who investigated the case at the time claimed that they did not know the Hampyeong case, if they had known, the direction of the investigation would have changed. However, in the end, it turned out that this was all false as well.

◇ [Dualization] I think it's a total catastrophe. First of all, B is the worst, the police who did not follow the basics of the investigation, and finally the prosecution prosecutes. But I don't think it's possible to be free because the court just prosecuted without looking at this properly and sentenced him to six years in prison in the first trial.

◆ Lim So-hee: Yes, that's right. Even if the police had conducted a poor investigation, if the prosecution had verified the police's investigation more thoroughly, and if the court had scrutinized the case and sentenced it based on the principle of presumption of innocence, this unfair and absurd case would not have occurred. In the end, the truth of A's case was revealed through the efforts of A's daughter, not an investigative agency or a court. After being acquitted, A sued B, B's husband, and B's nephew on charges of innocence, perjury, coercion, and intimidation. In the end, B and B's husband, who were indicted on charges of innocence, were sentenced to seven years in prison and three and a half years in prison, respectively, while B's nephew was sentenced to eight months in prison and two years of probation. What is noteworthy here is that B's husband was sentenced to sexual assault on B's nephew in this case, that is, only two and a half years.

◇ [Dualization] This is also a really absurd part. It's the same crime, but A gave six years in prison and was tried for the same crime, but her husband, B, only got three and a half years of innocence.

◆ Lim So-hee: Yes, that's right. Mr. B's husband was sentenced to a much lower sentence than Mr. A for repenting and confessing. Mr. A was not guilty, so he could not even reflect on himself and confess, and for that reason, he was sentenced to a high sentence of six years in prison.

◇ Binaryization: I think it's definitely the state's fault.

◆ Lim So-hee: Yes, that's right. So, A filed a lawsuit for damages against the Republic of Korea after being found not guilty at the appeal trial in this case. Even though the police were found to have conducted a poor investigation in the damage suit, Mr. A eventually lost.

◇ Dualization: Yes

◆ Lim So-hee: The first trial court of the damage suit dismissed A's claim on the grounds that the investigative agency lacked objective justification in violation of laws, regulations, or limitations of logic, although there were some deficiencies in the investigation process, and the appeals court also rejected A's appeal because it was not responsible for damages by the state, and the Supreme Court also rejected A's appeal.

◇ Dualization: Do you find this decision convincing?

◆ Lim So-hee: It's true that it's hard to understand. The lawyer who represented the damage suit filed by A against the state at the time said, "If we had seen the records, we would have been able to reveal how similar they were and why we missed the case," and pointed out that the court also wanted to read the documents, but there were no more means to reveal the limitations of the system. There is an order to submit documents in our law, but under the current civil procedure system, the sanctions are weak even if the court does not comply with the order to submit documents, so there is virtually no way to enforce the order to submit documents.

◇ [Dualization] Yes, that's right.

◆ Lim So-hee: In particular, if the state hides data in lawsuits against the state, it is very difficult for a plaintiff who is only one individual to prove the state's illegal activities, and for that reason, the current civil litigation system is not easy to reveal the actual truth in court. The discovery system is being discussed as an alternative to this controversy. The Discovery System is a system in place in the United States and the United Kingdom, and is a system in which both parties disclose each other's evidence and documents to clarify issues before a trial begins. Korea should also supplement the limitations of the current system through the active introduction of this discovery system.

◇ Dualization: Listeners may be unfamiliar with the discovery system. There is a case in which Jang Won-young recently defamed the case, and he applied for discovery in a California court to obtain evidence in the case, and used it in a Korean trial based on the results of the case. Case X File Today, we looked at the case of a man who was falsely accused and jailed for 11 months as a rapist. Let's say the defendants who committed outrageous crimes. It is the police, the prosecution, and the court that exist to release the unfairness when the people are subjected to such unfair things. But none of them did their part properly in this case. So Mr. A had to endure a lonely and difficult time than anyone else. Without my daughter, I would have had to endure six years. If they had gone through the same thing, would they have looked so poor and messed up? I think it's an incident that makes me more angry because I think it's definitely not. That's all we've prepared for today. You all deserve to be defended. Incident X file, thank you everyone.