Even the teacher-turned-lawyer was 'surprised'...The 1,700 petitioners who flew in just before the college entrance exam, what's the background?

■ Broadcasting: FM 94.5 (06:40~06:55, 12:40~12:55, 19:40~19:55)
■ Broadcast Date: November 26, 2024 (Tue)
■ Host: Attorney Lee Won-hwa
■ Dialogue: Lawyer Lee Jung-min

* 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): In life, you sometimes say, "That's relative." "Sabasa" means that even if you are physically in the same situation as the new word "person-by-person", the way people process their emotions may be different. Please remember this and listen to the story I'm going to tell you from now on. In 2005, a sad incident occurred in which Ms. A, who was suffering from school violence, killed herself. In this case, the court ruled that it was not an assault that would normally lead to suicide. Of course, the bereaved families and groups of victims of school violence strongly protested. The case also received national attention when a petition was submitted to the prosecution with the signatures of more than 1,700 high school girls in the same area. This is because this was the first time students spoke up and asked to solve school violence. Was the punishment done properly for the perpetrators who bullied Ms. A as her friends wished? Let's take a closer look at this case in the X file of today's case. Hello, I'm Lee Won-hwa, the case X file of lawyer Lee Won-hwa. Today, we are also with lawyer Lee Jung-min of Law Firm Roel. Welcome, lawyer.

◇ Lawyer Lee Jung-min (hereinafter referred to as Lee Jung-min): Yes, hello. I'm lawyer Lee Jung-min of Law Firm.

◆ Dualization: You've worked as a teacher before, right?

◇ Lee Jung-min: I didn't work that long, so my fellow teachers who I worked with say, 'You must have been doing internships longer than you'. Anyway, I've experienced teaching practice.

◆ DUALIZATION: School violence has increased a lot physically and also in its form. I don't know if it's going to be more diverse than when we were young, but didn't it become cruel?

◇ Lee Jung-min: That's right. In fact, there was never a time when the victims of school violence were not hard, and especially in the past, there were no serious deaths and injuries. How can I say about the school violence that occurs these days? I think there was a tendency to be vicious and more subtle.

◆ Dualization: Our law firm does so many school violence cases that it's hard to imagine. If you look at each case, there are many cases where children say this much, what do you think, lawyer?

◇ Lee Jung-min: Should I say it's a new type that I've encountered these days? I keep remembering innocent incidents among school violence that I haven't seen before. In the past, it would be a little hard to be certain if you ask if there was any innocence, but I don't remember that there have been few cases where we falsely reported stories from our school days or previous generations and made him seem to have committed a school crime. These days, school violence or disposition of school violence is more publicized and reflected in college admissions, and the educational authorities put more weight on it, saying, "I need to ruin his life by hanging a school range." It seems that it is not uncommon for many students to collect a few witnesses and report them. So, I think there has been another new school violence called false school violence reports.

◆ Binaryization: That's right. What I feel is that cyber violence has increased compared to before. Instagram or Facebook posts that shoot each other.You know that wooden wiki is the most shocking case I've ever seen, right? I'm just making fun of a certain student's name and nickname on the wooden wiki and revealing it. There was also an incident like that so that anyone could search and see it. So, what we're going to talk about today is this was in 2005, right?

◇ Lee Jung-min: This case is a Iljin club that has been in Chungju since December 2002, and at that time used the expression of a rogue circle. It's about an organization called Medusa, a rogue circle. This typical violent and violent assault that I mentioned earlier before I was a teacher was a rampant school violence case. Ms. A, who was a victim, was one of several victims of the Iljin club. On October 1, 2005, in Seongseo-dong, Chungju, Ms. A made an extreme choice by jumping from an apartment on October 3 after being assaulted by Medusa.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: You said you were a student living in Chungju, but the incident occurred in Siheung, Gyeonggi-do.

◇ Lee Jung-min: Yes, as I said earlier, A lived in Chungju and Medusa assaulted A in Seongseo-dong, Chungju. However, immediately after the assault, Ms. A ran away from home in shock. While wandering around like that, an incident occurred in Siheung, and Ms. A wrote a suicide note before jumping off, but she was assaulted by her friends. It says it's scary to go to school. They were moving away from school right after they ran away because they were afraid to go to school where the assailant was, until they made an extreme choice.

◆ Dualization: I'm scared to go to school because I was assaulted by my friends. It seems that they made an extreme choice because of school violence.

◇ Lee Jung-min: That's right. Maybe that was the only way out of Medusa's assault from Miss A's perspective. This Medusa club, the rogue circle I mentioned earlier, wasn't just assaulting Ms. A. The police investigation revealed that she assaulted B dozens of times in Gyohyeon-dong, Chungju in December 2002, assaulted C dozens of times in Chilgeum-dong, Chungju in December 2003, assaulted D dozens of times in Seongseo-dong, Chungju in November 2004, and assaulted E five times in Mokhaeng-dong, Chungju in September 2005. As you know, the victims at that time were all female middle school students, middle school girls, and high school girls, so it was difficult to force them to make a victim's statement. I think there must have been a little more facts that could not have been confirmed by strict investigation because CCTV in investigative agencies was not developed as it is these days. Then there would have been a lot more criminal acts or victims. In common sense, what I said earlier was that I told you once a year, but this Iljin club couldn't have caused an accident only once a year.

◆ Binaryization: That's right. It's been quite a long time since I've been assaulted. And there are more than one or two victims. It is quite shocking that there was a violent circle that was very systematically assaulted.

◇ Lee Jung-min: I don't know in detail because it's not about my teaching days, but by 2005, the concept of a violent circle itself was very common. These days, there is still the concept of a gangster, but at the time, the concept of gangster was very popular. Perhaps because of that, there were quite a few circles that were much more violence-oriented and aimed at violence itself. This Medusa also seems to have been a group aimed at such violence-oriented group violence itself. In April 2002, Baek, a middle school girl in Chungju, opened an Internet cafe, and members of the cafe who joined the cafe refer to them as Medusa and go around in groups and go out with their boyfriends. There have often been cases of calling out victims for their gossip and assaulting them dozens of times.

◆ DUALIZATION: The level of fear the victim must have felt, in fact, it's not very scary and scary and normal for an adult to inflict physical violence on them. But I think it would have been really difficult for a girl this age to endure.

◇ Lee Jung-min: That's right. Because I'm an ordinary high school student and a high school girl. As I said before, that extreme choice is the way to choose soft-hearted people who can't hurt anyone. Most high school girls at this age are so thin and mentally precarious. Nevertheless, in this case, the police found a suicide note when they first confirmed the death of Ms. A, so it is suicide. The case is closed with the attitude that criminal crimes such as murder are not found because it is suicide. Then, about 1,700 high school students in Chungju, who were aware of the violence in Medusa and other Iljin clubs, submit a petition to the Chungju Branch of the Cheongju District Prosecutors' Office, asking them to reinvestigate the case without closing the case. Those 1,700 high school students knew. Why Ms. A had no choice but to make an extreme choice.

◆ Lee Won-hwa: Actually, I've been in many cases of school violence, but it's very rare that students even from other schools participate in signing and submitting a petition to the prosecution. What happened to this?

◇ Lee Jung-min: Yes, that's rarely the case even now. I know it was the first time in Korean history. I think it was a very touching and sad calm. The petition itself was in November, and soon the CSAT was held. Immediately after the college entrance exam, the students gathered and held a candlelight rally in memory of Ms. A. That's why the media also focused and gained a lot of interest nationwide. Fortunately, the prosecution accepted this complaint and reinvestigated it. The Chungju Police Station reinvestigated the investigation and will brief the media on the results of the investigation on November 22. However, it is too obvious to ask if there was any violence, so the issue in question was the Medusa violence circle I mentioned earlier. So it became possible to see it as a legal violent organization.

◆ I think it's a question of whether it's recognized as a violent circle now, so what's the result of the trial?

◇ Lee Jung-min: To begin with, it was not recognized as a criminal organization. The court judged that it was just a simple group of children. In fact, if you look at the crime of organizing a criminal group, there are requirements such as the head of the group leading the crime and the group jointly executing the crime, but I think it was not as organized as the so-called "gangsters." So each of Medusa's perpetrators at that time was booked and punished for a joint assault on the Violence Act.

◆ Dualization: These perpetrators have been violent towards their peers since the incident and even after they were booked by the police. There are reports like this. I only think it's bittersweet, but the bereaved families eventually filed a lawsuit against the perpetrator.

◇ Lee Jung-min: The bereaved families of Ms. A appointed a lawyer. We file a claim for damages to the entire perpetrators. At this time, in other words, the Chungbuk Superintendent of Education was included among the defendants. In fact, if you think about it, Chungcheongbuk-do Superintendent of Education must have judged that it is right to take responsibility together because he is obligated to have such a rogue circle club in Chungju.

◆ Binaryization: What's your conclusion?

◇ Lee Jung-min: The perpetrators were responsible for damages for illegal activities. It was recognized, but only compensation for damages for the assault itself at the time, not for the responsibility for the death, is recognized. So, there's something called 'hit-and-run price' in cadaver words. Since I hit him, it was only recognized to compensate for the damage. Naturally, only a very small amount was recognized for the total amount of the claim, and most of the claims were dismissed.

◆ Dualization: The perpetrators were criminally punished, right?

◇ Lee Jung-min: Yes, as I said earlier, I was punished. But it's not a murder charge. a manslaughter or injury resulting in death So I wasn't holding you responsible for the death. You said you paid for the joint assault of the riot act, that is, the 'hit-and-run price'. It was admitted that he assaulted her. So there were four perpetrators at the time. In the first trial, he was given a long term, August, short term, June, so about six months in prison. The appeals court sentenced him to six months in prison and two years of probation. I received criminal punishment, but I came to a serious conclusion here, too.

◆ [Dualization] It's very unfortunate. That's all we've prepared today for the X-file of the case. You all deserve to be defended. Incident X file, thank you everyone.