Police Refer Gwangsan Commanders in Jang Yun-gi Case, Clash With Prosecutors

GWANGJU — Police investigating allegations that officers downplayed and covered up the case of Jang Yun-gi, who killed a high school girl he had never met in Gwangju, have referred four frontline commanders, including the former chief of Gwangsan Police Station, to prosecutors. While prosecutors have indicted Park Sung-joo, former chief of the National Office of Investigation at the Korean National Police Agency, the police special investigation unit reached the opposite conclusion, saying it found no evidence that the case was downplayed or covered up at the national office level. With the launch of a new serious crimes investigation agency and a prosecution service reorganization ahead, the conflicting judgments are deepening friction between police and prosecutors.

The special investigation unit of the National Office of Investigation announced its final findings at the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency on the 21st, saying it had referred the former Gwangsan police chief and the station's crime division head to prosecutors on charges including abuse of authority to obstruct the exercise of rights and dereliction of duty. Including the former violent crime team leader, who was referred while in detention, and one team member referred on charges of leaking official secrets, a total of four officers have been handed to prosecutors.

Police concluded that the National Office of Investigation was not involved in downplaying or covering up the case, a finding at odds with prosecutors, who earlier indicted Park. The Gwangsan crime division head had argued that an order from the national office to split the investigation obstructed efforts to establish a sexual motive, but the special unit rejected that claim. The unit found that the national office had consistently directed investigators to divide the case by function, taking into account expertise and victim protection, and to determine whether there was a sexual motive, and that the case was downplayed at the Gwangsan station level. With prosecutors having indicted Park while police have drawn a line around allegations of a cover-up at the national office, the two sides' assessments could collide in court.

The special unit found that the Gwangsan command had enough evidence to establish that Jang killed the victim with the intent to rape her, but issued improper orders that led to a general murder charge under the Criminal Act instead of murder in the course of rape under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes. Commanders were found to have ordered the deletion of references to a "foreign woman" from investigation reports and to have restricted questioning of the suspect about sexual motive. They also ordered that material related to sexual motive be revised or removed from dashcam video analysis and a criminal profiling report. The crime division head is also accused of destroying evidence by ordering the early return of the keys to the vehicle used in the crime, a key piece of evidence.

The investigation found that the case was downplayed out of concern over criticism and disciplinary action for the mishandling of a stalking report. On May 3, Gwangsan police closed a report that Jang had stalked a foreign woman at the scene and failed to properly carry out follow-up measures. After the killing, the special unit concluded, commanders sought to sever any link between the murder and the rape and stalking cases, fearing public criticism and penalties such as disciplinary action over their inadequate response.

The special unit's conclusion runs counter to the separate prosecution investigation into the flawed inquiry, which resulted in the indictment of Park and other national office officials. On the 2nd of this month, prosecutors indicted four people without detention on charges of abuse of authority to obstruct the exercise of rights: Park, the acting head of the violent crime investigation division, the former head of the women and juvenile crime investigation division, and the current chief of the sexual violence crime investigation section.

"We investigated rigorously, regardless of rank, to establish the facts behind the allegations raised in this case," said Oh Dong-wook, head of the special investigation unit. "We will notify the inspection department of the inadequate measures identified in the handling of the stalking report, and we plan to pass on to the relevant departments the institutional improvements this investigation has revealed as necessary."