"To Become a Judge, You Need STEM Knowledge"… Digital Evidence Trips Up Jeong Gyeong-sim

Usage History Found on Dongyang University Instructor Lounge PC
"Never Used It," Claims Defense Contradicted
Installation File for 'Mabinogi' Found in Unallocated Area

Court Recognizes Installation and Use at Home

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] "From now on, judges will need knowledge in science and engineering."

This was a remark made by Chief Judge Lim Jeong-yeop, who presided over the first trial of Professor Jeong Gyeong-sim of Dongyang University, during the closing arguments last month. When the prosecution demonstrated the process of forging Professor Jeong's Dongyang University certificate in court and added an explanation about the 'Acrobat Pro version' feature, he made this comment. When the prosecution awkwardly trailed off saying, "Not knowledge in science and engineering..." Chief Judge Lim said, "All cases are like that. Please include the details in the report and submit it to the court," requesting the prosecution to provide detailed information.

As Chief Judge Lim said at the time, the first trial judgment of Professor Jeong condensed knowledge in science and engineering. This was because a large amount of digital evidence was adopted in the judgment regarding Professor Jeong's charge of certificate forgery. That section alone amounted to 71 pages of A4 paper. Considering that the judgment excluding appendices was 531 pages, it was a significant portion.

In particular, the key evidence that determined the outcome of this trial was the judgment related to the computer (PC) in the Dongyang University instructors' lounge. The defense argued during the trial that the lounge PC was "used communally by instructors and not used by Professor Jeong." They also claimed that "in June 2013, when the certificate was forged, it was in the instructors' lounge, and it was moved to Professor Jeong's residence in April of the following year." However, Chief Judge Lim judged that these claims by Professor Jeong's side were false based on digital information extracted from the PC.

Chief Judge Lim focused on the fact that the forensic analysis of the lounge PC revealed usage records by Professor Jeong and his family from January 2011 to April 2014. On that PC, there was a record of Professor Jeong's daughter, Cho Min, accessing the website of Han Young Foreign Language High School, where she was enrolled at the time, and accessing Seoul National University webmail accounts to exchange emails with Han In-seop, director of the Criminal Policy Research Institute, among others. There was also a record of opening a file named 'Internship Confirmation (Revised).docx' under the name of Professor Jang Young-pyo of Dankook University, and access to the website of Investment Trust A related to Professor Jeong's private equity fund was confirmed.

Traces presumed to have been used by Professor Jeong's son, Cho Won, were also found. In the folder 'CUserslawDesktopJeongGyeongSim2014.4.11.Backup2014.4.11DesktopBACKUPJoWon' on the lounge PC, installation files for the game 'Mabinogi' were stored. The download time of these files was around 10:42 PM on March 14, 2014. Additionally, in the 'My Documents' folder of the PC, there was a subfolder named 'Mabinogi' containing 44 files including the game executable file. The last modification date of the game executable file was 11:26 PM on March 14, 2014.

Chief Judge Lim concluded, based on this digital information, that the PC was installed at Professor Jeong's residence rather than the Dongyang University instructors' lounge. He stated, "Considering that the files include materials related to the defendant and family members, and that there are many files that can be interpreted as used by the children, it can be recognized that the PC was continuously used at the residence until before April 2014."

In the upcoming second trial of Professor Jeong, the battle between both sides over whether to admit evidence related to this PC is expected to intensify. Besides usage records, the PC contains digital evidence indicating circumstances of certificate forgery by Professor Jeong. The defense has argued that "the PC is illegal evidence collected through a search and seizure after the indictment." However, the first trial court rejected this, accepting the prosecution's claim that "a formal voluntary submission procedure, not a search and seizure, was followed."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.