"Wanting a Promotion"... Police Officer Sentenced for Inducing False Confession from Drug Offender

Bribing Drug Offenders to Boost Records for Promotion to Inspector
Secretly Leaking Investigation Information... Boasting to Acquaintances Too

The court sentenced a police officer to two years in prison for extracting false confessions and secretly leaking investigation information while investigating a drug case.

According to the legal community on the 10th, recently, Judge Hong Jun-seo of the Criminal Division 5 at Incheon District Court sentenced Police Lieutenant Lee (51), who was indicted without detention on charges including abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights, to two years in prison and ordered his detention in court.

Lieutenant Lee, who worked as a detective in the violent crimes team at a police station in Gyeonggi Province since 2014, focused on drug investigations for about three years to build a record for promotion to police captain, and began associating with methamphetamine dealers and others to obtain intelligence.

During this process, Lieutenant Lee grew close to the dealers by traveling with them and borrowing money, received drug case information, and improved his investigation record. In return, he showed favors by not investigating or arresting drug offenders he was friendly with.

In March 2020, Lieutenant Lee investigated Mr. A, who was distributing vehicles registered under false names to drug offenders. Mr. A confessed, “I frequently used methamphetamine with my longtime friend Mr. B,” and asked Lieutenant Lee, “Please exclude Mr. B and only consider me as the drug user, and do not arrest me.”

At that time, Mr. B’s girlfriend, Ms. C, had already been arrested and detained by the police on methamphetamine use charges, and the syringes Mr. A used for methamphetamine were seized by the police.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Mr. A promised Mr. B a non-detention investigation and proposed, “Since the syringes have already been seized, let’s conclude that I used methamphetamine together with Ms. C, who is already detained.” Afterwards, Mr. A was used as an informant, and Ms. C was portrayed as the upper-level supplier of methamphetamine to enlarge the scope of the case.

Based on Mr. A’s false testimony, persuaded by Lieutenant Lee, Ms. C became an additional investigation target as an accomplice. However, Ms. C, who had never actually used methamphetamine with Mr. A, completely denied the additional charges.

Lieutenant Lee coaxed her by saying, “Since you are already on trial for methamphetamine use and trafficking, adding one more use case will not change the sentencing. If you admit only to methamphetamine use, I will organize a no-charge opinion for the free receipt and submit favorable sentencing materials to the court for the ongoing trial.”

Fearing a heavy sentence, Ms. C made a false confession, and as promised, in January of the following year, Lieutenant Lee fabricated sentencing reference materials stating, “Ms. C frequently reported drug cases and even made other drug offenders surrender,” and submitted them to the court.

Lieutenant Lee also informed drug offenders he associated with about investigation details and whether arrest warrants were applied, and boasted by sending videos of drug offender arrests to acquaintances via mobile phone.

Later, at the first trial held on the 12th of last month, the defense attorney of Lieutenant Lee, who was indicted on charges including abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights, stated, “The defendant admits the charges and is remorseful.”

Judge Hong ruled, “The defendant committed an unforgivable serious crime,” and judged, “The official secret leak cannot be justified by the excuse of managing informants,” sentencing him to two years.

Lieutenant Lee filed an appeal with the court after the first trial verdict, and the prosecution also filed a cross-appeal. The appellate trial is scheduled to be held at the Incheon District Court.

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