3-Month and 6-Month Prison Sentences Suspended
Judge: "Considering Husband's Infidelity and Limited Awareness of Illegality"
The wife and her younger brother, who broke into the husband's car door during a divorce lawsuit and stole the black box memory card, received a suspended sentence. The photo shows the Chuncheon District Court Wonju Branch where the trial took place. Photo by Yonhap News.
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] Sisters who called a locksmith to open a car door and stole a black box memory card to find evidence of their husband’s affair during a divorce lawsuit received a suspended sentence.
On the 25th, the Chuncheon District Court Wonju Branch Criminal Division 2 (Judge Lee Jisoo) announced that it had suspended the sentences of 3 months and 6 months imprisonment for sisters A (32) and B (30), who were indicted for car search and special theft charges.
A suspended sentence means that guilt is acknowledged but the sentencing is postponed, usually given for minor crimes. If two years pass from the day the suspended sentence is received, the case is dismissed, effectively as if it never happened.
After A started living separately from her husband C, suspected of having an affair, in March last year, she filed for divorce the following month. Around that time, A discovered traces of her husband’s card use at a convenience store in a commercial building inside an apartment complex in Wonju, where a woman presumed to be her husband’s mistress lived. Then, on April 10 at around 11:56 p.m., she called a locksmith with her younger sister B to open the door of her husband’s car parked at the apartment and stole the black box memory card. A was charged with car search, and B, who took out the memory card from the black box, was tried for special theft.
In court, the sisters claimed, “Since A usually drove the car, it cannot be considered the husband’s property, and the black box and memory card installed in the car also belong to A. We took out the memory card to check the saved footage, so there was no intention of illegal acquisition (using or disposing of another’s property as one’s own).”
In response, the court concluded, “Since A left the car and keys at the residence when she separated, and the car registration and insurance are under husband C’s name, the car and the black box and memory card installed inside also belong to C, the car owner.”
Furthermore, the court ruled, “Considering that the car door was forcibly opened to collect evidence related to the husband’s infidelity after the separation notice, and that footage presumed to show C’s infidelity was confirmed on the memory card and submitted as evidence in the divorce lawsuit, the intention of illegal acquisition is sufficiently recognized.”
However, the judge explained the sentencing reason, saying, “C’s infidelity appears to have been an important cause leading to this crime. Considering the somewhat weak awareness of illegality regarding the infringement of car rights and theft of the memory card, the sentence is suspended.”
Meanwhile, in June, dentist A (50), who entered his wife’s car during their separation using an extra car key and copied black box video files to submit as favorable evidence in divorce and property division lawsuits, also received a suspended sentence.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
