Prosecutors Indict Former Baseball Player Oh Jae-won for 'Sleeping Pill Proxy Prescription' Case

'O Jaewon Indicted for the Third Time on Charges of Prescribing Sleeping Pills Through Junior Player'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 15th, the prosecution indicted former professional baseball player Oh Jae-won without detention on charges of receiving a total of 2,365 medical narcotic sleeping pills.

The Violent Crime Investigation Division of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Bo-sung) indicted Oh on the same day without detention for violating the Narcotics Control Act (psychotropic substances). Oh is accused of receiving 2,253 Stilnox tablets and 112 Xanax tablets, both medical narcotics sleeping pills, from 14 individuals including baseball players on 86 occasions from May 2021 to March of this year.

Separately from these charges, Oh is currently serving a 2-year and 6-month prison sentence at the Seoul Central District Court for methamphetamine use and for threatening an acquaintance who tried to report his drug use.

According to the prosecution's investigation, Oh used his position as a team captain or senior figure in the baseball community to request younger players in their early to mid-20s or players moving between the first and second teams to obtain prescriptions for sleeping pills on his behalf. The 14 individuals who provided the drugs to Oh stated that they could not refuse his requests and obtained the sleeping pills under their own names. During this process, it was confirmed that Oh also verbally abused and threatened some of his juniors.

The prosecution announced that among the 14 individuals who obtained sleeping pills on Oh's behalf, two were summarily indicted, three who were deemed to have committed relatively less serious offenses received conditional suspension of indictment with probation office guidance, and the remaining nine received conditional suspension of indictment with educational measures. A prosecution official explained, "The disposition was made after comprehensively considering the circumstances of the crime, whether they surrendered voluntarily, and their willingness to improve," adding, "The punishments were differentiated based on the circumstances of the crime."