"Claimed Rib Fracture After Being Hit" Apartment Representative Dispute Leads to False Accusation Lawsuit [True Story]

[Financial News] On March 23, 2021, Park filed a complaint against Lee, a fellow resident in the same apartment complex, at Seoul Yeongdeungpo Police Station. He claimed that Lee had punched his left chest on March 13, 10 days earlier, breaking his rib, and asked that she be punished.
At the time, Park was serving as the head of the apartment’s election committee and was in conflict with Bae, Lee’s husband and the head of the residents’ representative council, over the operation of the council. Park repeated the same account during the police investigation, and Lee was eventually indicted on assault charges.
On Oct. 28, 2022, Park also filed a civil damages suit against Lee. He submitted a medical certificate and demanded payment of 29.49 million won for hospital bills, lost income, and other costs, saying he had suffered injuries requiring 35 days of treatment from the assault.
He then appeared as a witness in Lee’s criminal trial for assault on March 17, 2023, and testified, "Lee suddenly appeared from behind and hit me with her fist."
Another resident of the same apartment complex, Lim, also testified on July 19 that year, saying, "I happened to see Lee push Park," and "Park was pushed back one or two steps." Lim was a person who had voted in favor of dismissing Bae as the residents’ representative council head.
However, it was revealed that Lee had not hit or pushed Park at all.
On March 13, 2021, Bae filmed the two arguing on his mobile phone. During the trial, Park claimed that he argued with Lee again after the final video recording ended and was assaulted during that exchange.
But it was confirmed that Bae sent the last video to an acquaintance about four minutes after finishing the recording. The court found that there was not enough time for another argument, let alone an assault, to have occurred in between.
Park also wrote in his complaint, "Lee insulted me, saying something to the effect of 'You are ignorant,' and I got angry and shouted, and then Lee started hitting me." However, that insult was found to have been captured in the video filmed by Bae. The original complaint, which said he was assaulted immediately after the insult, conflicted with his later claim that the assault happened after filming ended.
Since no physical altercation actually took place between the two, Lim’s testimony was exposed as false. The medical certificate Park attached to the damages suit was also found not to have been related to an assault.
Lee was acquitted in the first trial on assault charges on Oct. 11, 2023. The prosecution’s appeal was also rejected, and the acquittal was finalized on July 26 the following year. The damages suit also ended after Park withdrew the case and Lee agreed to the withdrawal.
Park, however, was brought to court on charges of false accusation, attempted fraud, and subornation of perjury. Lim was also indicted for subornation of perjury.
According to legal sources on the 29th, the Seoul Southern District Court sentenced Park to 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, and Lim to four months in prison, suspended for two years, on the 9th. The court also ordered Park and Lim to complete 240 hours and 80 hours of community service, respectively.
The bench said, "The crime of false accusation undermines the proper exercise of criminal justice and exposes the falsely accused to the risk of unjust criminal punishment," adding, "The defendants’ culpability is not light, and Lee appears to have suffered considerable pain over a long period."
The court cited several factors in determining the sentence, including the fact that Lee, the victim, was not actually criminally punished, that the damages suit had been concluded, and that the defendants had no prior convictions beyond fines.
[email protected] Park Sung-hyun Reporter