“21 Minutes of CCTV Footage from When Her Daughter Was Dying Disappeared”... Mother of Patient Who Died at Yang Jae-woong’s Hospital Lambasts Police Over Initial Investigation

[Financial News] The family of a patient who died at a psychiatric hospital in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, formerly operated by psychiatrist Yang Jae-woong, criticized police for conducting an inadequate initial investigation.
The deceased’s mother, A, appeared as a witness on the 13th at the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee’s audit of the Gyeonggi Southern and Northern Provincial Police Agencies. She testified, “My daughter was admitted to treat her dependence on diet pills, but died in an isolation room just 17 days later,” and “For several days, she complained of stomach pain and pleaded to be sent to the emergency room, but she did not even receive proper treatment.”
A particularly criticized the police investigation for being delayed and for failing to secure evidence. She said, “Immediately after the death, I asked the hospital for its closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage and received it 12 hours later, but the 21 minutes of footage from the early morning hours when my daughter was dying were missing,” and angrily added, “Police did not search the hospital until six months after the death, then halted the investigation, citing delays in the medical association’s review.”
She went on to say, “While police had halted the investigation, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea was the first to uncover false entries in nursing records and illegal restraint without a doctor’s orders.” She challenged them, saying, “I want to ask what the police, who even conducted a search and seizure, have been doing all this time.”
The family called for direct orders from doctors to be mandatory for seclusion and restraint, measures to prevent records from being falsified, the preservation of CCTV footage from isolation rooms and its prompt provision to families, and the establishment of an external monitoring system for closed wards. They also urged police to conduct a thorough reinvestigation and punish those responsible.
Members of the National Assembly also took issue with the police’s initial investigation. People Power Party lawmaker Kim Ye-ji said Bucheon Wonmi Police Station had failed to secure electronic medical records and access logs immediately after the incident, even though doing so would have made it possible to check whether records had been altered. She also argued that the fact that the official who directed the investigation at the time now serves as head of the Investigation Review Division at the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency needs to be scrutinized.
Fellow party lawmaker Kang Myeong-gu also criticized police for failing to properly investigate the case for six months after it occurred and only launching a reinvestigation after the Human Rights Commission’s inquiry. Kang said that if the official responsible for the initial investigation now holds a position directing the probe, it would be “a cover-up of the case and a textbook example of protecting their own.”
Kim Hong-geun, acting chief of the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency, partly acknowledged shortcomings in the initial investigation, including its failure to secure electronic records on the day of the incident. Asked about measures such as disciplinary action against the official responsible for the investigation, he replied, “I will decide on our position after examining what was clearly done wrong.”
[email protected] An Ga-eul Reporter