INVESTIGATION ON A SENIOR JUDGE

[Anchor Lead]

A posting claiming that a senior judge demanded excessive formalities and mistreated his driver was put on a court’s internal network, prompting the court officials to launch an investigation.

[Pkg]

This is a court building in Gyeonggi-do Province. A public official who worked as a driver for this court's judges, identified only as Mr. A, posted his gripes about a senior judge on the court’s internal network on August 9th. Mr. A claimed in his posting that he had to fill up the tank so that the senior judge could use the car on weekends that the judge scolded him often while driving and that he had to follow excessive formalities such as notifying other court employees of the judge’s arrival minute by minute. The court separated the judge and Mr. A before writing up an interview report on Mr. A and sending it to the Office of the Inspector General for Judicial Ethics at the National Court Administration. A higher court also plans to conduct additional investigation. A source inside the court said that they’re checking the facts but also added that Mr. A had asked for a transfer twice, once late last year and once this June, but his requests had been denied. He added that a court official had met with the senior judge in April to discuss this matter. The senior judge met with a reporter to explain his side of the story. The judge admitted that he had driven the official vehicle for his personal use on weekends but also said that he is willing to pay for it. He also explained that he had frequently scolded the driver while he was operating the vehicle, because Mr. A had driven aggressively and caused more than two fender-benders. When asked if he had demanded excessive formalities, the judge answered that he had never made such demands and claimed that Mr. A’s transfer requests were the biggest problem and that he must have held a grudge because his transfer requests were not accepted. Mr. A was asked to meet with the reporter to refute the judge’s claims, but Mr. A refused the offer and said everything he wanted to say was in the posting.