Kang Ji Hwan Appeals Sentence for Sexual Assault Conviction and New Video and Text Message Evidence Casts Doubts on the Two Victims’ Statement of Events

This is a really odd turn of events and since I covered K-actor Kang Ji Hwan‘s allegations and later conviction for sexual assault last year it’s only fitting to write about new information in the case. Last year in 2019 Kang Ji Hwan was accused by two women of sexual assault, alleging he got drunk and molested and locked them up in his condo. Kang Ji Hwan admitted he was drunk, claimed not to remember the assault, and later plead guilty. He was sentence a few months later to two years and six months in jail but the sentence was suspended for three years of probation. He appealed the sentence and this week during the appeal process new evidence was submitted: text message threads of the two victims with their friends during the time period of the alleged assault and CCTV recording from the living room and other areas of the condo (but not the bedroom and bathroom which doesn’t have CCTV).

The recording shows Kang Ji Hwan drinking with the victims, swimming with one in his rooftop pool, and later drunk and getting helped to the bed by the victims. Later the victims took a shower while he was passed out and wandered around his condo wearing underwear contradicting their claim that he locked them in the bedroom. The text messages show them marveling at his expensive condo and also contradict their claim that they didn’t have cell service. Oh man, if Kang Ji Hwan really was the victim of false allegations I hope these two women are prosecuted to the full extent, but if he still assaulted them and just their stories are not accurate then it’s just a big ole mess.


Comments

Kang Ji Hwan Appeals Sentence for Sexual Assault Conviction and New Video and Text Message Evidence Casts Doubts on the Two Victims’ Statement of Events — 41 Comments

    • What do you mean by it doesn’t matter? Can you elaborate? Cause surely you’re not dismissing the emotional turmoil abuse accusations bring on victims and all those connected to them?

      It does matter. I’d like to know my brother, cousin, father, friend did not do what they were accused of. They aren’t perfect or beyond reproach but I’d hope they didn’t do this.

    • Wrongly accuse an innocent person is a crime. Hey, we have the same name, but we are not the same person (just want to clarify).

    • Of course it matters, In the US, there is a history of black men and boys being killed and imprison as a result of false accusations of rape usually of white women. If this man is truly innocent, the accusers should be severely punished, The prosecutors and the public need to be more careful about prosecuting allegations of celebrities assaulting fans. I hope this young man can recover his life.

    • If you were in his shoes, if truly innocent and career and life is destroyed,what would you do? But then, there are always ruins left to start life, right?
      Hoping the truth, innocent or not,it is only the truth that prevails. only these 3 people know what happened.

    • I am sorry it does matter. Can you imagine the trauma that his family and himself has to endure all these months ? Wrongly accused someone is a real crime. It’s a very cruel thing that he is accused of such crime especially he is innocent and I do believe he is.

  1. Wah, this is so crazy. But if he proves innocent than he could come back to acting like how park shihoo (?) did. What the reasons for ruining someone’s career? And they went around in his house on their underwear? Hmm.. no matter how nice he is, he’s still a man. Wondering who’s gonna win.

  2. If he was already convicted and only now is all of this crucial evidence coming out, exactly HOW BAD was the investigation and his defense team on this case? Ouch. Even if he is still guilty, why is such important stuff only coming to light now?

    • Good Question:

      In the previous court trials, the CCTV video was NOT fully available. Only a portion of the video footage was used at both trials because SOMETHING mysterious happened to the portions which we are now seeing come to light!

      Yes, half of the footage disappeared. The part that supports the prosecutions case was the portion that was available, but the part that sheds light on the other parts of the case mysteriously disappeared. This is why he kept asking throughout the case, “why are portions of the CCTV video missing, and where’s the rest of the video footage?”

      Remember, he wasn’t allowed to return to his home after the arrest because the prosecution said he might compromise the evidence. However, as we see, someone else compromised the evidence, and it would seem to point to the prosecution having had first access to his home and his personal things the day of his arrest.

      This is definitely the missing portion of the CCTV video footage. Actually, I’m glad to see that the footage finally came to light. I don’t know who or how it came to be, but it would seem that a Higher Power has a Hand in all of this. There are times when you just CAN’T do evil to innocent, kindhearted people.

      Because they’ve lied so viciously, the TRUTH will come to light, and he will be vindicated. There really is a God working on his behalf that knows the whole Truth!

      This is a good sign. I believe he’s just an innocent victim of a very cruel set of circumstances.

      He’s in my prayers…

      • Fully agree your analogy. Suoreme Court verdict on 5 November 2020. I believed in Justice to save innocent person.

  3. I can only wonder what kind of lawyers Kang Ji-hwan had. Why didn’t they come up with this? They let an A-list actor not only plead guilty but do the perp walk and a year later we find out there’s possibly exculpatory evidence.

  4. This is unbelievable. I feel for him. He always seemed like a nice person. He was so quick to apologize and accept his own guilty. I got the feeling even if he did not remember what happened he was willing to accept punishment since if he had done it, he was truly sorry. Imagine then finding out that he was set up. I bet these women also wanting a lot of money. I don’t see why he can not go back to acting. But I bet he never drinks with women ever again.

    • Agree! I remember believing that he genuinely felt sorry & wasn’t denying the accusations. Because he was drunk & couldn’t, he might have possibly committed the alleged crimes so he accepted punishment. I worked in victim services for a decade & the new information shows the victims behavior are inconsistent with that of sexual assault victims. We want to be careful of victim shaming, but at the same time, women making false allegations should be held accountable.

      • I’ve also always wondered why he was so out of it and they weren’t! Not saying they roufed him but can’t throw that out either. I will just wait to see where this new information leads.

    • Thanks. Wow I wonder how those people can get a hold of the text messages… Isn’t court evidence not allowed to be published until appeal is over?

  5. It’s like a drama that went makjang. The main thing I remember when this happened is that the dude was so drunk and incoherent that the police threw him in the drunk tank to sober up. I did have a kernel of an idea that he didn’t sound like he would have had the wherewithal to be locking anyone up but, lickety-split, he was apologizing. So, yeah, godawful investigation and lawyers. Not saying he isn’t guilty of something but this isn’t as cut and dried as it was reported.

  6. HOLY MOLY! As a former Kang Ji Hwan fan, if these women really set him up I hope they rot in jail for making this poor man miserable for so many years and more importantly, undermining real victims. I couldn’t bear to watch any more KJH dramas after he plead guilty and thought this case was closed and over with but now I’m eager to see the final outcome.

    Also on a completely random sidenote, I thought it was cheesy/like a joke when in Korean dramas, a character had an apartment with a humongous poster/painting of themselves. But it looks like that’s the case in KJH’s apartment LOL. I guess those set decorators really knew what they were doing hahahaha

    • Hahaha, that was my thought too when I saw the picture in his apt…anyhow, yeah this case…if he truly was a victim of scammers then wow, his lawyers really did suck and those women should be ashamed because they are doing a real disservice to true victims of assault. Smh.

    • About the giant self portrait: Yeah, I always thought that was just dramas exaggerating for effect until I was watching an episode of Return to Superman and saw a huge photo of Eugene in her apartment. I was like..OMG! that actually a real thing?! Now that you point out the giant self portrait of Kang Ji Hwan, it’s confirmed. LOL!

      On this new news: Why wasn’t the CCTV footage brought out last year at the first trial? I’m assuming KJW knows the cameras exist in his condo. Wouldn’t both the police and his own legal team have asked him for the footage? He must have had really incompetent lawyers if they are only now entering the CCTV footage as evidence to contradict the testimony of the women.

  7. I have sensed something not right back then but when i mentioned it in d comment section, I was bashed like crazy for blaming the victims.

    This turn of event reminded me of how easy for women to play victims esp in the era of #MeToo movement. Just like Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard case. Because the public in general view women as weak an incapable of assault and deception.

    I am not saying he is not wrong but it’s really sad to get the total blame when they probably consented to the sex or probably staged the assault since he was too drunk till they had to help me to bed.

    Btw, I knew the “no service connection” reason was BS. I mean, is that excuse even believable when his luxury condo located at upscale area.

    I hope true justice will be served.

  8. So sad. Honestly I’m very indifferent on KJH but this isn’t about the actor – it’s about the person. Some people are so fucked up. Imagine ruining someone’s career, and their life just for a bit of spot light and lots of money. That’s disgusting.

    We’re all so quick to jump on the accused (me very much included) but sometimes, we all need to consider that not all men are evil and all women victims. If he really didn’t do anything, I hope he can be set free and get his life back on track. And… for those bitches to get their due. Lots of jail time would be ideal and a fine double of what they had earned through this accusation. So disgusting.

  9. What exactly is going on?
    It was smelling fishy back then, but it’s even more weird right now.
    So MANY questions!
    What happened during that investigation?
    What happened with his attorneys and their legal advice?
    What happened with the female victims – or the gullible women in a drunk man’s house?
    What happened with his plea?
    What happened with his sentence?
    Things don’t make sense.
    As if someone was trying to teach (him or someone) a lesson by ending (or pausing) his career…perhaps!
    And his sentence was super light, given the crime – maybe because he “happily” accepted the assault on these women?
    Questions, questions!

    • I think “Joseon Survival” could have broken all audience records thanks to Kang Ji Kwan, I think it was a fake, I think his only fault was that he drunk with the “victims”, maybe many will tell me that I saw too many dramas with this wonderful actor …. I’m so sad and furious, I belive in Kang Ji Hwan and I hope to have true justice…

  10. It’s a given… people do things that they later regret. All have done so. We’ve all needed to be forgiven and grated another chance in life.

    It was a night that changed his life forever. I have followed his career for the past nine years, and I can honestly say that an act of this nature
    was never in him. I hold an MA in Psychology, and I could never see
    him doing such a thing in his personality. In fact,he could’ve had
    any woman he wanted without forcing himself on anyone, anywhere. Drunk or not he’s definitely not a rapist.

    Of course he should have sent the two home at the end of the party when everyone else left. That would have been more responsible of him, especially knowing how his enemies have been waiting for the opportunity to set him up.

    But rest assured,he will get his life back, and his career as well, regardless of whether others want that for him or not. Because he’s innocent, there’s a Higher Power at work on his behalf to set the record straight and bring the Truth to Light, and everyone that jumped on the “hater-band-wagon” can just eat crow.

    We’ve all made errors in life. What if we were never given the chance to recover? There would be none of us left on earth! His only real error was having low-life people in his house while intoxicated!

    Stop being so quick to rush to judgment and eager to strip a person of their livelihood, career and Life-self-esteem! Instead, wait for all the FACTS in the case to be revealed.

    Let all the haters be ashamed!

  11. This surely confused me. I wonder if they were only after a fun night sleeping with a celebrity but it turned sour when he got violent.

    They may walk around the house when he was passed out and were threatened when he came to but I can’t find a plausible reason for the lack of internet connection.

    Please update us on this as events come to light. Thank you in advance.

    • Walking around in your underwear in a man’s house, whom you claim not to know very well before that get-together!!
      And allegation of attack is only their word against his…we may never know for sure.

  12. Out of Curiosity…

    I thought the alleged incident took place against the two victims in a DIFFERENT room. According to the victims, they went to sleep in a guest room which was located in the adjacent guest house (where staff normally sleeps) and it was there that he allegedly entered into their room and assaulted them. But now, there seems to be suggestions that the assault took place in his bedroom, (no CCTV), where they laid him…

    I keep wondering, “ did they slip him a Mickey?” These two appear to be pro’s. Could this be the reason they were so comfortable walking around partially nude in their underwear? They seemed to know that he’d be unconscious for quite a while. Otherwise, how would they know what his drinking ability is in terms of blackout and the duration? They could only know the approximate duration of the Blackout if the blackout was deliberately induced by alcohol and a non-detectable agent slipped into his drink.

    For example, the date-rape drug will show-up in a drug test, but not vices like “Visine Eye drops,” or “clear eyes,” which when slipped into his drink will produce the Blackout effect to the fullest. These kind and similar non-detectable vices are the choice of the professional prostitutes because the victim has no recollection of what occurred during the blackout once he awakens …

    Professional’s use this method on unsuspecting “johns” when they want to do a “wallet or money-clip grab.” In this case, it was to establish a well framed lie. Street-walkers don’t care who they hurt as long as they get their Money.

    It’s sad that the video shows them opening the envelop with their pay inside. He paid them for their work; had drinks with them, and they did this to him in return.

    Like two scavengers!!

  13. Sure would like to hear the latest on kang ji hwan case…was there another outcome for him on October the 5th
    I hope for him there is.
    Why in the world he confessed right after all this happen is beyond me. Why he didn’t wait for his lawyer, ugh…

  14. Just read the courts decision on nov the 5th.
    Verdict stayed the same.
    I never knew this actor or anything about him, watched his drama ( lie to me ) and fell in love with his character
    Reading all these charges, absolute nuts, why would he damage his career over these women..I feel this was a set up, they walked around freely in their or his underwear. All were drinking, he needs better lawyers.

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