former president of KAMA (Korean-American Medical Association) Chicago, my wife, Jessica, asked Mr. Van Bokkelen to write a letter to the current president, Dr. Chung.
In fact I did not have a chance to say a single word to Dr. Chung, and, most of all; I had missed our association’s activities.
Dear President Chung:
Jessica Koo asked me to write this letter to you on behalf of Dr. Koo. Dr. Koo was convicted after a jury trial of rape, and was sentenced to twenty (20) years imprisonment.
The alleged victim was a patient of Dr. Koo, as was her entire family. In fact, after the alleged incident was reported, the family continued to see Dr. Koo as their family physician.
It is my strong belief that Dr. Koo is innocent of the charge for which he was convicted, did not receive a fair trial, and that on appeal, the conviction will be reversed.
Some of the issues which will be raised on appeal are the following:
1.Whether the Judge who heard the case, and who is not a constitutional Judge, had jurisdiction to sit as the trial judge.
2.The judge, after seating at least two female jurors, prohibited Dr. Koo’s trial counsel from subsequently exercising what is known as peremptory challenges. In this case, the Judge limited the exercise of the peremptory challenges by Dr. Koo’s attorney. We feel that this is reversible error.
3.The court permitted testimony of other alleged victims of Dr. Koo under the theory that the other alleged incident established a pattern by Dr. Koo. In a case such as this where the direct testimony is very weak, the Court has to weigh the admission of other alleged “bad acts” against the prejudice which may be caused by the admission of the evidence. In other words, Dr. Koo may have been convicted on the basis of the uncharged conduct.
There are additional issues which will be raised after we have had an opportunity to review the trial transcript.
Very truly yours,
Joseph Van Bokkelen
November 6
The Prison (Retail Store) Assignment
In the morning, I went down to meet the classification officer, a board member of RDC, Ms. Karen McGinnie. She was white and in her mid-fifties, wore glasses, was wrinkled around the chin, had black hair, was fat at 5 feet 7 inches, appeared as a veteran in the prison business, was wearing a big diamond ring on left finger, was well fed and had grease on her face. She was talking to newcomers for their new wholesale destinations: the designated retail storages. Her diamond ring reminded one of how much and well she scraped the flesh of poor prisoners. Her oily face distracted my mind because it told how much she had squeezed homeless people’s muscles. I did not have the slightest idea of why poor prisoners have to see her for their prison assignment. Somehow I believed she loved to see all inmates coming into her regiment to exercise her sexual pleasures. It was a most silly DOC business I witnessed, the way she was meeting all prisoners. She was there to boast of her position to all handcuffed prisoners.
Anyway, I hated having to face her, but I had no choice. It should normally be for an official order by the DOC to determine where we were to be delivered among the retail stores. The simple paper order, rather than her, would have sufficiently taken care of things without leading to such a harassing episode. Well, she recommended me to the CIC (Correctional Industrial Center) as other counselors did. I nodded and left the room.
November 8, Sunday
In the early morning, they showed us a movie, Cadence. It was good and I enjoyed it for a long time. Every day, I met newcomers. The chow menus became bad after the election. The dinner was old ham, green beans, breads, jelly, milk and mashed potato.
In the evening, we saw another movie, Bad Boy. It distracted my mind a lot but I consumed it as it was, because I thought it happened only in America since the government collected so many of the young flesh and kept them in congested cages.
My question was what do people expect from these young prisoners in the first place? It seemed society loved and enjoyed keeping young, restless and uneducated people in the prison for big bucks. The DOC appreciated these outlaws for the government’s businesses since the government had to utilize the fiscal budgets. In order to expend the budgets, the crimes have to be committed to accommodate the government’s demands and their politics.
November 9
Writing to Jessica
Every Wednesday was the commissary day. I got my money two weeks later so I went down to shop and received stuff that I had ordered.
The RDC had only a small recreation yard, so we took turns for recreation by floor. The IYC (Indiana Youth Center) was located next to the RDC, so we could observe the activities there through the fences when we were out for recreation.
Since I got my commissaries, I began writing letters to Jessica and telling of the life in RDC and stories about the values of the commodities. I wrote to Jessica twice a week, but unfortunately she never wrote me back. I was very disappointed with her but I knew better, so I learned to be patient. Her selfish personality had never stopped and still manifested itself as her typical behavior, but the problem is she does not know she is a selfish person.
I believed she had lots of news she could have written to me with consideration for my being incarcerated and could have told me how the kids were doing at school. Nevertheless, I heard nothing. That had been her kind of personality since we got married, and my mom used to ask me to divorce her, but I never took her words in consideration. Now, so many years later my wife was still showing her bad behavior and her lack of love and affection.
Today, my cellmate, Pagan, was taken to the Westville Correctional Center, and on the same day, I got a new cellmate, Jack Brown from Evansville.
November 10
New Cellmate Jack Brown
My new cellmate, Brown, looked to be a vet in the DOC business. He seemed to know everything that was going on in the DOC, and he began to tell stories of life in prison but I did not pay much attention to his stories because nothing was good.
Brown brought a cold with him from Evansville. He kept blowing his nose and shaking his body for the cold. The nurse eventually brought Tylenol and other cold tabs, but he was still suffering. I thought I could stay away from him but it was my mistake. Despite two days of keeping distance from him, I got the cold too. My immunity was down already. I was afraid of getting a cold in the meantime and was always careful to avoid direct contact with other inmates, but I got it now.
From today, without warning I began to sneeze, and then my nose began to run. I knew it was because of my low resistance. I had no choice so I requested medical help.
The next day, they took me to the doctor. I asked him to give me some antihistamine for my sinusitis. He said he would. But there was no news from the doctor for the next two days. I hated myself being sick. I thought I could handle a cold but the damn sinus allergy drove me nuts. I tried to stay strong, but once I got the flu, my sinusitis kept giving me hell.
I kept sneezing and wiping my nose, and then my eyes started to run, so that I could not open my eyes clearly. I became damn sick.
Next-Cell Neighbor
My next-cell neighbor was a black, nineteen-year-old gay, was skinny and looked
