Lawless Lawyer: The Prelude - Show Me The Money

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SHOW ME

THE MONEY

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SHOW ME THE MONEY 📷 📷 📷 Bong Sang Pil was driving the latest, very expensive supercar, the Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in a dark tunnel. The 2018 Chevrolet is not to be sneezed at; its legendary performance is well-known.

📷 Imagine, the devilishly attractive Bong was driving at high speed in the tunnel. The upbeat music seemed to encourage his reckless behaviour. The speedometer showed that he was pushing past 150 mph. He was tapping his tattooed fingers on the wheel in tune with the fast music. The car looked fierce and aggressive in the dark.

📷 📷 📷 📷 When Bong Sang Pil emerged from the darkness in his gorgeous grey metallic Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, a symbol of success, he was set on catching a certain corrupt traffic officer. INTELLIGENT: SET A THIEF TO CATCH A THIEF. Bong Sang Pil had set himself as a ‘thief’ – a reckless driver. He wanted to catch the real thief – the corrupt traffic officer who had been frequently taking bribes from motorists, some of whom were his clients.

📷 📷 📷 DETERMINED. Upon spotting the officer, Bong Sang Pil revved up his car and the speedometer registered 150 km / hr. He had exceeded the speed limit. Breaking traffic rules. It was clear that he was being provocative. He was determined to catch the corrupt cop. He revelled in goading the lawman with his poor traffic etiquette. The ruse worked. The officer swallowed the bait; he gave chase on his motorcycle.

📷 📷 When the officer waved for him to pull over, he refused. Bong knew that he had committed a traffic offence but the devil in him was determined to toy with the officer. He seemed to be prejudiced against the law officer. As a challenge to the officer, Bong sped up and recklessly weaved in and out of the traffic. The police motorcycle swerved behind him.

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Bong cranked his steering wheel to the left and shot to another lane. Like Bong Sang Pil, the supercar was a force to be reckoned with. The cocky lawyer was smirking. Through his side mirror, he could observe the determined traffic officer tailing behind him. He was smug in the knowledge that his Chevrolet Camaro, a supercar made for performance, could out accelerate any vehicle. The police motorcycle was pretty pale by comparison.

But then, enough was enough. He had his fun. He eased his car to allow the officer to catch up with him. The officer ground to a halt right in front of his car and Bong Sang Pil hit the brakes and brought the powerful car to a sudden stop.

📷 📷 SUAVE. The car window rolled down and the officer met the smiling face of Bong Sang Pil. Confident and relaxed, he placed his left hand on the roof of his car, and with his right hand, he playfully saluted the officer. He was polite yet a smug smile played at the corners of his lips. He teasingly lowered his sunglasses a little.  The traffic officer sized Bong up and requested for his licence.

📷 📷 📷 📷 SOPHISTICATED and WEALTHY. Bong understood the intentions of the officer. He wanted to tease the officer a little by showing that he was rolling in money. A supercar would not do. A person who owned such a car had be rolling in liquid money - cash.  He mischievously flaunted his wealth by drawing the officer’s attention to the rolls of paper money in the centre console storage of his car, from where he pulled out a wallet bulging with cash.  Bong dragged out some notes. On his knuckles was a frivolous-looking tattoo which spelled SPERA, meaning ‘to hope’.

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It was impossible for the officer not to see dollar signs as Bong rifled through his wallet.  Was Bong trying to bribe him? The officer seemed indignant. He instructed the driver to get out of his car.

📷 📷 📷 Bong complained that he was just too uptight. He was summoned to walk away from his car so that they would be under the radar of the highway surveillance camera.

📷 📷 HANDSOME, STYLISH AND MASCULINE. When Bong Sang Pil emerged from his supercar and walked away from it, he did so with a swagger. Bong Sang Pil and his attractive supercar matched each other; he was not less handsome and stylish. A Masculine aura hung over him.  Dressed fashionably in a grey suit teamed with a white shirt and a pair of stylish sunglasses, he was the epitome of style and masculinity.

📷 He looked around and stared knowingly at the surveillance camera.

📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 COOL. The grinning officer commented that he had been offered a bribe just now. The cool and calm Bong denied having committed such an immoral and dishonest act. Corruption on the highway. No way. The lawyer smiled.

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WITTY. Bong Sang Pil’s sense of humour almost made the policeman lose his nerve. He explained that while in the car, it was difficult to fold his wallet because it was bulging with money. He was just trying to pull out some of his money to remove the bulkiness. He knew that the officer was accustomed to taking bribes from motorists for traffic violation. Bong’s smirk never left his face.

A SENSE OF HUMOUR. Wacky. The Jaws of a Crocodile. In one comical act, the talented and humorous Bong used his fingers to flip open and close his wallet repeatedly. The action resembled a crocodile opening and snapping shut its jaws. One could almost hear the clacking of castanets. The action spoke for itself; it symbolised the powerful bite of corruption and injustice.  The hilarious scene makes one want to laugh out aloud.

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The officer demanded to see his licence and threatened to issue him a ticket with a heavier penalty since Bong was reluctant to bribe him.

📷 📷 📷 📷 CALM. Smiling at the officer, he snapped his fingers to indicate that he had understood what was expected of him. Bong was unflappable; he was not easily intimidated by a mere traffic officer. Moreover, the crooked officer was the prey that he was determined to trap.

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He pretended to extract some cash from his wallet. Instead, he drew out two cards; his driving licence and his business card. The latter was used to flaunt his legal profession and to act as a warning. But, the officer was unimpressed by his lawyer status.

📷 📷 📷 SMART. INTELLIGENT. Bong Sang Pil had the element of surprise on his side. To the officer’s shock, Bong Sang Pil whipped out his smart Samsung S9 phone to show Officer Park Moon Seong the evidence of his crime.  The corrupt officer had been caught on the car dash cam. The supercar was equipped with the state of the art technology. His smart mobile phone, which was linked to the sophisticated camera technology of the supercar, could capture crystal clear images. Technology had won the day.

📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 BOLD. COURAGEOUS. INCORRUPTIBLE. Bong had used new technology to effectively catch the corrupt officer red-handed. Court evidence.  Fighting against corruption required courage and an understanding of the law. He broke the law to fight the law. He admonished the law officer for demanding bribes from other drivers. One shouldn’t mess with a brainy and wily lawyer who understood his game.

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CHARMING. The corrupt officer had met his match; the brainy and witty lawyer had shamed him. Bong asked politely for his traffic summons but knew he would not be getting one.  Smiling charmingly, he quickly removed his identification card from the officer’s hand, winked at him and drove off triumphantly.

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GANGSTER WARS NEPHEW AND UNCLE A GANGSTER PAIR BONG SANG PIL AND CHOI DAE WOONG

There was an in-coming call when Bong re-entered his car. Tae Kwang Soo, his sidekick, was pleading for help. Their client, an accountant who was employed by Seok Gwan Dong, a gangster boss, was being beaten up.

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The beleaguered victim, who was hung up from the ceiling of a warehouse, resembled a cow to be slaughtered.  The man had been a valuable asset to Seok but he wanted to leave for greener pastures. The skills of the accountant had enabled Seok to evade tax and purchase a good number of properties.  The terrified victim was lowered to the ground to be tortured.

📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 Bong raced to the scene in his supercar. He picked up Tae Kwang Soo, his henchman, on his way there. Tae looked interesting; he seemed to have cut his hair with half a coconut shell placed on his head.

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Bong Sang Pil revved up his car and drove right through the door of the warehouse, tearing it apart.  He was in control of his car; he locked the front wheels to enable the rear wheels to spin. Bong laughed heartily as the car spun around and around, drifting at some point.

📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 Then, he drove into the crowd of gangsters who were holding long iron rods and other weapons.

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Stopping the engine, Bong Sang Pil coolly stepped out. He used his mobile phone to record the event. The gangsters crowded threateningly around him. He warned them that if they even touch a strand of his hair, they might live to regret it.

📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 He introduced himself as the victim’s lawyer and Tae Kwang Soo handed out the lawyer’s business card.

📷 📷 📷 Trying to placate them, he told them that he would help them but he would have to use legal terms to help them understand the case. They had no patience with his legal talk as they were not in a law court. They wanted to beat Bong up.

📷 📷 📷 Bong seemed fearless; he laughed in their faces. Exasperated by their ignorance and stupidity, he pointed to one surly, unkempt gangster.  Thinking that Bong had invited him for a fight, the man threw the first punch. Bong tasted blood. The gangsters laughed but too soon.

📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 Wiping blood from his mouth, he told them that should he retaliate, it would be considered to be done in self-defence. 

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Bong Sang Pil snobbishly boasted that his Italian designer suit was expensive and he would have to take off his suit jacket to prevent it from being crumpled.

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One of the mobsters held a knife to his throat. It was his moment. Bong Sang Pil turned into the consummate professional.

📷 He lectured them on the punishment and sentencing of aggressive individuals by the court. Dangerous weapon. A 5-year sentence would be meted out for threatening another person with a knife.

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Intimidation. It would be a 2-year sentence for intimidation without a weapon. If an offender picked up a weapon, but quickly put it down again, his offence would be viewed as less serious than that of an aggressive intimidator without a weapon. Therefore, his sentence would be lighter. While explaining the finer points of the law, the brainy and brawny lawyer, in a swift manoeuvre, grabbed the sharp knife from the aggressor and then magically placed the cutting instrument into the man’s hand again. Being fearless, he mocked the gangsters for using weapons in an unarmed combat.

📷 📷 The dumb goon, dropping his weapon in fear, wanted to thrash Bong Sang Pil. But, he was thwacked by his own gangster boss, Seok Gwan Dong who had understood what the lawyer was driving at. They muttered curses under their breath. Their acts of violence had been thwarted by the brainy and athletic Lawyer Bong Sang Pil who was a force to be reckoned with.

📷 📷 Bong raised his hands to quieten them down and Tae Kwang Soo showed them the financial data and accounts of the gangster company on his laptop. Bong Sang Pil was patronising; his manners smooth and slick.

He warned Seok Gwan Dong that they had details of his tax evasion for the last five years. His business would be subjected to criminal charges. The penalty was 7 years in jail.

📷 📷 📷 📷 On top of that, the death threats and attempted murder of the accountant would ensure a longer prison term for him. He would receive 17 years for that. But, it would also be dependent on the judge during the trial.

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Seok Gwan Dong was a tax dodger. Bong emphasized that if the information on his tax evasion was leaked to the National Tax Service (NTS), the penalty would be at least 2 billion won.

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With knitted eyebrows and mocking eyes, he stared at them wearily for their apparent stupidity. By then, he had captured the full attention of the gangster head. Bong explained that tax evasion was an illegal practice. In an exasperated tone, Bong explained that the accountant had cooked the books through his creative accounting. The loopholes in financial regulation had been exploited for the gangster's benefit. The gangster head stood to lose only 800 million won instead of losing 2 billion won in tax money to the National Tax Service. So, did he want to land himself in jail and pay 2 billion won as well?

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Holding a steel rod to Bong’s face, Seok Gwan Dong demanded to know who would guarantee that the confidential information would not be leaked to the National Tax Service.

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A shroud of haze seemed to hang in the air. A place of corruption. Tension loomed large in their faces. Suddenly, Choi Dae Woong appeared out of nowhere.  Bong Sang Pil’s maternal uncle, a powerful gang boss in Seoul, declared that he would guarantee it.

📷 A convoy of black cars carrying his hirelings soon arrived en masseand surrounded the place.

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Bong Sang Pil and his sidekick, Tae Kwang Soo bowed their heads to acknowledge the gangster boss.

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Seok Gwan Dong had been neatly trapped. Bong smirked when Seok Gwan Dong demanded to know whether Choi Dae Woong was behind all that.  Choi admitted that his only role was introducing a smart lawyer to the accountant who wanted to move on in life. It was clear that the nephew AKA gangster-lawyer was in cahoots with his uncle to flush Seok Gwan Dong out from his turf.

📷 📷 📷 But, fate would soon bring Bong Sang Pil and Seok Gwan Dong together in a greater conflict in Ki Seong.

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A DATE WITH INJUSTICE AND SEXISM THE 'KILLING IN SELF-DEFENSE'  CASE THE DISTRICT COURT OF  SEOUL

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The Battered Woman Syndrome. Ha Jae Yi, a lawyer, waited for the verdict for her client's case. The accused, a battered woman, had killed her abusive husband in self-defence.  It was a clear case of domestic violence as the husband had abused her for a great number of years. It seemed that to her husband, a self-sacrificing, obedient wife who could be constantly abused was a prized possession.  The defendant was threatened yet again and had reason to believe that her life was in real danger so she had acted in self-defence.

📷 The all-male panel of judges had made their decision. The chief judge delivered the verdict. To Ha Jae Yi’s shock, the defendant was meted out a sentence of 20 years in prison.  The verdict was atrocious; the lengthy sentence was a clear case of injustice. He had ruled harshly against her; it seemed likely that the judge had taken on the position that it was premeditated murder on the part of the accused.  Ha Jae Yi looked sadly at the woman’s young child and elderly parents.

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Confrontation between judge and lawyer. Ha Jae Yi confronted the judge, arguing that the sentence was so much harsher than what the prosecutor had demanded. 

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The judge was riled by her impertinence. The sheer audacity in her objection was unbelievable.

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But, the plucky lawyer argued that the accused had been abused and manhandled by her violent husband for 10 years. 

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‘Does that justify the murder of her husband?’ the judge questioned. The judge had not expected opposition, much less from female lawyers. It was an unthinkable affront that a female lawyer would stand up to him.

📷 📷 But, Ha Jae Yi was different. By all accounts, she was tough and unyielding. The feline gladiator. Her nerves were screaming. She did not rein in her feelings.  The judge had to face the tenacity of Ha Jae Yi's character; she had gripped onto him like a bulldog which had refused to let go. She was asserting her dominance. Ha Jae Yi reasoned that the poor woman, feeling unsafe living with her highly violent husband, had fled to the shelter for abused women. But, her husband had not only followed her there but also brutally belted her, kicked and left her with broken ribs.  Male rage and violence. How dare the husband trespass on a refuge for helpless women and children? It showed that he had no respect for the law. Shockingly, the judge retorted that the defendant deserved it; he seemed to relish the idea of playing God with the defendant's life.

📷 📷 But, so far, Ha Jae Yi’s jaw had not dropped at his repulsive sexist opinion.  She retorted that the defendant had also been stabbed. Horrifying! She killed him in self-defence - to protect herself.

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The arrogant man was not to be outshouted by a lady. Along with his gender bias, he let slip his disdain for her. Descending from his pedestal, the judge’s bench, he confronted her face to face. 

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It was shocking that he was not above physically abusing women.  He thrashed his court file repeatedly at her ample breasts oops…chest while asking his question, ‘Are you defending her because you’re a woman too?’ He was guilty of male chauvinism and appalling conduct.  First, his sexist remark implied that she lacked partiality and professionalism on her part. He had accused her of being biased towards the female defendant because she, herself, was female.

Second, the judge seemed to be oblivious of his sexual harassment of the female lawyer.

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He continued his abuse: being a female meant she couldn’t be successful - she was the weaker sex. He commented disdainfully that she was making the judicial court stink of female cosmetics, a sexist remark that implied that she was not so brainy.  Then, he called out to the guards to throw her out.

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Ha Jae Yi was in a combative mood. Outraged by his sexist and unprofessional behaviour, she fiercely thundered that she fought for her client not because she was a woman. She did not mince her words when she bellowed that his judgement was wrong.  He turned and haughtily emphasized the point that his verdict ….  Ha Jae Yi did not allow him to finish or have the last word; she walloped him. The Rage Queen with the lethal bite had been provoked beyond endurance. In her maniacal rage she had socked it to him in the most violent manner.

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He fell to the ground with a thud. He was not unlike an overturned  turtle. If she could, she would have punched the daylights out of him. If it proved one thing, Ha Jae Yi was neither frail nor helpless. No one could bully her, verbally or otherwise. She was fiery and unbridled in her fury. But, she was not finished with him. She yelled some more accusations at him. A judge could be wrong! She seemed to have bone-deep convictions about everything. Had she gone too far?

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The vicious verbal match – the screaming match with demeaning insults being exchanged must have been quite entertaining to a certain spectator who turned out to be none other than Bong Sang Pil. Suspension. After the minor scuffle with the honourable judge, Ha Jae Yi was suspended for 6 months.  Interestingly, the decision was arrived at by an all-male Disciplinary Board.

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Shocking. Shocking. Shocking. The district judge had hobbled into the disciplinary meeting in a neck brace and crutches. He also wore an eye patch and his left hand was bandaged and was in a sling.

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The irony was the heavily injured judge had the energy to thunder and scream at the young female lawyer at the top of his lungs even though he seemed to have been almost immobilized by her. It was male supremacy at its height. Questions popped out. Was her blow that deadly? Or was the judge putting on a show? Ha Jae Yi had only socked him in the face only once. The crutch, neck brace, eye patch, arm sling and bandages hung like the Sword of Damocles over Ha Jae Yi’s head. Were the props used as evidence in the ‘courtroom trial’ to prove that the female lawyer had caused the male judge so many serious injuries? It must have looked like a show. Had the situation not been so serious, one would have thought it was hilarious. The judge enjoyed playing the victim and the props had probably helped sway male opinion in his favour. The bigot was keen to avenge the shame that had been wrought on him; he was vicious in his argument that she should be disbarred from law practice!  Disbarred? He probably thought that he would be the laughing stock of the judicial world if she wasn’t.

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On top of it, the judge also urged the board to confer with her law firm. Her law firm had to take responsibility for her transgressions. What he meant was that they should instruct her law firm to fire her.

📷 Ha Jae Yi apologised for her rash act but she still insisted that the judge’s verdict was all wrong!

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The judge had expected Ha Jae Yi to cower in fear in the presence of all the high and mighty males but they didn’t know her. The female lawyer had character, verve and courage. She wasn’t about to give in to their ridiculous and unfair demands. The vengeful and sexist judge poured out his venom. He promised her that he would put her in jail for striking him.  Contempt of court. Disorderly, contemptuous, insolent behaviour towards a judge.

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The chairman of the board quickly demanded that she post a letter of apology on the court website, an act to which she was unwilling to accede.

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Thanks to the courage of her own convictions, she was not going to retreat without a final word. She bit her lips and walked up assertively and confidently to the obnoxious judge. She had totally terrorised him; he was quaking with fear as he shrank at her approach. She raised her balled fist and he fell to the floor.

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The other male lawyers recoiled at her aggressive demeanour. With her right hand on her chest, she declared she had done nothing wrong. She looked around at all the men and declared, ‘As a lawyer and a woman, I’m outraged.’  Her pent-up fury flooded out of her and she yelled at the judge and she banged the table.

📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 📷 By then, none in the all-male disciplinary board was dissuaded that Ha Jae Yi was wrong!  Was sexism rampant in the room?