You Have Been Defended [EN]: Chapter 132

You Have Been Defended – Episode 132

After receiving the call from Secretary Oh, the victim’s brother was eager to meet as soon as possible, so they scheduled an appointment for the next day.

He was so happy that I had to tell him not to thank me yet, as the retainer agreement wasn’t finalized, but he still seemed pleased.

I wasn’t sure if they had already hired a lawyer or were working with a public defender, but they seemed incredibly frustrated.

“I’m a bit nervous since the opponent is Ko Yun-sung.”

Kang Min-jae clenched and unclenched his fists as he spoke.

We had just arrived at the hospital where the victim was admitted to meet him.

“To be caught up with a brute like Ko Yun-sung, the victim must have suffered a lot.”

He shook his head, selecting a juice set from the convenience store.

Although the fact that Ko Yun-sung was a brute was already spreading by word of mouth, there hadn’t been any major incidents that made it to the news yet.

Or, to be precise, it would be more accurate to say that they had been preventing it from reaching the news all along.

Ko Yun-sung went to college in the United States.

It’s commonly known that this is because he wasn’t good at studying, but his trip to the U.S. probably wasn’t solely due to his grades.

I suspect that they sent him away because they were worried about what kind of trouble their son, who would act even more like a brute once he turned 20 and entered college, might cause in the country.

Of course, even Ko Yun-sung eventually received a call from the Ministry of National Defense and came back to Korea.

But Ko Yun-sung wasn’t the kind of person who would change just because he served in the military.

Before his buzz cut could even grow out, rumors spread that you could find him at any club.

In fact, that’s why I thought Ko Yun-sung would be on Cho Hyun-seok’s list when I was working on the Jung Young-joon case.

In my previous life, the prosecution failed to obtain Cho Hyun-seok’s list, so I was secretly hoping for it this time.

Unfortunately, I didn’t hear his name on the news.

I’m convinced that Woo-shin’s influence reached the prosecution.

But this time, it’s different.

If I take on this case, I plan to plaster Ko Yun-sung’s name all over the news and on the front page of the morning papers.

“Kang.”

“Yes?”

“You might be taking on a big case, but you’re unusually quiet.”

Kang Min-jae, who was looking in the mirror inside the elevator going up to the hospital room, turned to me.

“You told me not to act like an attention seeker.”

He replied sullenly.

I had introduced Kang Min-jae to the term “attention seeker” not long ago.

Even though the word didn’t exist yet, there was no other word that could describe Kang Min-jae so well, so I couldn’t help but say it.

“It’s not my first time dealing with a chaebol [family-owned conglomerate]. But it seems like it’ll be a bit difficult. If the prosecution openly favors him, the trial might be tough too. But we have to show that the truth prevails!”

He doesn’t seem burdened.

I nodded.

“…Why? Are you telling me to back out?”

“Why would I?”

“No, I just feel a bit empty since you’re not nagging me.”

If we take on this case, I was planning to give Kang Min-jae a lot of opportunities.

He plays a big role in the investigation stage, but I’ve been handling most of the trials.

“Room 916, this is it.”

The door to room 916 was wide open.

A drama rerun was playing on the television, and there were some family members who seemed to be visiting.

Little kids were running around the hospital room, and their parents were busy trying to control them.

“Oh, my. Kiddo, you have to be careful.”

Kang almost bumped into a kid.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Yeon-ji, say you’re sorry, okay?”

“I’m sorry. Should Yeon-ji blow on it to make it better?”

“Ouch, ouch. Mister is in so much pain. Please blow on it.”

Kang pretended to be in pain, and the little girl blew on it.

Then, a patient with crutches suddenly approached us.

“Are you by any chance Attorney Cha Joo-han?”

“Ah, yes. Are you Mr. Oh Sang-hyun?”

“Yes. My child is a bit reckless, so I apologize for the rudeness. Please come in.”

The child’s mother picked up the child, and Oh Sang-hyun returned to his bed, leaning on his crutches.

“How are you feeling?”

“It’s much better than before. Originally, my face was so swollen that I didn’t even look like a person.”

He showed me a photo saved on his phone.

It seemed to be a photo taken a few days after the incident.

His face was bruised, and his eyes were swollen.

There were also disinfected areas on his forehead where he had been stitched up.

“You were badly injured. Seeing that you have fractures, I can imagine how intense the assault was that day.”

“Ha, really… It’s beyond words. It’s not like I was hit by just one person, but also by those goons.”

“I heard that Mr. Oh Sang-hyun was so badly injured at the time that he couldn’t inflict any violence on Ko Yun-sung at all. But you were sued instead, so you must have been very surprised.”

“Yes, exactly. It’s really frustrating. I wouldn’t feel so wronged if I had hit him even once. I was wildly flailing my arms to try to survive, so it’s possible that I touched him in the process…”

[Lie]

Hmm, this is an unexpected result.

When I didn’t give a readily positive response, Oh Sang-hyun’s wife asked this time.

“Is it a problem if his arm touched him while he was flailing?”

I shook my head.

“That’s not it. But, um… Mr. Oh Sang-hyun, did you really not hit him even once?”

“Yes.”

[Lie]

I can clearly see that he’s lying, but I can’t just let it slide.

“Are you sure?”

“…Yes, that’s right.”

“Okay, good for now. Do you remember how many of the attendants participated in the assault?”

“I think there were about six of them.”

[Truth]

So, seven including Ko Yun-sung.

If he was gang-assaulted by seven people, we can argue self-defense depending on how much Oh Sang-hyun hit him.

“Then, could you explain the situation from the beginning, when Mr. Oh Sang-hyun was taken to the corner of the construction site?”

Since Oh Sang-hyun is lying, the only way is to listen to the explanation from beginning to end, find loopholes, and induce a confession.

It might fail, though.

Actually, I want to take on this case if possible.

To do that, I need to get the client to tell me the truth.

If a lie is discovered later, it will be difficult for me, and it won’t be good for him either.

“Ko Yun-sung took me to the corner of the construction site, saying he wanted to talk for a moment. It was like an alley, and it was very narrow.”

“Were there any CCTVs [closed-circuit televisions] there?”

“There was only one at the entrance of the alley. The reason why the prosecution ultimately filed an indictment was because of the scene captured on that CCTV.”

“What scene are you talking about?”

“It was a scene of Ko Yun-sung being carried out by his attendants, covered in blood.”

He consistently claimed that he didn’t hit Ko Yun-sung even once when he appeared at the prosecutor’s office.

But the prosecutor showed him the CCTV footage in question and threatened him, saying, ‘Are you really going to say it’s not you even after seeing this?'”

“If that CCTV is at the entrance of the alley, shouldn’t it also capture the scene of Oh Sang-hyun coming out injured? Oh Sang-hyun’s condition would have been worse.”

Oh Sang-hyun chuckled.

“That’s what I’m saying. But the prosecution said that’s all that was captured on the CCTV. That’s not the only absurd thing. Ko Yun-sung’s claims are also ridiculous.”

“What did he claim?”

“He said that he was in a bad mood that day, so it’s true that he was being irritable with the worker, but I embarrassed Ko Yun-sung too much in front of many people. So he called me out to talk separately, but I told Ko Yun-sung that he was a parachute with a well-off dad and had no manners. Well, that’s what he’s claiming.”

“So, what did Mr. Oh Sang-hyun say to the investigator in charge?”

“I said it was completely the opposite. I said there were six attendants with Ko Yun-sung, so what guts would I have to lay a hand on Ko Yun-sung? I think I said a hundred times that I was the one who was surrounded and beaten by the attendants and Ko Yun-sung.”

“What was the response of the investigator in charge?”

“He told me about Ko Yun-sung’s statement. Ko Yun-sung said that when he was hit, his attendants tried to rush at me, so he told them to stay still because he was worried that things would escalate. He claimed that he was trying to calm me down. But because I beat Ko Yun-sung so badly, the attendants had no choice but to intervene eventually.”

“But he would have also said that the attendants only tried to stop it and didn’t inflict any injuries, right?”

“Yes. And he said that my 7-week diagnosis was also a show. It was the same when it was sent to the prosecutor’s office. It seems like they all believe Ko Yun-sung’s words more. I’m claiming that Ko Yun-sung and I were both hit, but it’s not a mutual assault, and only I’m being indicted. Does that make sense?”

[I was beaten so badly that I couldn’t even move, but I only tried to get away. But the other person is claiming that he was injured and is lying down, which is absurd.]

This is a situation where both sides are making the same claim.

Therefore, one of them must be lying, and the prosecution has determined that it is Oh Sang-hyun.

Because of the CCTV installed at the entrance of that alley.

“What did the lawyer say?”

“The lawyer keeps telling me to settle. He says that even if it’s a settlement for assault, it won’t end everything, but it will definitely reduce the sentence. But I told him that I absolutely can’t settle. If someone needs to ask for a settlement, it should be Ko Yun-sung, not me.”

“I heard that the trial is a month and a half away.”

“Yes. That’s why I’m going crazy. So I was thinking that it might be better to dismiss the lawyer and look for someone else, and then I received a call from you, Attorney.”

Since I can check Ko Yun-sung’s statement by reviewing the investigation records, I didn’t bother using my ability.

After roughly hearing how the prosecution and police investigated this case, I felt like I was getting a sense of it.

I should definitely assume that Woo-shin’s influence was involved.

Anyway, from now on, I need to confirm two things: why he hit Ko Yun-sung and to what extent he hit him.

“I see. Let’s change the subject again. Please continue to explain the situation when you were assaulted.”

Oh Sang-hyun sighed and continued.

“Being surrounded by Ko Yun-sung and his attendants, all seven of them, in that narrow alley, I thought I was in trouble. I left my phone in my clothes at the site office, and at that time, I really thought I was doomed.”

I also felt regret.

If he had recorded it on his phone, it would have been good evidence.

“Ko Yun-sung started verbally abusing me, saying, ‘Where does a mere employee like you dare to talk back?’ Then he started pushing me.”

“What did Mr. Oh Sang-hyun do?”

“I said that I didn’t think I was wrong. Ko Yun-sung was swearing at a construction worker who was old enough to be his father, just because he bumped into Ko Yun-sung while carrying bricks. Then Ko Yun-sung started beating me, saying that I wasn’t repenting.”

[Truth]

So far, it’s not a lie.

When I nodded, Oh Sang-hyun finally continued.

“I was unilaterally beaten. Then Ko Yun-sung suddenly shouted into the air and ordered his attendants to hit me, saying that he wasn’t relieved.”

“So the attendants assaulted Mr. Oh Sang-hyun?”

“Yes. Some of the attendants grabbed me, and some hit me. In common terms, I was ganged up on. Really, it’s been a while since I’ve been ganged up on, and it hurt like hell.”

It’s been a while?

There was something that caught my attention, so I interrupted.

“What do you mean by ‘it’s been a while’? Are you saying that you’ve been gang-assaulted by Ko Yun-sung before?”

“Ah, no. That’s not it. I used to dream of being a baseball player, so I was in the baseball club in high school. I was ganged up on a lot by the seniors back then. Haha. That’s what I’m talking about.”

Baseball club.

I looked at his physique.

When I saw him standing with crutches earlier, I thought he was tall.

He looked about 180 cm [approximately 5’11”].

The physique that was visible through the thin patient gown wasn’t bad either.

Broad shoulders, moderately thick arms.

Even if he was being held, if he was being unilaterally gang-assaulted like that, he would have tried to resist somehow.

If he hit Ko Yun-sung, there was a high probability that it happened in the process.

“You were in the baseball club. I was in the baseball club too.”

“Oh, really?”

Oh Sang-hyun raised his voice as if he was glad.

Of course, it’s a lie.

“I have a similar experience. I was always on the bench, so I was often ignored by the seniors. So I got hit a lot too. So much so that I thought I wish I could hit them just once.”

“If you get hit a lot, you can’t help but think that way. I once grabbed a senior by the collar in anger.”

“You’re amazing. We had a clear hierarchy, so even if we were gang-assaulted, if we grabbed a senior by the collar, we would get hit by the coach.”

“It was the same for us. But at that time, I really thought I might die, so I had the courage to do that.”

“I see. I guess the seniors in the baseball club I went to were meticulous, so they grabbed me and beat me, so I couldn’t even block the punches, let alone grab them by the collar.”

“Haha, you have to use your legs in those situations. Usually, when they’re ganging up on you, they only grab your arms. Since my legs were free, I kicked and charged at them. If my legs were also grabbed, I wouldn’t have been able to do anything like you, Attorney.”

“Is that so?”

“Haha, yes. That’s what happened.”

Then, Oh Sang-hyun began to tell the story of his past exploits.

Since he didn’t let them push him around easily, the seniors were afraid of him and kept their eyes down when they saw him, and the coach told them not to touch him because he was crazy, and so on.

He seemed to be having fun as I kept agreeing with him.

“You’re amazing. Then this time, since your legs were free, it wouldn’t have been difficult to kick Ko Yun-sung.”

“Haha, of course. I kicked him and he fell back…”

Oh Sang-hyun answered, slapping his knee.

When I shrugged, he seemed to realize what he had said.

“Haa…”

He touched his forehead.