In a case where a person, suspected of injecting drugs, was sent to trial after deceiving police at a station detention center by submitting another detainee's urine as their own, the Supreme Court ruled that the police's coercive investigation itself was unlawful.
The Supreme Court's First Division (presiding Justice Ma Yong-ju) said on the 29th that on the 2nd it overturned the lower court that had sentenced a person surnamed Jeong to prison in a case indicted on charges of obstruction of the performance of official duties by deception, and remanded the case to the Seoul Eastern District Court.
At about 11 p.m. on June 12, 2024, Jeong checked into a hotel in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, with an acquaintance, a person surnamed Han. A drug courier, identified as A, went to the hotel room where Jeong and Han were staying, placed two plastic bags containing about 5.75 grams of methamphetamine on the table, and left. At about 1:30 a.m. the next day, Han injected 0.05 grams of methamphetamine and put the rest in a bag.
At about 2:03 a.m. the same day, officers from the Songpa Police Station in Seoul arrested A at a restaurant in Uijeongbu. A said to the effect that "I visited the hotel, and there was Han and a person I saw for the first time (Jeong)." The officers then moved to the hotel and arrested Han in the act.
When Jeong, who was inside the hotel, did not take their hands out of their pockets or open their fists, the officers handcuffed both hands and conducted a search. When no drugs were found, the officers demanded a urine test to determine drug use, but Jeong refused.
The police then urgently arrested Jeong on suspicion of aiding and abetting Han's methamphetamine use. Jeong also refused to submit urine at the Songpa Police Station detention center. Then, at about 9:40 a.m. the same day, Jeong deceived police by submitting another detainee's urine as their own, tested negative for narcotics, and was released. Jeong proposed to the other detainee, "If you provide urine in my place, I will deposit 2 million won in commissary funds."
Prosecutors sent Jeong to trial on charges of obstruction of the performance of official duties by deception in connection with the urine test.
In response, the first trial sentenced Jeong to 10 months in prison. The first trial court said, "It is lawful that the officers urgently arrested Jeong inside the hotel, and it is difficult to view the demand for urine submission as an unlawful execution of official duties."
As for Jeong's false submission of another detainee's urine, the court said, "In order to hide the fact of methamphetamine use, Jeong actively obstructed the investigation and was even released as a result, so the culpability is very grave." The appeals court dismissed both Jeong's and the prosecutor's appeals.
In contrast, the Supreme Court said, "After Han was arrested in the act and left the hotel, there is a strong possibility that the officers' actions of handcuffing both of Jeong's hands inside the hotel for a considerable time, searching the body, and continuously demanding a urine test amounted in substance to a coercive investigation and can be viewed as an unlawful arrest and search."
It continued, "There is ample room to view the subsequent urgent arrest of Jeong as unlawful," adding, "The officers' demand for urine submission while Jeong was under unlawful arrest is unlawful."
The Supreme Court went on to say, "The crime of obstruction of the performance of official duties by deception, which presupposes that the officers' demand for urine submission was a lawful execution of duties, should be deemed not to be established."