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| Arthur Patterson walks out of Incheon International Airport on Sept. 23, 2015, after being extradited to Korea on charges of killing a university student in Seoul back in 1997 in the infamous "Itaewon murder" case. / Yonhap |
By Lee Suh-yoon
A Seoul court dismissed Thursday compensation claims filed against Arthur Patterson and Edward Lee for their involvement in the "Itaewon murder" case, by the victim's family.
The two U.S. citizens were charged separately with the murder of Korean university student Cho Joong-pil in a Burger King restroom in Itaewon, Seoul, in April 1997.
The victim's family demanded 600 million won ($534,000) in compensation for the murder.
"Another local court had already ordered Patterson to pay 300 million won to the family members in 2003, and that's why the court did not acknowledge the compensation claim this time," Ha Joo-hee, the lawyer representing the victim's family, said outside the courthouse. The family filed the new suit this time after Patterson was extradited to Korea following new evidence about the crime being found.
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| Arthur Patterson, then 17, reenacts the murder in the restroom of a Burger King store in Itaewon, Seoul, during the police's investigation into the case where a 22-year-old university student was murdered in April 1997. / Korea Times file |
In July, the victim's family won a separate compensation suit against the state for its handling of the investigation. Acknowledging the prosecution's responsibility in letting Patterson leave the country at the time, delaying his trial for 20 years, a Seoul court ordered the government to pay 360 million won to the family.
Prosecutors originally singled out Lee as the one who stabbed Cho to death. However, he was freed in 1998 after the Supreme Court ruled there was "a lack of evidence" to convict him. Patterson, just found guilty of trying to destroy evidence, left the country in 1999 after receiving a special pardon midway through his 18 month sentence.
But a reinvestigation in 2011 led to Patterson, the Korean American son of a U.S. military contractor, being charged with killing Cho. He was arrested and extradited to Korea in 2015 and given a 20-year sentence.
