Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
While April has already disbanded and fellow ex-April member Yena revealed that her lawsuit against Hyunjoo was dropped, Chaewon continues to fight against bullying allegations brought forth by her former groupmate. On her YouTube channel she recently uploaded a video that updates on her lawsuit against Hyunjoo and explains her side of the judgment.
Of course, the reason an explainer was necessary is because the lawsuit she filed against Hyunjoo was dismissed by police and she’s now appealing.
“Previously, I filed a lawsuit against the defendant for spreading false information about me, including that there was bullying within our group, or that I dated a manager. The police have since determined that the defendant was ‘not guilty’, and so I am in the process of filing for an appeal against this decision.”
In the video, she says that the police deemed witnesses from her side unreliable and thus it was difficult for them to tell what was true or not. Chaewon essentially says that the police’s process of determining who was or wasn’t credible was unfair, and that’s why her lawsuit was dismissed.
“I made painstaking efforts by gathering the testimonies of many acquaintances in order to unveil the truth, but all that I received in return were the same ‘not guilty’ rulings. However, in the hopes that others like me will not have to endure the amount of pain that I dealt with while being accused of false truths, I have decided to move forward with an appeal. I sincerely wish that the truth will come out. I have now learned that it is extremely difficult to prove truths in legal proceedings. Nonetheless, I always spoke the truth, and I have nothing to hide.”
Initially, I wondered how wise it was to come out with something like this while the case was ongoing since she’s still appealing, but given the production style of this video, it seems this was done with the guidance of her lawyers. So far it seems that now five of the lawsuits against Hyunjoo over the bullying allegations have been fruitless for April’s side, so perhaps Chaewon’s lawyers see the writing on the wall and believe trying to fight this in the court of public opinion is the best shot they have.
Honestly, I thought this was the case that had the best chance of getting some result for April, because talking about Chaewon dating a manager — regardless of whether it was true or not — appeared most likely to fit the Korean legal system’s defamation requirement. Thus, I figured that Chaewon could’ve pulled something out there and then use that to declare victory overall, but if even this isn’t going well that’s not the best of signs.
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Anyway, as I’ve hammered over and over again, legality is not morality and the judgment of the authorities are not the be-all and end-all. That said, so far nothing has emerged in the legal proceedings that has changed the situation, and what we know is that DSP Media has admitted that the treatment of April was a shitshow (the explanation is they mistreated all of them, not just Hyunjoo), that the group didn’t get along, and that their strategic response was to essentially bully Hyunjoo in public, so it’s hard to see it as much of a stretch to get from there to what Hyunjoo was alleging.
Quite frankly, at the moment I’m not sure what else a neutral is supposed to think when April’s side, and Chaewon specifically, have insisted that they were gathering a ton of evidence to bring forth in legal avenues, and thus telling the public to basically wait for everything to be clarified there, but then it turns out they got washed in court/legally as well. Somehow this isn’t over yet, so hey maybe something else will be revealed, but in the present it’s insane to blame anybody for taking Hyunjoo’s side given how things have unfolded.
Update
Netizens have pointed out that one of the reasons Hyunjoo has had the lawsuits brought against her dismissed is that former DSP trainees testified for her side. That part is selectively left out of this video and doesn’t fit with the narrative Chaewon is trying to paint of a he-said, she-said war being unequally weighted.
