Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Almost a year ago now, DSP Media and former April members decided to respond to Hyunjoo‘s allegations of bullying within the group with a slew of lawsuits, and today is was revealed that the police had dismissed all seven of them brought against Hyunjoo.
Former APRIL member Lee Hyunjoo has been acquitted of all charges regarding the bullying allegations. Her legal representative revealed, “The decision to not send the case against Lee Hyunjoo and her family has been made. It has been confirmed that the decision to not appeal has been made to all seven complaints”. Previously, the APRIL members and DSP Media sued Lee Hyunjoo and her family for defamation. However, the police judged that it was difficult to prove that the content posted online contained false rumors and malicious intent. Lee’s representative added, “As the case against Lee Hyunjoo and her family have been closed, we will take strict legal action against malicious comments. In the future, we plan to continue responding in accordance with legal procedures to ensure that the truth is not distorted in relation to Lee Hyunjoo’s bullying controversy”.
This isn’t all that surprising to me. Since the outset, DSP’s strategy was clearly to bombard Hyunjoo and her family with defamation lawsuits and hope that one of them works or gets her to settle so they could mediaplay themselves as innocent. But from the outset they had setbacks (humiliating ones), even against her acquaintances, and one had to figure they were in deep shit when Chaewon came out with a video announcing she was appealing yet another legal system loss. Worse yet, it turned out she was being manipulative about it, as netizens discovered that former DSP trainees testified for Hyunjoo’s side.
Of course, as I’ve always said, the police or courts ruling on something doesn’t mean that’s the truth or moral. But given the tack DSP and the April members took — basically insisting everything would be revealed in court — the fact that they have gotten washed in that arena makes it almost impossible to side with them. Especially so given that now all the lawsuits that were filed and the statements calling her weak in the press comes off as extensions of the intimidation or bullying more than anything else.
