The victims were beaten as a group by the defendant, the de facto boss of a criminal gang operating in the Daejeon area. Claiming that the lower-ranking victims had been disrespectful to him, the defendant summoned them to a wooded hill, made them lie face down, and beat them one after another with an aluminum bat. The bat was found to be a dangerous object capable of causing harm, so aggravated assault was applied, and some of the victims sustained injuries requiring treatment. The defendant already had a prior prison sentence for offenses including violations of the Narcotics Control Act, and was within the repeat-offender period at the time of this incident.

Our client was one of the victims caught in a long-entrenched structure of violence within the organization, and it took considerable courage for him to come forward with a complaint. From the outset I promptly secured the victim's statements and presented the investigators with a structured account of the classic pattern of group violence carried out under organized coercion. The defendant admitted all charges and sought to settle with every victim, but to secure real recovery for our client, I set terms that went beyond a mere apology: monetary compensation and measures barring future contact. There was a risk that this case would be downgraded to simple assault, but I successfully steered it to indictment and punishment for aggravated assault, achieving a balanced outcome of victim protection and genuine compensation.