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The incident occurred back in June 2011 when 'A' was delivering dry cleaning. Mr. Seo persuaded 'A' to stay in his bedroom with him and have a drink. 'A' felt uncomfortable with the situation and excused herself to go home when Mr. Seo grabbed her by the wrist and told her, "Sleep here and then go."
During Mr. Seo's first and second trials, Mr. Seo was found guilty of sexually harassing 'A' and attempting to abuse his powers as her superior. He was fined 3 million won (approx. $2,800 USD).
The Supreme Court recently overturned this ruling, however, stating, "It's difficult to say that Mr. Seo touching ['A's] wrist amounts to sexual harassment." They continued, "Mr. Seo did not caress, hug, or do any other activity; he simply took 'A,' who said she would be going home, by the wrist and sat her down in her seat again." They concluded with, "Even if he used insulting language, we can only see it as verbal harassment; it's difficult to view this as sexual harassment."
In the end, Mr. Seo was found not guilty of sexual harassment. Netizens were angered by this turn of events as top comments included: "If it was only the two of them, and he grabbed her wrist and told her to sleep over, then of course it's sexual harassment; how is it not? Is it only real sexual harassment if he grabs her legs, lays her down, rips off her clothes? I guess it's sexual harassment when [the story] is unpleasant and shocking enough," "I bet they all (the judges) do that when picking up women…. Saying he's 'not guilty,' keke," and, "Him telling her to 'sleep and go' is only verbal harassment? The new year just started and I'm already feeling dirty."
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