The Taipei Municipal Police Department last night took disciplinary action against 12 police officers over the branding of a high school girl by a Taipei policeman.
Hsu Chuan-hsun (許船勳), captain of the department's Peace Preservation Corps, where the officer served, was given one demerit.
Seven other officers at the corps and four at the Nankang Police Station, which dealt with the criminal case, received various penalties -- the lightest being a censure and the more serious being two demerits.
Officer Feng Te-ming (
Feng was dismissed from the police force after a disciplinary committee hearing on Wednesday night.
He could also face criminal charges, as relatives of the victim insist that they will file a complaint. Under the Criminal Code, a person suspected of the offense of inflicting bodily injury may only be prosecuted after a complaint is filed.
Feng allegedly branded the girl during a March 16 encounter, and the victim reported the incident to the Criminal Investigation Bureau on March 27. The Nankang Police Station then took over the case.
Before the police station filed the case with the Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office on May 1, however, Feng produced a written settlement document signed by him and the girl's parents.
In this settlement the girl's family agreed not to press charges if Feng paid them compensation of NT$100,000. However, Feng has yet to pay the sum.
In the event of a settlement between the suspect and victim of a criminal offense, whether to prosecute is a matter for prosecutors to decide, unless the victim drops the charges.
But a relative of the 17-year-old girl said in a TV interview yesterday that the family had been deceived by Feng into signing the settlement, and that they had now planned to press charges against him.
The relative said that Feng visited the family after the incident, insisting that the girl had worked as a prostitute and stating that he would not press charges of prostitution against her if the family agreed to a settlement.
The Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office said prosecutors have not yet started to deal with the case.
Hsu, in a press conference held by two Taipei City councilors yesterday morning, bowed to apologize to the public for the incident.
New Party lawmaker Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆), in an interpellation session in the Legislative Yuan, questioned whether the police had tried to cover up the case. Until the story broke in the media Wednesday, police had not taken action against Feng and allowed him to continue serving as a police officer.
Director-General of the National Police Administration Wang Ginn-wang (王進旺) said that there might have been a "communications breakdown" among the police. Wang said that the Nankang Police Station, which was dealing with the case, had not informed higher-ups in Feng's unit about the incident.
The chief of the Nankang criminal investigation squad said yesterday that they had not filed an internal report to the Peace Preservation Corps because Feng's alleged offense was committed while he was off duty.
He said that during their investigation, the victim had consistently failed to respond to their calls to attend questioning.
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