A New Taipei City District Court judge has been disciplined by the Judicial Yuan’s Judge Evaluation Committee (JEC) in a recent probe.
The committee ruled that judge Lin Yen-peng (林晏鵬) had abused his position to infringe on someone’s privacy by conducting searches into confidential judiciary files, arising from traffic litigation case three years ago.
In November 2011, Lin was riding his motorcycle along Taiwan’s Provincial Highway No. 9, the mountain road linking Taipei and Yilan County, when a car driven by a man surnamed Hsieh (謝) crashed into him. Lin sustained several fractured bones and a separated shoulder.
Lin sued Hsieh and requested compensation of more than NT$2 million (US$63,000).
However, Hsieh produced surveillance camera videos to show that Lin was speeding and accused the judge of riding his motorcycle carelessly, adding that becaue of Lin’s recklessness, he had no time to react to prevent the collision.
Hsieh was sentenced to three months in prison after the New Taipei District Court convicted him of causing bodily harm with negligence, although the judgement concurred Lin was speeding, and that both sides were partially at fault for the accident.
Hsieh appealed the decision, and the case is waiting to be heard at the Taiwan High Court.
According to the JEC investigation, Lin abused his position as a judge to search government records for private information about Hsieh, including his ID number, along with data on Hsieh’s car and his household registration transcript.
The JEC investigation also found Lin searched the judiciary database 17 times to dig up records of Hsieh’s prior brushes with the law. In the decision announced on Friday, the JEC ordered that Lin’s salary be docked for three months and referred Lin’s case to the Control Yuan, the nation’s top watchdog organ, with the authority to impeach civil servants.
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