Teen guilty of IU violin camp knife attack getting deported to South Korea
A teen who pleaded guilty to a felony charge in a 2019 Bloomington knife attack against a 13-year-old girl has been taken into custody by immigration officials and awaits deportation to South Korea.
Dongwook Ko was 17 when the crime occurred at an Indiana University music school violin camp and he was 19 when a judge sentenced him on Nov. 3 to eight years on house arrest followed by two more years on probation.
Ko is a South Korean resident who's lived in the United States on a temporary visa with his mother, an IU graduate student, since he was 11. Under federal law, a non-resident convicted of an aggravated felony can be deported.
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U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Ko into custody last week. He is being held in detention at the Clay County Justice Center, about 50 miles northwest of Bloomington.
The victim's parents, who had called for Ko to serve time behind bars after he pleaded guilty to criminal confinement while armed with a deadly weapon, were upset by the house arrest sentence.
They were in contact with ICE officials, and knew that a sentence without jail time meant Ko would be deported and no longer under the court's order for home detention and mental health treatment.
"Judge (Darcie) Fawcett was aware that a no-prison sentence for Mr. Ko would equate to an immediate arrest by ICE and a real chance for his total freedom in 2021," the girl's mother, Nina Barringer, wrote in a statement.
"A state prison sentence was the only way to guarantee punishment and mental health oversight of this dangerous felon. Mr. Ko got a free ride for a heinous crime. That’s not justice."
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The girl's father delivered a letter to the judge and lawyers on both sides back in August pointing out that no jail time for Ko meant he would be deported and not held accountable for the crime against the girl.
"A home detention sentence from the court could result in Mr. Ko living in his home country of South Korea before Thanksgiving of 2021 without any court supervision," the Aug. 27 letter states.
"If that happens, the victim would not be protected by the court from the defendant, to include attacking or harassing her online or through a third party, and she would not have many of the protections and communication provided to victims of felony violent crimes in Indiana."
The letter said if Ko ends up in detention awaiting deportation, he won't receive the mental health treatment that was integral to his sentence and intended to make sure Ko is no longer "a violent threat to my daughter and society as a whole."
It's unclear how long Ko will he held at the Clay County jail before he is sent to South Korea and freed.
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A caveat in the federal law could allow Ko to return to the U.S. as early as the summer of 2025. A subsection of U.S. Code 8 says a person convicted of an aggravated felony or crime of moral turpitude can re-enter the U.S. five years after the crime if they were younger than 18 when it happened.
Monroe County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Jeff Kehr said his office, which sought a 12-year prison term for Ko, was aware he might be deported.
"We knew there was a strong possibility that he would be removed based on his immigration status and the nature and circumstances of the offense for which he was convicted," Kehr said this week. "His sentence will remain in effect. Should he return to the United States, he will be required to serve it."
Contact reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com, 812-331-4362 or 812-318-5967.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Teen guilty of Indiana University music camp attack getting deported
