Rapist Sentenced to Two Life Terms

A rapist who preyed on music teachers was sentenced to two consecutive life terms Friday by a judge who said the crimes involved a “high degree of cruelty, viciousness and callousness.”

Jung Wan Hong, 37, of Garden Grove stared straight ahead as Superior Court Judge Daniel J. Didier ordered the sentences for assaults on three Korean women, one of whom he also tried to blackmail.

Hong answered the women’s advertisements and claimed he had children who wanted to take music lessons. He was convicted in September of a host of charges stemming from the 1995 attacks, which also involved kidnapping and robbery.

Hong will not be eligible for parole for at least 43 years, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Rosanne Froeberg.

“Mr. Hong is the most vicious, violent and immoral individual I’ve ever had the pleasure to prosecute,” Froeberg said outside court. “He’s going to be incarcerated very likely for the rest of his life. The system worked.”

Hong’s attorney, Gregory Parkin, said his client had expected a tough sentence and intends to appeal.

“He feels bad about the whole thing,” Parkin said. “He confessed from the beginning.”

Hong was convicted of repeatedly raping a 23-year-old woman and then threatening to tell her husband about it unless she paid him $3,000. During that attack on Oct. 16, 1995, Hong waved a pellet gun resembling a .45-caliber pistol and held the woman using handcuffs and a stun gun, authorities said.

He was captured by police near the woman’s home after arranging to pick up the extortion money. The other two victims later identified him.

Hong also was convicted of an attempted rape from which the victim escaped and of a third attack, in which he stole a $10,000 violin from a teacher’s Irvine home.

Hong’s defense was that his wife was desperate for money because she was about to have a baby and the rent was unpaid.

Froeberg said it is “impossible to place value on the emotional trauma and cultural stigma” inflicted on the victims, but she praised them for stepping forward.

“The victims in this case went way beyond what we expect victims to do,” Froeberg said. “They set aside the cultural stigma in order to protect other potential victims in the future. It’s extraordinary on their part.”