Someone is lying in Song Ha-yoon school violence case as both sides clash over police findings

One side is lying in the dispute over police findings in the school violence allegations against actor Song Ha-yoon. Song's legal team says the accuser was found to have committed a chargeable offense and referred to prosecutors for indictment, while the accuser insists no such finding was made and that the referral was an automatic procedural result of Song's objection.

Kim Seon-gyeong, an attorney at law firm Jieum representing Song, said in a press release Thursday that the complaint filed against A — the person who raised the school violence allegations — had been forwarded to prosecutors on June 16 following supplementary investigation by police.

Police had initially ruled on Feb. 19 that there were no grounds to charge A and decided not to refer the case, but Song's side filed an objection a month later. Prosecutors then ordered a supplementary investigation, and police conducted one over three months. Song's legal team said police reversed their original judgment, concluded that A's alleged offenses were substantiated and forwarded the case to prosecutors.

A, however, disputes that account, calling it false. A acknowledges being referred to prosecutors but argues the referral was purely mechanical and automatic — a procedural consequence of Song's objection triggering the supplementary investigation — and that police did not change their assessment to find the allegations substantiated.

With the two sides at odds over whether police found A's alleged offenses substantiated, the officer handling the case was contacted for confirmation but was unavailable due to personal circumstances. Through an indirect channel, however, a position was confirmed that "police did not make any separate additional determination."

A first raised the school violence allegations against Song in April 2024 on JTBC's "Sageon Banjang," a crime news program. A claimed that in August 2004, when A was a second-year high school student, Song — who was one year ahead — summoned A to a playground and slapped A repeatedly for about an hour and a half. A also alleged that Song had been forcibly transferred to another school before graduation after being implicated in a separate group assault.

Song's side denied the allegations in full, saying Song had never met A and had never committed any act of violence. Citing confirmation from the homeroom teacher at the time, among other grounds, Song's team also dismissed the forced transfer claim as groundless and filed a complaint against A in August last year on charges including defamation.