Honorary Professor Mark Peterson Claims Robert Holley Was Framed, Police Respond
Korean television personality and lawyer Robert Holley was arrested for drug use on April 8 and is currently being investigated.
After the news broke out, Mark Peterson, Holley’s friend and honorary professor of Brigham Young University, shared a post on his Facebook claiming that Holley was innocent.
Dear friends of Korea, my friend Ha Il (Robert Holley) is innocent. A person he knows is the criminal and the person pointed to Ha Il to reduce their punishment. It’s a sad story. Rob suffered for about a year because of this and the police is not giving up.
ㅡ Mark Peterson
Peterson further explained in an interview with Yonhap News that another celebrity who was arrested on charges of drug use 6 months ago had named Holley to reduce their sentence and because the police could not find evidence against Holley, the case was closed.
When the man was arrested, the police said they would reduce the sentence if the man named another person who used drugs. Because the police didn’t have proof that Robert used drugs, the case was closed.
ㅡ Mark Peterson
Peterson stated that Holley confided in him about the difficulties he endured because of the police investigations.
Ha Il told me how rough it was for him when he was being suspected. He told the police he wasn’t at the site of the drug use but the police were convinced that he was guilty and forced him to testify. The police were extremely rude to Ha Il.
ㅡ Mark Peterson
He assumed that the police have targeted Holley again in light of the recent drug scandals of numerous celebrities.
With the breakout of celebrity drug scandals in Korea, I think the higher-level authorities have ordered to take in Ha Il and conduct an investigation to catch more celebrities using drugs. The investigators already said there was no evidence but it looks like he was taken in again due to the request of higher-level authorities.
ㅡ Mark Peterson
In response to Peterson’s statements, the police have clarified that Holley’s drug purchase activities were caught during the monitoring of social media activities and that his drug test came out positive.
The Cyber Crime Investigation Unit monitors online drug distribution so there cannot be sources. In regards to groundless claims, we will not respond to each one. Please await the investigation results.
ㅡ Police
Meanwhile, Mark Peterson’s Facebook post has since been deleted and Holley is continuing investigations.
