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Jung Ho Kang Loses His Appeal on DUI Sentence

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Jung Ho Kang has lost his appeal for his DUI sentence in Korea, according to Jeeho Yoo on Twitter. The details are as follows:

As Yoo reports, Kang’s original sentence of eight months, suspended two years, was upheld. That means Kang won’t do any jail time on the sentence if he doesn’t have any incidents for two years. But the bigger issue here is that Kang’s visa has been rejected. He was hoping that getting an appeal and overturning the sentence would help that, but the court ruled that the DUI sentence and the visa ruling weren’t connected.

I was already operating under the idea that the Pirates would be without Jung Ho Kang for the entire 2017 season. At this point, you’d have to wonder if he’ll ever be on the team again. I’ve got an upcoming column about the future of the Pirates, and before this news I was even considering that Kang’s potential to re-join the team in 2018 and 2019 was up in the air. This news drives that home a bit more.

If Kang has already been denied a visa, then I’m not sure what he can do to get that ruling reversed. He tried to appeal his DUI sentence, and that didn’t work. I’m no legal expert, but it doesn’t seem like he’s got a path to getting his visa, which is key to allowing him to enter the US to play for the Pirates.

We’ll have more updates on Kang as they are made available.

UPDATE 3:35 PM: Pirates president Frank Coonelly issued the following statement on today’s news:

“We are aware of the ruling this morning in Jung Ho’s legal proceedings in South Korea, however, it is premature to comment on the impact, if any, it will have on his ability to secure permission to travel to the United States under a work visa. We will continue to work with Jung Ho and his representatives as he works through that process.”

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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