The Most Corrupt Female Prosecutor in History: The Fallen "Prosecutor Star"

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At the 1999 National Judicial Reform Conference, a shining "prosecutor star" emerged. At the time, she stepped in as a Ministry of Justice preparatory committee member and conference representative, replacing Prosecutor Chen Rui-jen of the Prosecutor Reform Association after he withdrew from the conference. Bold and combative, she successfully accomplished 100% of the tasks assigned by her superiors, leading the media to rank her alongside Tsai Pi-yu and Yueh Fang-ju as the rising stars of the prosecution. No one could have imagined that 14 years later, the media would dub her "the most corrupt female prosecutor in history"—Chen Yu-chen.

My first contact with Chen Yu-chen was in January 2004, when she took over from Prosecutor Li Chin-cheng—who had transferred to head the Financial Supervisory Commission's Financial Examination Bureau—to serve as the public prosecutor for the retrial (second remand) of the Su Chien-ho case. In court, she spoke harshly to the three defendants, accusing them of being heinous murderers, and even questioned whether Dr. Henry Lee had accepted money from the defense team to conduct his forensic appraisal for the Su Chien-ho case. Her win-at-all-costs approach left a deep impression on me, as I was participating in the defense work for the Su Chien-ho case. Afterwards, whenever I occasionally ran into her at public events like seminars, she was always high-spirited and a star in the spotlight.

It wasn't until March 5, 2012, that I happened to notice an advertisement placed by a member of the public on the front page of the United Daily News, titled: "Taiwan High Prosecutors Office Prosecutor Chen Yu-chen has long sheltered and covered for video-gaming arcade operators; she should be immediately dismissed, indicted, and investigated." By then, I was already working at the Judicial Reform Foundation on reporting unsuitable judges and prosecutors, so I immediately contacted the advertiser to arrange a meeting. On the day of the meeting, the advertiser brought a thick stack of documents detailing Chen Yu-chen's methods of accepting bribes and sheltering video-gaming arcades. To my shock, at the very time Chen was questioning whether Dr. Henry Lee had taken money from the defense team, she herself was pocketing illicit money from arcade operators. Looking at the photos of a smiling Chen Yu-chen being treated to leisure trips by operators, I could hardly connect this image to the stern-looking Chen Yu-chen clad in a judicial robe.

The advertiser stated that because they had reported her to the Special Investigation Division for over a year, attended numerous hearings, and been questioned by many people with absolutely no result, they resorted to pressuring authorities through a newspaper advertisement. However, the Prosecutor-General at the time, Huang Shih-ming, promised it would be handled according to law and asked everyone to wait a bit longer. That wait lasted for eight months. Just as people were losing their patience, on November 14, 2012, the Special Investigation Division arrested and sought the detention of Chen Yu-chen, shocking the legal community.

Because Chen Yu-chen flatly denied the crimes, how the case would unfold remained full of variables. On May 1, 2013, during the first court session of the trial, I sat in the gallery to observe how Chen Yu-chen would defend herself. To everyone's surprise, including her lawyers, she confessed in court to accepting bribes and expressed her willingness to return her illicit gains, while emphasizing that everything was done by her alone with no other accomplices. Looking at the emaciated Chen Yu-chen sitting in the defendant's seat, I couldn't help but wonder how she could have fallen so wretchedly low.

At the National Conference on Judicial Reform currently in full swing, the positioning and attributes of prosecutors have sparked fierce debate. Prosecutor Chen Rui-jen, who withdrew from the national judicial reform conference back then, once again served as a representative of the Ministry of Justice, defending prosecutors' independence from interference during the National Conference on Judicial Reform. In contrast to Chen Yu-chen's degradation, Prosecutor Chen Rui-jen's steadfast adherence to his ideals is truly admirable.

However, when discussing institutional reform, one cannot merely look at the bright side of ideals while ignoring the dark realities. Aside from personal factors, the primary reason Chen Yu-chen was able to exploit the system and take illegal bribes was the excessive and virtually unchecked power currently held by prosecutors. The integrity of prosecutors cannot rely solely on their conscience; there must be checks and balances in case-handling procedures and organizational management to prevent outstanding prosecutors from being tempted by improper interests and stepping, step by step, down the path of corruption.

Safeguarding judicial independence from interference has long been a consensus in Taiwanese society, yet it is also an indisputable fact that judges and prosecutors exercise their powers under different natures. Chen Yu-chen is by no means an isolated case: another prosecutor in the Su Chien-ho case, Li Chin-cheng, was also sentenced to heavy prison terms for corruption after transferring to head the Financial Examination Bureau. Recently, we also witnessed Prosecutor Yen Han-wen being relieved of his duties, showing that the greater the power, the greater the temptation. The urgent priority of the National Conference on Judicial Reform is to enact a dedicated Prosecutors Act as soon as possible, tailored to the special attributes of prosecutors, rather than continuing to live under another's roof and grievance-prone quasi-application of the Judges Act. Enacting a sound Prosecutors Act that protects prosecutors' independence from interference while checking prosecutorial power to prevent abuse is the fundamental cure to protect every outstanding prosecutor.

※ This article was published on ETtoday on 2017.05.15