Support for Stirling family

I am Tomoko Stirling. My husband, Specialist Joshua Stirling is currently serving in South Korea. We have a newborn, Wren Stirling, who is six months old. My husband’s nationality being Japanese and American, our son hold dual citizenship in the United States and Japan, and I Tomoko Japanese citizen.

 

On July 23, 2020, Joshua was sentenced to 1 year in Korean Prison with hard labor, no probation for Special Intimidation with a deadly weapon. A dog owned by a U.S. soldier and his spouse we just met at the dog park was attacked by another dog owned by a Korean citizen and my husband did his best to deescalate the situation. She accused him of attempting to attack her however the CCTV proves his innocence. He is appealing to the Upper Court to prove his innocence and his defamation caused by this incident.

 

We are hiring a Korean Lawyer that specializes in this case. In order to prove his innocence, the Korean Lawyers consulting him are quoting ₩ 50,000,000 or the equivalent of almost $50,000 for the legal fees. We are a Junior Enlisted Military Family and due to the financial crisis, we are humbly requesting any assistance that can help our family afford the legal costs.

On September 29th, 2019, Joshua, my Mother and I went to the dog cafe in Osan to take our husky, Sakura. Joshua witnessed another U.S. Army soldier’s dog bitten by a Korean Jindo dog. Since the bitten dog was the same breed as Sakura and only 5 months old puppy. Joshua was concerned and went to check on them. Their dog got bitten on the head. He walked over to the owner of the dog that attacked the other soldier’s dog and he told her that her dog bit the that dog over there. Joshua was trying to explain how dogs are unpredictable and can be dangerous. He told his past experience that our previous dog got attacked by some stray dogs, and he used a knife to cut her leash to release her and got to protect our family and dog.


After hearing this, she started to scream and yelling at him and said “Are you going to kill me and my dog?” He said “I never said that.” We thought it was just a misunderstanding since we are ambassadors overseas in Korea and the conversation was in English.


We started to pack our stuff to leave and I was uncomfortable since I was 7 months pregnant at this time. The other military family needed to take their dog to the vet immediately. After a little bit, the young lady came back and said, ”You guys can’t leave, I’m calling the police right now.”



We wondered why she is so upset and calling the police. She was trying to stop us from leaving by blocking the door, pushing us, hitting Joshua’s arm. She also pushed me knowing that I was pregnant and threatened me by saying “I don’t F** care that you're pregnant.” We were just trying to leave the cafe. Right before exiting Joshua explained what happened and this is just misunderstanding to one of the worker there and she said just go. So we walked away then she started to following us and filming us and my car number plate.

 

The young Korean lady has an Instagram with 5000 followers at the time and she published Joshua’s face, our car plate number, mentioned I am Japanese, my husband is mixed Japanese and American. She deleted the post but we have screen shots of the post and the comments.

She reported to the police to the same context as Instagram that Joshua pulled out the knife and gestured slitting the throat with the knife and threatened to kill her and her dog. He never pulled out the knife nor threatening her.

 

We have no choice other than hire the best lawyer then once we prove his innocence, Joshua is planning to countersue her for false accusations and defamation as this has been a human rights violation, bias, and mental distress to our family.

 

Due to my family and current financial crisis we are unable to meet the demands of the other party to settle. Unfortunately, if the case does not successfully pass the appeals process, he will be chaptered from the U.S. Army and my family will be deported to Japan. I am humbly asking for assistance of my friends, family, and anyone who is able to help raise what we can to save Joshua who is innocent. I thank you and pray that God bless you and your family for any help you are able to assist us with.

 

Thank you for reading. I'm hoping to announce good news soon.