Ex-Law Student Pleads Guilty To Terrorizing Admissions Interviewer After Rejection From T14 Law School

He's looking at up to five years in prison.

Say you’re applying to law school and you’ve got your heart dead set on attending Georgetown Law. You manage to secure an admissions interview with a local alumnus from the school, but you “performed poorly” during the interview — so poorly, in fact, that the law school rejects your application a week later. You wind up enrolling at UT Law, just a step below the T14, but you’re still so enraged that this alumnus stripped you of the opportunity to attend a more prestigious law school that you decide to embark upon 18-month cyberstalking campaign to make this person’s life as hellish as yours has seemingly become. Things didn’t go as planned, and now you’re looking at up to five years in prison. Oopsie…

Meet Ho Ka Terence Yung, who was arrested last year when he was a third-year student at UT Law. He’s been in custody since February 2017, and earlier this week, Yung pleaded guilty to one count of cyberstalking. His efforts to intimidate the Georgetown alumnus were referred to by a federal judge as “a disturbing mix of violence and sexual degradation that actually resulted in complete strangers approaching the victim’s home.” Wow. This is not a good look for a law student.

According to David Weiss, U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware, Yung “pursued a sustained, sadistic course of conduct designed to terrorize his victim and the victim’s family—all because the defendant was denied admission to the law school of his choice.” Here’s an excerpt from the Justice Department’s announcement of Yung’s plea that describes just some of his twisted cyberstalking schemes:

Ho Ka Terence Yung (Photo via LinkedIn)

Yung repeatedly published violent and sadistic statements about Victim 1 on the Internet – including descriptions of rape, lynching, sexual molestation, and graphic violence. As just one example, the defendant posted a false story about Victim 1 on a public website, which involved the abduction of an eight-year old girl from an elementary school. In this story, the defendant described kidnapping the little girl at gunpoint, cutting off her clothes with a knife, and raping her.

Yung also repeatedly posted personal ads on Craigslist and other websites with the intent that individuals interested in violent and sadistic sexual activity would go to Victim 1’s residence in the middle of the night. For example, on October 29, 2015, the defendant posed as a “cute blonde hottie” and posted an ad on Craigslist stating, among other things:

i need a big strong man to dominate me tonight . . . i like it when a man puts his hand around my throat and threatens me with a knife . . . then you pull my hair and take out your gun and threaten me . . . i’m a bad girl, and I need to be punished by a big strong man. send me a picture with you holding your gun. all others will be ignored.

Notably, the above ad was published a day after local police stopped a man outside of Victim 1’s residence in the middle of the night, who was looking for Victim 1’s wife. He was responding to a similar Craigslist ad and the defendant directed him to Victim 1’s residence.

According to one federal judge, Yung’s conduct “points to a psychopathic mind.” He will remain in custody pending his sentencing, which is scheduled for February 27.

As an FYI for prospective law students, just in case it wasn’t inherently obvious, this is not the way to deal with a law school rejection. It looks like Ho Ka Terence Yung learned this lesson the hard way — and soon he’ll be doing hard time for it.

Ex-Law Student Pleads Guilty to Cyberstalking Georgetown Admissions Interviewer [Law.com]
‘Psychopathic mind:’ Man pleads guilty to harassing Delaware victim with lurid online tales [Delaware Online]
Former Law School Student Pleads Guilty To Cyberstalking [Department of Justice – USAO-DE]

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Staci ZaretskyStaci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

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