Television celebrity Amy, whose real name is Lee Yoon-ji, has been given a fine of 5 million won ($4,800) for habitually consuming zolpidem without a medical prescription.
According to the Seoul Central District Court and investigators, Amy, 32, has been charged with taking 15 out of 85 pills of zolpidem that she secretly received from a woman whom she met at a probation office in Seoul.
She had regularly attended lectures on overcoming drug addiction after receiving a suspended jail sentence for abusing the psychotropic drug propofol in November 2012.
The court said in its ruling that the crime was “not minor, as seen from the fact that the accused repeatedly committed the same crime, especially during a stay of execution for her previous crime.”
The court took into consideration that she had repented for the crime, suffered from acute insomnia and did not engage in any financial transactions.
Zolpidem, an antipsychotic medication used to treat sleeping disorders, can cause serious side effects such as hallucinations, and therefore requires a doctor’s prescription.
Back in 2012, Lee was sentenced to a two-year prison term with a stay of eight months on allegations of illegally injecting the psychotropic drug propofol multiple times.
In June 2014, the Seoul Central District Court found a former prosecutor ― Amy’s ex-boyfriend ― guilty of squeezing money out of a plastic surgeon on Amy’s behalf.
From late 2012 to early 2013, the prosecutor ― surnamed Jeon ― had threatened to press charges against Amy’s doctor, who at the time was under suspicion of raping a female patient in a separate case, if he did not pay reparations to Lee, according to investigators.
kys@heraldcorp.com
