Chocolate in Trouble

It seems that erstwhile ICRT DJ and local foreign “celebrity” Chocolate (Charles Mack) is in deep trouble. He’s making headline news this morning (one of the main news stories on both the “serious” radio stations I tuned into, and occupying the whole front page of Apple Daily) for most unsavoury reasons. Apparently, his wife has filed a police report accusing him of spreading syphilis by screwing around when he knows he’s infected with the disease (quote: “I can’t let him go on harming Taiwanese people”). Among his alleged victims are two male university students, who have accused him of raping them and infecting them with the disease. The police are anxious to find him, but it seems he’s already gone underground.

No doubt the story will generate a full-scale fear-and-suspicion-of-foreigners media frenzy (shades of Paraguayan diplomats), and spell the end of Chocolate’s illustrious career and good fortune in Taiwan. Of course, if there’s any truth to the allegations, he undoubtedly deserves to be jailed and deported. But as yet, we’re nowhere near to knowing whether or not the guy is guilty as accused.

Does anyone here know him personally? Any comments about him or the story?

Haha, too bad it’s not Jeffu.

What a horrible thing to wish on someone. Why would you want Jeffu to be in the situation Chocolate’s in? Because you don’t think he’s a good DJ?
What is WRONG with you?

There must be a mistake. He looks like a religious man to me.

Sad story all round.

I’ve known “Chocolate” for a few years. Every time I ran in to him, it was in a gay bar, and I don’t think anyone would describe Chocolate as straight since he was seldom alone. I saw Charles again last weekend in a gay bar.

Thus his recent marriage came as something of a shock. According to the gay-grapevine, he went into it because it offered considerable economic and situational benefits.

I have never spoken to him about his marriage, and the grapevine is notoriously unreliable. Personally, I’ve always found Charles to be a very charming individual. He’s a big guy, but very gentle; not someone I can imagine forcibly raping others.

I hope he can exonerate himself.

Things die down here eventually, unless his wife launches an infidelity lawsuit, in which case he might want to leave taiwan before he’s locked up.

I have to listen to Jeffu every night, as there’s little else available. If he gets off the air, then I am very very happy. Things are better now he’s in HK.

What a horrible thing to wish on someone. Why would you want Jeffu to be in the situation Chocolate’s in? Because you don’t think he’s a good DJ?
What is WRONG with you?[/quote]

Better jeffu than chocolate.

I’m feeling fine, thank you.

I was under the impression that syphilis can be easily killed with a shot of penicillin. Probably descrete and cheap.

Better jeffu than chocolate.[/quote]
Yeah, that was pretty nasty. And pass

That’s what they said about Ted Bundy.

He should go and visit his doctor.

This syphilis thing sounds like a pot of crap to me. Please bear in mind that the local media hardly has a spotless record when it comes to fact-checking.

Maoman. Jeffu-basking is a sport best played at all seasons - I have to suffer thru Jeffu every evening.

That said, my original comment was an example of Danish humor, where we are usually very direct and sarcastic.

Mr. He–not very funny. You are doing exactly the same thing that many Taiwanese people are doing. Jeff has already been bombarded with phone calls from the media. From Chocolate they jump to Jeff, and from Jeff they jump to every other foreigner in Taiwan. Brilliant. Thank you for encouraging that. I think you should perhaps focus on why exactly it is that you have to “suffer through Jeff-u every evening.” I make it a point not to “suffer through” ANYTHING. Especially not twice, never mind “every evening.”

I know Chocolate–not well, but probably well enough. I too was surprised about the marriage. I wouldn’t be surprised if he slept with the two guys, but I doubt it was forcible.

As for fooling his wife–she’s got to be an idiot if she didn’t know he was gay/interested in marriage for its possible benefits.

While I’m not particularly close with Chocolate, I think that it would be kind of sad if he gets thrown in jail for this. Nice friendly guy? Yes. Con artist? Mild possibility. Truth-stretcher? More likely. Rapist? Seriously doubt it.

[quote=“Omniloquacious”]It seems that erstwhile ICRT DJ and local foreign “celebrity” Chocolate (Charles Mack) is in deep trouble. He’s making headline news this morning (one of the main news stories on both the “serious” radio stations I tuned into, and occupying the whole front page of Apple Daily) for most unsavoury reasons. Apparently, his wife has filed a police report accusing him of spreading syphilis by screwing around when he knows he’s infected with the disease (quote: “I can’t let him go on harming Taiwanese people”). Among his alleged victims are two male university students, who have accused him of raping them and infecting them with the disease. The police are anxious to find him, but it seems he’s already gone underground.
[/quote]

“apparent” “seems” and “alleged” :unamused:

I think the rival radio stations would like to have an ICRT DJ dragged through the mud and do not mind driving this story

The local tabloid pages are just looking to fill up the pages with mindless unsubstanciated gossip. People lap this up

the media feels it is easy to do this without

  1. getting facts from the police or the source, but getting it second hand else just jazzing the story up
  2. being mindul of interfering in a criminal invetigation IF something did occur

Also since he is a foreigner and a celeb ( and perhaps because he is black), well it makes it all that better to do seemingly without any consequences for them if they are wrong

Is this story full of holes or what. His soon to be ex wife reports him for the good of the public.
Yeah right, and who are these alleged rape victims?
Sounds to me like he didn’t pay his wife the agreed upon monies and she is getting revenge.

That’s probably the case to some extent. But the Apple Daily report did quote a feed from the Foreign Affairs Police that they are treating this as a serious crime, have formed a special task force to handle it, and have alerted airport and port authorities to apprehend him if he attempts to leave the country.

But some strains of the syphilis bacterium have become resistant to penicillin, complicating the treatment of the disease.

In an interesting little side note on syphilis in the Apple Daily’s front-page coverage of this story, they mentioned that the disease is ten times more prevalent in Taiwan than it is overseas (I can’t remember if they specified which other countries that included, or if it was just a blanket reference to outside Taiwan - I don’t have the newspaper with me now). If I recall the figures correctly, there are two cases per thousand people in Taiwan compared with two per ten thousand elsewhere.

That’s probably the case to some extent. But the Apple Daily report did quote a feed from the Foreign Affairs Police that they are treating this as a serious crime, have formed a special task force to handle it, and have alerted airport and port authorities to apprehend him if he attempts to leave the country.[/quote]

Apple Daily, fer chrissakes! Maybe it’ll also appear in Next, then we’ll KNOW its true, eh? :unamused: Were the radio stations actually reporting on the allegations or merely on the Apple Daily story?
The FAP are treating it as a “serious crime?” Of course they are. They received some serious complaints and are therefore expected to act on them. Has absolutely nothing to do with the veracity or otherwise of the allegations.
I call shenanigans stirred up by a jealous or slighted wife. Are we really expected to believe that in this day and age, a worldly man chooses to go around with an untreated case of syphilis? Come on.
Alerted airport authorities? SOP. Special task force? A high-falutin’ way of saying “Ah-Chen and Ah-Pang are on the case.”

I have no idea who this bloke is, but I’ll reserve judgement until there’s at least ONE fact on the table.

Omni, I would have thought that rumor-mongering is beneath you. The Apple Daily is a gossip rag. You might be able to believe 10% of what is printed there, if you’re extremely gullible.

Fellows, if you see their truck in your vicinity whilst squiring around a local lass, run like hell, or you may find yourself on the front page as part of a feature article on “Foreign Wolves Who Prey on Local Innocents.”

I’ve met Chocolate a few times, know people who know him pretty well. I seriously doubt he’s going around raping university students. For enough money, you can get anyone to say anything, particularly when their anonomity is protected.

I’m suprised that Chocolate doesn’t have a few friends in high places who can help him resolve this problem. Always pays in Taiwan to have a few buddies well-placed buddies on the police force and in government.

And let us all remember the adage, “Hell hath no fury…” Yikes.

It goes without saying that we should give him the benefit of any doubt unless and until he is tried and found guilty in a court of law. My advice to him now would be that, if he is innocent and doesn’t have anything to hide, he ought to consider getting a good lawyer and going with him to the police to present his side of the story. By going to ground (his business, which he launched just last year, has been closed and he and his agent have disappeared since these allegations first surfaced a couple of weeks ago), he is acting like a man with a guilty conscience and only doing his cause harm.

There may well, of course, be more to this than appears on the surface. If it’s not just something conjured up by his wife in her jealous rage, he could be the victim of attempted blackmail or some kind of conspiracy. Perhaps he trod on someone’s toes when he opened his business (“the Chocolate Factory”), or refused to play ball with the local mafia, or any of numerous possibilities. But unless he comes forward to explain his way out of it, his situation can only get worse.