Judge Aaron Persky, a California judge who is famous for handing down a light sentence to a former Stanford swimmer convicted of sexual assault, will no longer preside over another sexual assault case of another unconscious victim.
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The Santa Clara District Attorney’s office told reporters it was also “disappointed and puzzled” by Persky’s dismissal of a misdemeanor mail-theft case on Monday after the prosecution presented its case.
In a “a rare and carefully considered step”, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen filed a peremptory challenge against Judge Aaron Persky, preventing him from presiding over a preliminary hearing for a male Kaiser Permanente surgical nurse accused of sexually assaulting a sedated woman, according to a statement from the district attorney’s office.
‘The team has been instructed to not discuss Brock Turner publicly or to the media; however, the entire team completely supports the victim and wishes that Brock had gotten a much harsher sentence’. Turner, who was booked on June 2, would serve just three months in jail. “The defendant has maintained that (the victim) was awake, into it, and coherent” and “while the defendant believes his lie, this court shouldn’t, because 12 jurors didn’t”, the prosecutor said.
We’ve been hesitant about covering the Brock Turner case further, because it just seemed to be terrible thing after frightful thing, and we were like WE GET IT, WORLD! Apparently, the survivor’s emotional letter detailing how awful the rape and its aftermath were for her wasn’t enough to convince Turner or Judge Persky that it was actually rape. During jury selection last week, several potential jurors told Persky they couldn’t serve in his courtroom because of the Turner sentence.
Turner was convicted of assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated or unconscious person, penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object and penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object.
In California, judges are allowed wide discretion in sentencing.
Persky, who was appointed to the bench by Gov. Gray Davis in 2003, is up for re-election in November.
Later, Turner’s chief probation officer, Monica Lassettre, recommended a sentence of county jail, three years’ probation and sex offender treatment, according to a probation report. And in a harrowing victim impact letter which has gone viral, the victim calls on Turner to accept responsibility for the assault, telling him, “assault is not an accident”.
The very least I can give you, as a father and as a man, is a conscience that would forbid you from ever violating a woman, or any human being, the way Turner violated that woman.
He quoted a part of Rasmussen’s character letter, which read: ‘If I had to choose one kid I graduated with to be in the position Brock is, it would never have been him’. Prosecutors sought a six-year prison term.
The trial of a Stanford University freshman charged with sexually assaulting an unconscious woman has drawn widespread criticism for the perceived leniency of the judge’s sentencing.
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He is in protective custody with 1,100 others.
