A Santa Clara County judge who provoked national outrage after giving what was perceived as a slap on the wrist to an ex-Stanford student convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman will be reassigned from the criminal to the civil division, the court announced Thursday.
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Michelle Dauber, the Stanford law professor behind the campaign, said that while she welcomes Persky’s decision to leave criminal court, the recall effort will continue, in part because he “can still transfer back to hearing criminal cases any time he chooses”.
On Sept. 6, Persky will return to hearing civil cases at the Old Courthouse near St. James Park in downtown San Jose. And some people are really happy about it.
Those “distractions” referenced in the statement mainly arose after Persky’s ruling in the Turner case, in which the Stanford student was found guilty of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.
Rights activists and members of the general public accused Mr Persky of being influenced by Turner’s upbringing in a wealthy, white family, and his achievements as a college swimmer.
Mr David Becker, 18, a former three-sport athlete from East Longmeadow High School in western MA, escaped jail time even though prosecutors recommended a two-year sentence.
The move would have been more unusual had court management made a decision to transfer Persky against his will, Zitrin said.
At Persky’s request, he has been assigned to the civil division in San Jose. There were even witnesses in this case, members of the women’s soccer team who saw what was happening and broke down the door and called 911. “In our opinion, Judge Persky is biased and should not be on the bench, so the issue of his bias still needs to be decided by voters”.
As a result of Turner’s sentence and wider criticism over USA rape cases and rape culture, California lawmakers chose to push through a bill prohibiting persons convicted of sexual assault from being sentenced to only a probation.
The extremely light sentence, coupled with the gravity of Turner’s crime, has caused a lot of outcry from the public.
The victim read a powerful letter on the assault’s impact on her life in court, which was later published by BuzzFeed News.
Stanford University banned hard alcohol at campus parties this week, claiming that it can lead to “high-risk behaviour”. The judge said past year he would be receptive to the idea if the plumber stayed sober.
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Turner blamed a “party culture” of “binge drinking” for the assault and Mr Persky asked him to attend drug and alcohol treatment.
