A women’s advocacy group planned to turn in petitions Friday in a symbolic effort urging a California agency to remove the judge who sentenced a former Stanford University swimmer to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.
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In this June 2, 2016 photo, Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen reacts to what happened in the courtroom outside of the Santa Clara Superior Courthouse in Palo Alto, Calif. Brock Turner, a former Stanford swimmer, was sentenced to six months in jail on his conviction on three counts of felony sexual assault on a 22-year-old young woman on the Stanford campus following a party on January 18, 2015.
Activists complained they had to leave the boxes on a ledge instead of being allowed to hand them over to the commission.
The groups also have filed a formal misconduct complaint.
The question last week was whether Judge Persky ruled in Turner’s favor due to their shared alumni status- but the question became whether Judge Persky ruled in Turner’s favor knowing the defense had presented inaccurate information.
The campaign announced Friday that media consultant Joe Trippi, campaign strategist John Shallman and pollster Paul Maslin are on board.
“If you’re going to declare that a high-achieving perpetrator is an unusual case, then you’re saying to women on college campuses that they don’t deserve the full protection of the law in the state of California”, Stanford law professor Michele Dauber told the New York Times.
Trippi has worked for a number of Democratic presidential candidates, while Maslin’s clients include Gov. The agency investigates complaints of judicial misconduct and disciplines judges.
Organizers would need to collect 58,634 signatures from registered county voters, and a recall election would follow.
But Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky said Turner’s age and lack of criminal history made a six-month jail sentence with probation more appropriate. The school did “everything within its power to assure that justice was served”, from immediately investigating the case to referring it to the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office for prosecution, the statement said.
The commission meets every six to eight weeks and usually decides whether to open an investigation within 60 days of receiving a complaint, agency attorney Victoria Henley said.
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The organization, UltraViolet, says it’s collected more than 824,000 signatures and other groups have gathered thousands more that they’ll deliver Friday to the California Commission on Judicial Performance.
