In a damning reversal recently, a Santa Clara district attorney who’d originally shown support for an embattled judge under fire for the sentence he imposed in a Stanford sexual assault case opted to block that judge from taking on a different one. Apparently for Rosen, Judge Persky’s decision in that case was the last straw.
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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.
California judge Aaron Persky has been removed from an upcoming sexual assault trial involving a male nurse who sexually assaulted a sedated female patient.
Judge Aaron Persky has been barred from hearing a new sex assault case following a public outcry for his sentencing of former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner to just six months in jail for rape.
The lenient sentence given to Brock Turner, the Stanford student who was caught raping an unconscious young woman, has caused worldwide outrage and much has been written about how and why this happened. “I mean, I take him at his word that, subjectively, that’s his version of events”, Persky said, according to a transcript, suggesting that he had believed Turner’s testimony that he’d received consent from the victim.
And rightly so, says Gary Goodman, an attorney for the county public defender’s office, who has defended Persky’s decision as sound. “This is simply additional evidence that we need to bring this issue to the voters of Santa Clara county so that they can weigh in on whether he is the best candidate to serve in that judicial seat”.
Persky has not commented publicly about his decision because Turner plans to appeal his conviction.
“I expected that this case would serve as a very strong deterrent to on-campus assaults”, the juror wrote.
Members of the Stanford University women’s swimming team were uncomfortable around Brock Turner – and they may have been pressured against telling a judge about those concerns after the star swimmer was convicted of rape.
“You have a right to remove one judge one time in a case”. They insist he has the authority to ignore the probation department’s recommendation and that the sentence he gave to Turner marginalizes campus sexual assault and may deter future victims from reporting attacks.
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Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton praised the victim of a heinous sexual assault at Stanford University for penning a moving and widely read letter of her horrifying experience. The sentence has drawn widespread criticism, with over 1.2 million people signing a Change.org recall petition that may not be binding but is indicative of the nerve this case has touched.
