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Judge in Stanford sex assault case to stop hearing criminal cases
Turner’s sentence was significantly less than the minimum prison time of two years prescribed by state law for his felony offenses.
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His credibility was so called into question that he was even removed from presiding over a case where a nurse allegedly sexually assaulted an unconscious patient.
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.
Judge Persky has received death threats, faced a recall effort and several online petitions seeking his removal in a furore of criticism for what was perceived as a lenient sentence. Stanford professor Michele Landis Dauber has led the fight, starting a “Recall Judge Aaron Persky” campaign that’s gotten a lot of attention, and the new development won’t change what the group wants – Persky off the bench completely. “This publicity has resulted in a personal family situation such that a person aware of the facts might reasonably entertain a doubt that the judge would be able to be impartial”.
Earlier this week, Persky made a decision to recuse himself from deciding whether to reduce a child pornography conviction from a felony to a misdemeanor, saying that the months of criticism could hurt perceptions of his impartiality.
The announcement of Persky’s move to civil cases comes two days after women’s groups and social media users criticized as too lenient the two years’ probation given to a MA student athlete who sexually assaulted two women as they slept.
Santa Clara County Presiding Judge Rise Pichon has granted the request of Judge Aaron Persky for reassignment.
Persky and Judge Vincent J. Chiarello, who lives near the Palo Alto courthouse, will switch places, with Chiarello moving up to Palo Alto.
“While I firmly believe in Judge Persky’s ability to serve in his current assignment, he has requested to be assigned to the civil division, in which he previously served”.
“It’s unusual, but not unprecedented”, judicial ethics expert Richard Zitrin said of Persky’s transfer request. He will still be a judge, and judges rotate annually in our county.
He will begin serving in the civil division on September 6. The campaign is focusing on his six month sentence for Turner (he’ll likely be out in three months with good behavior) but that’s not the only problem activists have with Persky.
“So the issue of his bias still needs to be decided by voters”.
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“The job of the civil judge is to preside fairly and to arrive at compensation for the victim for their injury”, says Dauber.