Turner, a star swimmer, was given a six-month jail term despite being convicted of multiple felonies, including assault with intent to rape a drunken woman.
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That, the Camera said, was part of Boulder District Judge Patrick Butler’s reasoning for not to hand down a prison sentence, despite prosecutors asking for one. At the party, Wilkerson told friends that he would take care of the victim, who was intoxicated at the time. But under Colorado law, the sex assault charge is subject to indeterminate sentencing, which means Wilkerson would not have been released from prison until he was deemed fit.
The policy is now the target of a class-action lawsuit filed by family members of sex offenders.
District Judge Patrick Butler sentenced Wilkerson to two years in a jail work-release program that will allow him to attend school and work during the day and return to jail in the evening. The case bears an eerie resemblance to that of Brock Turner, the former star swimmer at Stanford who was convicted of raping a woman behind a dumpster and whose punishment of six months in jail sparked an global controversy and a campaign to unseat the presiding judge.
“I’ve struggled, to be quite frank, with the idea of, ‘Do I put him in prison?'” Butler said.
“Mr. Wilkerson deserves to be punished, but I think we all need to find out whether he truly can or cannot be rehabilitated”, Butler was quoted as saying.
Austin James Wilkerson was convicted of sexual assault and unlawful sexual contact at his trial in May. “Rapists go to prison”.
Wilkerson who could have been handed four years to life in prison after sexually attacking a college freshman woman.
“This defendant raped a helpless young woman after duping the people around her into believing he was going to care for her, tried to cover up his crime, and then repeatedly lied about what he did – including under oath at trial”, District Attorney Stan Garnett wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
When questioned by a university investigator, Wilkerson said that he had made “repeated advances on the victim, but that she rebuffed him each time”, and that he felt “pissed off” and that she was a “fucking bitch”, according to prosecutors. “Have as much mercy for the rapist as he did for me that night”, she said, detailing that she still has nightmares and suffers from panic attacks. Some days I can’t even get out of bed.
Wilkerson admitted to assaulting the woman and apologized to her before the courtroom, the Daily Caller reported.
The light-sentencing of Wilkerson brings to the fore the high-profile sexual assault case of Brock Turner, a former student of Stanford University who also got a slap on the wrist for sexually assaulting an unconscious female student in January 2015. “No words I can say could ever take away the pain and fear that I have caused”.
28 percent of them have reported that they have been assaulted in the school.
“Worst of all is the victim blaming”, she told the court. Advocates for survivors estimate that less than half of victims report their sexual assault, which could push the numbers much higher.
The victim, who was not identified, asked the judge for a lengthy prison sentence for Wilkerson.
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“That kind of strength is really admirable”, Butler said.
