Pressure builds on judge over California
sexual assault case
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[June 08, 2016]
By Alex Dobuzinskis and Amy Tennery
(Reuters) - Senator Barbara Boxer on
Tuesday decried a California judge's decision to sentence a college
athlete to just six months in jail for sexual assault, while signatures
on an online petition calling for the jurist's ouster passed 400,000.
The sentence last week by Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky
against former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner gained
international attention after a letter from the athlete's father to
the judge that was posted online described the assault as "20
minutes of action."
"Six months for someone who viciously attacked a woman, especially
after she was so brave to come forward, is outrageous," Boxer said
in a statement.
Asked for a comment on the controversy over his ruling, Santa Clara
Superior Court spokesman Joseph Macaluso said Judge Persky is
prohibited from commenting on the case because there may be an
appeal.
Last week, the victim in the case read a 12-page letter to the court
detailing her feelings in the wake of the assault. It was later read
millions of times online. The victim's name has not been released to
the public.
The uproar over the sentence is part of growing outrage in the
United States over sexual assault on college campuses.
In the Stanford case, prosecutors said that witnesses saw Turner,
20, on top of the woman as she lay motionless outside a fraternity
party in January 2015. When Turner ran away, two students tackled
and held him for police, prosecutors said.
Turner in March was convicted of intent to rape an intoxicated and
unconscious person, penetration of an intoxicated person and
penetration of an unconscious person. His lawyer said on Tuesday
that he was considering appealing the conviction and had filed a
notice of intent to appeal with the court.
An online petition at Change.org urging the removal of the judge had
collected more than 400,000 clicks of support by Tuesday afternoon,
in a largely symbolic gesture.
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Former Stanford student Brock Turner who was sentenced to six months
in county jail for the sexual assault of an unconscious and
intoxicated woman is shown in this Santa Clara County Sheriff's
booking photo taken January 18, 2015, and received June 7, 2016.
Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department/Handout via REUTERS
Stanford law professor Michele Dauber has vowed to start a more
formal recall effort against Persky, but that is a difficult process
rarely used in California.
International interest in the case has led media organizations to
request interviews with the woman, but prosecutors said on Tuesday
that she wished to remain anonymous.
In a statement released by Santa Clara County Deputy District
Attorney Alaleh Kianerci to CNN, the woman said that in addition to
wanting to protect her privacy, she could better represent all woman
if her name and image were not known.
"I'm coming out to you simply as a woman wanting to be heard," she
said in the statement to CNN. "For now I am every woman."
(Additional reporting by Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago and Ben
Klayman in Detroit; Editing by Sharon Bernstein, Bernard Orr)
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