Won’t somebody please think of the rapists? At least the white, handsome, star athlete ones?
A former Stanford University athlete convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman was sentenced to six months in county jail and probation in a case that has shed light on what advocates say is an epidemic of violence on college campuses.
Brock Allen Turner, a 20-year-old swimmer who dropped out of the elite California university last year, appeared stoic in court in Palo Alto on Thursday, two months after a jury convicted him of multiple felonies, including assault with intent to rape an intoxicated woman.
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Turner, who is from Dayton, Ohio, was arrested on the Palo Alto campus on 18 January 2015 after two Stanford graduate students spotted him lying on top of the victim outside of a Kappa Alpha party behind a dumpster. When officers arrived, the woman, who is not a Stanford student, was “completely unresponsive” and partially clothed, with a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit, according to police.
She was resting. She was unresponsive because she was thinking about something. And resting.
The two witnesses who were biking past that evening said they saw Turner “thrusting” on top of the motionless woman and that they intervened and held him until police showed up.
Turner, who had a blood-alcohol level that was twice the legal limit, testified in court that he could walk and talk at the time and acknowledged that the victim was “very drunk”. He claimed that he did not intend to rape the woman and that the encounter was consensual.
Sadly for Turner, the victim doesn’t agree that the “encounter” was consensual.
After a jury convicted Turner of sexually penetrating an intoxicated and unconscious person with a foreign object, prosecutors asked a judge to sentence him to six years in California prison. Probation officials had recommended the significantly lighter penalty of six months in county jail, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
The judge, Aaron Perksy, cited Turner’s age and lack of criminal history as factors in his decision, saying, “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him … I think he will not be a danger to others.”
After the hearing, Santa Clara County district attorney Jeff Rosen slammed the sentencing, which will likely result in Turner spending three months behind bars – a fraction of the maximum 14 years he was potentially facing.
Yes but he’s an athlete. He was at Stanford. He’s white. Each item is worth several years off his sentence.
The high-profile case intensified scrutiny of rapes at US colleges and comes at a time when national leaders and activists across the country have increasingly raised alarms about the culture of sexual violence on university campuses.
A recent White House survey found that 10% of female college students experience some form of sexual assault and that only 12.5% of rapes are reported.
Turner’s case attracted significant attention in part because criminal prosecutions of campus rape cases are rare. In recent years, there have also been growing concerns about the ways in which universities protect athletes accused of sexual assault.
But athletes are the whole point of universities. Of course universities protect them…male athletes, at least.
Comments
14 responses to “Stoic in court”
Presumably he’ll still go on the sex offender registry (I think?) and that’ll certainly have a significant effect. Definitely belongs on there unlike some of the poor bastards.
it’s not judge “Perksy”, it’s “PERSKY”. get his name right so people can write to his office & tell him what they think! https://www.sccba.com/members/default.asp?id=25996926
‘Lack of criminal history?’
Lisak’s rapist subjects AVERAGED 7 victims each. And their average age was 21. And the tended to have long histories of abuse and violence. But they hadn’t been arrested, charged, convicted….yet.
And again, we seem paralyzed when it comes to addressing the use of alcohol as a date-rape drug.
Guh. Every last fossil of a judge who still thinks this way needs to be purged from the bench. Disgusting.
I wondered about that spelling.
“A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him …”
Well, yes, isn’t that the point?
“After the hearing, Santa Clara County district attorney Jeff Rosen slammed the sentencing,”
Presumably he could appeal against the leniency of the sentence.
Ah no I don’t think so. I’m probably wrong, but that sounds too much like double jeopardy.
Ophelia:
Some fast Googling indicates it’s a bit more complex than that (it’s the second paragraph that includes the key bits):
Ophelia,
I doubt that the principle of double jeopardy is relevant, the issue is not the conviction but the appropriateness of the sentence.
Well I said sounds like – I guess meaning, vaguely, that that would be ruled out for the same sorts of reasons, rather than that it’s part of the same rule. But I do have the impression – maybe just from too much Law and Order – that prosecutors can’t appeal sentences.
Ophelia
I might be making too many assumptions. Certainly, here in Australia, the State DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) can appeal to a higher court against the inadequacy of a court imposed sentence.
And I may be completely wrong!
He would have gotten away with it if someone hadn’t seen and interfered.
And when this sicko is caught raping an incapacitated woman by a dumpster, the judge says he doesn’t think the man is a danger to anyone.
This just means the judge does not them women are people.
The victim wrote a letter to Mr Stoic and it is powerful. It made me cry
https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra?utm_term=.inAqDyRed#.hr0Pxp0OG