Brock Turner deserves county jail, not state prison

Behind The Headlines - Inside the Brock Turner trial

Former Stanford swimmer Brock Allen Turner, left, arrives with family and his lawyer Mike Armstrong, back center, at the Santa Clara County Superior Courthouse in Palo Alto, Calif. (Karl Mondon)

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky will have to perform a legal incantation Thursday if he follows a probation recommendation and sentences Brock Turner to county jail rather than state prison. Persky should do it. Turner doesn"t belong in prison.

The former Stanford swimmer, 20, was convicted of three felony charges in late March in connection with the sexual assault of an unconscious woman outside a fraternity party on campus in January, 2015.

Turner was rightfully convicted. I wrote a column earlier this year praising the two Stanford students, both from Sweden, who interrupted the assault and chased the drunken athlete down.

But probation officials, who see hundreds of less remorseful defendants, had it right. Turner should be given six months in county jail. He is not, as the prosecution has it, "a continued threat to the community."

Why do I say that? The probation people cite his lack of a criminal record and what they see as genuine remorse. His attorneys have argued that the ex-swimmer has a record of real accomplishment.

"I would give anything to change what happened that night." Turner wrote in a statement to probation authorities that was quoted in a defense brief. "I can never forgive myself for imposing trauma and pain on (the victim)."

Severity

Nobody should be confused about the severity of this case for him. For the rest of his life, Turner will have to register as a convicted s*x offender. That effectively closes many career avenues. It"s a permanent blight.

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Deputy District Attorney Alaleh Kianerci, has urged the judge to disregard the probation recommendation, saying, "the fact that the defendant preyed upon an intoxicated stranger on a college campus should not be viewed as a less serious crime than if he were to assault a stranger in downtown Palo Alto."

In the abstract, Kianerci is right. We should not give people breaks because they go to Stanford. But it is hard to judge this case apart from its context. And that context has messy elements that a summation of the charges misses.

Turner met the victim at a party at the Kappa Alpha fraternity. Both were drunk: The woman was so drunk that she does not remember what happened. On the stand, she acknowledged having blacked out on several previous occasions while drinking.

At some point, the two lay down on the ground near a trash bin, where Turner assaulted the woman, who was unconscious when the Swedish students came upon the scene. He was convicted of assault to commit rape of an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object, and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object.

Culture of drinking

You don"t have to buy Turner"s story that he so was drunk himself that he did not realize she had passed out. But it"s hard to review this case without concluding that it has roots in a culture of campus drinking, the unindicted co-conspirator here.

And that brings me to my final point. Because of a long history of ignoring sexual assaults on campuses, particularly by athletes, we have become more vigilant about prosecuting them. And that is commendable.

But there is a temptation to see the Turner case as a chance to send a message, rather than to weigh all the messy human elements involved.

Judge Persky should find, in legal terms, that there are "unusual circumstances" here and give Turner a county jail term. His conviction stands as warning enough. We don"t need the last pound of flesh.

Scott Herhold is a Mercury News columnist. Contact him at 408-275-0917 or sherhold@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow him at Twitter.com/scottherhold.

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Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/scott-herhold/ci_29966203/brock-turner-deserves-county-jail-not-state-prison

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Stanford s*x assault: Will Brock Turner get years in prison for attack on unconscious woman?

Star Stanford Student Caught Mid-Rape, Here"s How The School Responded

PALO ALTO -- Branding former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner a "continued threat to the community," prosecutors are asking a judge to sentence him this week to six years in state prison for sexually assaulting an unconscious intoxicated woman outside a campus frat party.

But probation officials recommended a much lighter penalty of six months in county jail, largely because he has no prior criminal record and their belief that he is genuinely remorseful, according to prosecution and defense sentencing memos.

The competing recommendations -- plus Turner"s own request for four months in county jail -- are set to heard by Judge Aaron Persky at Thursday"s sentencing hearing.

File photo: Former Stanford swimmer Brock Allen Turner, left, arrives with family and his lawyer Mike Armstrong, back center, at the Santa Clara County Superior Courthouse in Palo Alto, Calif. He is expected to take the stand Wednesday morning, March 23, 2016. (Karl Mondon/Staff archives)

The issue of how to investigate and punish once-overlooked campus sexual assaults has sparked a nationwide debate, mirrored this week at Stanford, where the Association of Students for Sexual Assault Prevention circulated a petition in favor of state prison for Turner, and a senior has written a passionate letter to the campus newspaper urging leniency.

Advocates say the case has helped increase pressure on colleges nationwide to do more to prevent assaults and punish offenders.

Turner, 20, was convicted of three felony charges in late March: assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object. He is currently free on $150,000 bail.

The maximum sentence he faces is 14 years in state prison. Because the crime of assault with intent to commit rape is ranked as a serious, violent offense under California law, Persky must make a finding of "unusual circumstances" for Turner to be eligible to serve time in county jail instead of prison. Regardless of the sentence, Turner will have to register as a s*x offender for the rest of his life.

Like anyone convicted of a felony, Turner was interviewed by a probation officer, who prepared a sentencing recommendation for the judge. The results of such probation reports are usually not unavailable to the public until after sentencing. But filings by the prosecution and defense quoted from its recommendations.

In the prosecution"s sentencing memo, however, deputy district attorney Alaleh Kianerci urged the judge to disregard the probation report in this case, which she reveals recommends up to six months in county jail. In her memo, she pointed out that Turner lied to probation officials about his history, saying he was an inexperienced drinker from a small town in Ohio, when text messages from his phone dating back to high school show he frequently used alcohol and drugs including marijuana and LSD. Kianerci also argued that the probation officer misinterpreted the victim"s empathy for Turner as support for a light sentence.

The prosecution memo also contends that Turner never acknowledged that he sexually assaulted the victim and has shown no true remorse. She cites an incident that wasn"t raised during his trial, in which Turner was accused of aggressively touching a woman who was dancing at a party at the same frat house the weekend before. Kianerci contended that along with his behavior toward the victim and her sister, that incident shows he has a pattern of preying on women.

During the three-week trial, Kianerci successfully argued that the once-Olympic hopeful knew the woman was extremely drunk and purposely took advantage of her. The assault was a crime of opportunity that takes place too often on college campuses, she said. Turner was arrested Jan. 18, 2015, immediately after two Stanford graduate students who were bicycling by a Kappa Alpha fraternity party about 1 a.m. caught sight of him on the ground outside, thrusting his hips atop an unconscious, partially clothed woman.

In her sentencing memo, Kianerci said the case touched a nerve in the community because of the "audacious and callous manner that the defendant assaulted a completely unconscious female in public. ... Ultimately, the fact that the defendant preyed upon an intoxicated stranger on a college campus should not be viewed as a less serious crime than if he were to assault a stranger in downtown Palo Alto."

But Turner testified during the trial that the encounter was consensual and he was too drunk himself to realize she had passed out. In the defense"s sentencing memo, Turner"s lawyer also portrays the encounter in that light, writing that "no one can pinpoint exactly when the victim went from being conscious to being unconscious."

In addition to the four-month sentence, Turner"s lawyer, Mike Armstrong is calling on the judge to place Turner on probation for three to five years.

"He is fundamentally a good young man from a good family with a record of real accomplishment who made bad choices during his time at Stanford of about four months, especially related to alcohol," Armstrong wrote.

The attorney also argued that Turner did express remorse for "imposing trauma and pain" on the victim, who was 22 at the time of the assault. Armstrong noted that the victim herself told probation officers: "I don"t want him to rot away in jail; he doesn"t need to be behind bars."

However, in a 12-page letter to the judge, the victim clarified her position.

"The probation officer"s recommendation ... is a soft timeout, a mockery of the seriousness of his assaults, and of the consequences of the pain I have been forced to endure," she wrote. "The seriousness of rape has to be communicated clearly and we should not create a culture that suggests we learn that rape is wrong through trial and error."

Contact Tracey Kaplan at 408-278-3482. Follow her at Twitter.com/tkaplanreport.

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Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_29962311/former-stanford-athlete-brock-turner-years-prison-or

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