Judge cleared of misconduct for sentencing ex-Stanford swimmer to six months in jail for sexual assault
12/19/2016 12:04 pm PST
via KRON:
SAN FRANCISCO -- (KRON/AP) -- A California agency that oversees judicial discipline in the state ruled Monday that a judge committed no misconduct when he sentenced former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner to six months in jail for sexually assaulting a young woman on campus.
The California Commission on Judicial Performance said was evidence that Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky displayed bias in handing down a sentence decried as too lenient by critics across the country.
“The commission has concluded that there is not clear and convincing evidence of bias, abuse of authority, or other basis to conclude that Judge Persky engaged in judicial misconduct warranting discipline,” the 11-member panel concluded in its unsigned ruling.
The commission said it received thousands of complaints and petitions regarding Persky and the sentence.
The petitions included complaints that Persky “displayed gender bias and failed to take sexual assault of women seriously,” and showed favoritism to Turner because the judge was a former Stanford athlete as well.
Turner, 21, was released from jail in September after serving three months. He will be on probation for three years in his native Ohio and is a registered sex offender.
Persky is the target of a recall campaign.
