Unwithering spotlight on California sex-assault case judge

By Taylor & Ring | August 31, 2016

California judge Aaron Persky got a recent dose of public attention so adverse that it has rendered him a virtual pariah in the minds of many state residents.

Here’s ample proof of that, supplied courtesy of a recent profile of Persky appearing in the Los Angeles Times: reportedly, about 1.3 million people have signed a petition demanding that the judge step down from his position as a jurist.

Many of our readers — some of whom might have affixed their signatures to that document — are likely quite familiar with the details most central to the uproar surrounding Persky.

Here they are, in a nutshell: Earlier this year, the judge sentenced a sexual-assault defendant to a six-month prison term, followed by three years of probation, for a crime that flatly appalled legions of California residents. The defendant — a Stanford University swimmer — assaulted an unconscious woman on campus. Among other things, he was convicted on a criminal charge of “sexual penetration of an intoxicated person.”

In addition to the crime itself, what incensed a huge segment of the general public was the sheer disconnect between what the sentence could have been and what it actually turned out to be. Notably, the defendant could have been sent to a state penitentiary for 14 years.

Persky has openly acknowledged the floodgates of public criticism, noting that the spotlight he is under presently is undermining perceptions that he can do his job impartially.

Given that, the judge recently opted to stop hearing criminal cases. He is slated to move to civil court early next month.

And that will not be enough to placate some critics.

“His judicial bias in favor of privileged defendants in sex crimes and domestic violence [cases] still needs to be addressed by the voters of Santa Clara County,” says one principal behind the recall initiative.

Posted in Legal News, Student Sex Abuse