SAN JOSE, Calif. _ For the first time in the year since critics vowed to recall Judge Aaron Persky for giving a relatively lenient sentence to a former Stanford athlete who sexually assaulted an unconscious, intoxicated woman, the judge has come to his own defense.
In a statement filed Friday with the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters, the Superior Court judge _ without referring specifically to the Brock Turner case _ said California law requires him to consider rehabilitation and probation for first-time offenders.
"As a judge, my role is to consider both sides," Persky is quoted as saying. "It's not always popular, but it's the law and I took an oath to follow it without regard to public opinion or my opinions as a former prosecutor."
Persky's words were contained in a 198-word statement he filed in response to the notice of intention recall backers seeking to put the issue on the June 2018 ballot turned in Monday to the registrar.
The statement begins with a quote from retired Judge LaDoris Cordell, identifying her as a "civil rights leader." Cordell was the county's first black female judge and San Jose's former independent police auditor.
"Don't sign this misguided recall petition," Cordell said the statement. Recalls should be for judges who have a pattern of bias or misconduct. Judge Persky has neither."
The recall campaign had submitted a scathing 198-word statement branding the judge as an apologist for rapists and batterers.
If both statements are approved by the registrar, they will appear on the petitions that proponents plan to begin circulating in August.
Recall proponents must collect 58,634 valid voter signatures within a 160-day period ending in January to qualify the measure for the June 2018 countywide ballot.
The campaign, spearheaded by Stanford law professor Michele Dauber, has already hired a company to help collect signatures. Dauber is a friend of the victim's family and a longtime activist against campus sexual assault.
Turner was convicted in June of sexually assaulting an intoxicated, unconscious young woman in 2015 outside a campus fraternity party, after two cyclists caught him in the act.
Prosecutors asked Persky to sentence Turner to six years in state prison.
But Persky, who followed a probation department recommendation in handing down Turner's sentence last June, opted for jail, plus three years of probation, noting under California law Turner also will have to register as sex offender for the rest of his life. Turner served three months in jail and has moved back to his hometown in Ohio.
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