In California, the system shields a predator while putting his victim on trial

Brock Allen Turner, a former Stanford University swimmer, sexually assaulted a woman he met at a party.

He took her behind a dumpster, partially stripped her and assaulted her. She was intoxicated and unconscious at the time, unable to consent.

He only stopped when two men interrupted the crime and chased him away from the victim. One of the passers-by tackled him and held him until the police arrived. The case has received intense media attention in California and beyond.

Convicted of three felony counts of sexual assault, Turner was sentenced last week to six months in county jail, which could be reduced to three months with good behavior, and three years of probation.

Turner could have received 14 years in state prison for his crimes.

In handing down the light sentence, Judge Aaron Persky said, “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him,” which generally is the idea when someone attacks and sexually assaults an unconscious woman.

In Maine, Class E crimes are misdemeanors punishable by up to six months in county jail. Examples include driving a car without a license and using a fake inspection sticker on your car. In fact, you can get up to a year in jail for taking a video of a movie you’re watching in a theater.

There’s an effort underway to recall the judge.

And a letter from Turner’s father has further intensified the outrage around the case.

The Main Quad at Stanford University. Beck Diefenbach | Reuters

The Main Quad at Stanford University. Beck Diefenbach | Reuters

I can understand the myopia that could affect parents trying to protect their child, even if that child is a grown man who has done a terrible, terrible thing. But for goodness sake, show some decency, recognize what has happened and understand that there is a real victim whose life has been severely changed.

In his letter, Turner’s father pleads for leniency and talks about how his son “will never be his happy go lucky self with that easy going personality and welcoming smile.”

He describes the violent sexual assault as “20 minutes of action out of his 20 plus years of life,” the result of the “dangers of alcohol consumption and sexual promiscuity.”

“Probation is the best answer for Brock in this situation and allows him to give back to society in a net positive way,” the letter goes on to say.

The father’s letter closely matched Turner’s statement during the sentencing, according to The Guardian. Turner promised to establish a program to “speak out against college campus drinking culture and the sexual promiscuity that goes along with that.”

The victim in the assault, in an impact statement she read to the court, rightfully dismantled Turner and his father and put the entire criminal justice system on trial for its callousness and cruelty and the way it robs sexual assault victims of their humanity.

“This is not a story of another drunk college hook-up with poor decision making. Assault is not an accident,” she wrote.

Buzzfeed.com ran the letter in its entirety. Other media outlets have reprinted it or read it on the air.

In the statement, she painfully describes the attack’s aftermath — learning the details of what happened to her from newspaper accounts, and the ordeal of a long, brutal trial in which her motives, her sexual history and her actions were called into question.

“I was pummeled with narrowed, pointed questions that dissected my personal life, love life, past life, family life, inane questions, accumulating trivial details to try and find an excuse for this guy who had me half naked before even bothering to ask for my name,” she wrote.

While Turner’s accomplishments as a champion swimmer were detailed in news reports and a picture of a smiling, blue-eyed young man accompanied the stories, the victim became only an “unconscious intoxicated woman.”

“For a while, I believed that that was all I was. I had to force myself to relearn my real name, my identity. To relearn that this is not all that I am.”

Robbed of her identity and put on trial alongside her attacker, this young woman was twice a victim. She was sexually assaulted by a man, and she was betrayed by a criminal justice system that diminished the crime against her.

“The seriousness of rape has to be communicated clearly, we should not create a culture that suggests we learn that rape is wrong through trial and error,” she wrote.

We can’t tolerate a system or a culture that makes excuses for sexual assault and other crimes against women. This was no accident, and there are no excuses.

David Farmer

About David Farmer

David Farmer is a political and media consultant in Portland, where he lives with his wife and two children. He was senior adviser to Democrat Mike Michaud’s campaign for governor and a longtime journalist. You can reach him at dfarmer14@hotmail.com.