War on Women : Rape

[Jolie Rouge]

This sickens me. This is 2016 and they are still trying to blame the victim by asking her how many boyfriends she's had, what she was wearing, etc etc. And then the father of the suspect has the nerve to say six months in jail is too long of a sentence for only "20 minutes of action". Seriously? Maybe if he'd gotten an hour of "action" he would've found it a more appropriate sentence. And the suspect was facing 14 years for his crime but because he got all these people to stand up for him and say what a good guy he was, he only got 6 months and likely will only have to serve 3. It's disgusting. And that's not all. The father wrote a letter on his behalf, which read in part...


“He will never be his happy go lucky self with that easy going personality and welcoming smile,” he wrote of his son. “His every waking minute is consumed with worry, anxiety, fear, and depression. You can see this in his face, the way he walks, his weakened voice, his lack of appetite.”

The poor, poor suspect. His life has changed. What about the victim? She'll certainly never be the same. Who cares about the suspect? Too bad their money can't buy decency or common sense.


...


This sickens me. This is 2016 and they are still trying to blame the victim by asking her how many boyfriends she's had, what she was wearing, etc etc. And then the father of the suspect has the nerve to say six months in jail is too long of a sentence for only "20 minutes of action". Seriously? Maybe if he'd gotten an hour of "action" he would've found it a more appropriate sentence. And the suspect was facing 14 years for his crime but because he got all these people to stand up for him and say what a good guy he was, he only got 6 months and likely will only have to serve 3. It's disgusting. And that's not all. The father wrote a letter on his behalf, which read in part...

“He will never be his happy go lucky self with that easy going personality and welcoming smile,” he wrote of his son. “His every waking minute is consumed with worry, anxiety, fear, and depression. You can see this in his face, the way he walks, his weakened voice, his lack of appetite.”

The poor, poor suspect. His life has changed. What about the victim? She'll certainly never be the same. Who cares about the suspect? Too bad their money can't buy decency or common sense.



The father of a former Stanford University athlete convicted on multiple charges of sexual assault has said his son should not have to go to prison for “20 minutes of action”.

Brock Turner, a former swimmer at Stanford University, was on Thursday sentenced to six months’ imprisonment and probation for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman.

The 20-year-old from Dayton, Ohio – who was convicted of three felonies, including assault with intent to rape – faced a maximum of 14 years in prison.

But Turner was expected to spend only three months of a six-month sentence in county jail after the judge, Aaron Persky, said positive character references and lack of a criminal record had persuaded him to be more lenient. Prison would have a “severe impact on him”, the judge said.

The decision sparked anger on social media, with many quoting from the victim’s impact statement, which went viral after being published by international media.

The 23-year-old victim gave an emotional speech at the hearing, an abbreviated version of a 12-page impact statement submitted to Judge Persky before the sentencing hearing.

She recounted going to a party on the evening of 17 January 2015 and waking up the next morning in hospital with no memory of the night before. She also told of the invasive exam she underwent to collect evidence and the “excruciating” interrogation of the court trial.

“I thought there’s no way this is going to trial; there were witnesses, there was dirt in my body, he ran but was caught ... Instead, I was told he hired a powerful attorney, expert witnesses, private investigators ... That he was going to go to any length to convince the world he had simply been confused. ...

“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.”

Her victim impact statement – released by the district attorney’s office and published in full by Palo Alto Online, among others – has received global attention for shedding light on what advocates say is an epidemic of violence on college campuses. On BuzzFeed, it has been viewed more than 4m times since being published on Saturday.

Turner’s father had called on the judge to grant his son probation, saying that he had already paid “a steep price ... for 20 minutes of action”.

Michele Dauber, a professor of law at Stanford University, tweeted an excerpt from the probation pre-sentencing report in which Dan Turner said his son’s life had “been deeply altered forever”.

His statement was met with fury on social media, with many condemning its tone.

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CkNAfpIWkAAGIEt.jpg


“Let me rephrase for you, I want to show people that one night of drinking can ruin two lives. You and me. You are the cause, I am the effect. ...

“Your damage was concrete; stripped of titles, degrees, enrolment. My damage was internal, unseen, I carry it with me. You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today.”

Responding to questions over the statement’s validity, Dauber said it was “all too real” and that Dan Turner had read it aloud in open court at sentencing. She has been contacted for comment.

Dan Turner said imprisonment was not the “appropriate punishment” for his son, who was “totally committed to educating other college age students about the dangers of alcohol consumption and sexual promiscuity”.

“By having people like Brock educate others on college campuses is how society can begin to break the cycle of binge drinking and its unfortunate results.”

This echoed Turner’s own statement, in which he said he was in the process of establishing a program for high school and college students so that he could “speak out against the college campus drinking culture and the sexual promiscuity that goes along with that”.

The victim was scathing on this point in her address at Thursday’s hearing, noting that Turner had said he wanted to “show people that one night of drinking can ruin a life”.

Prosecutors had asked for Judge Persky, a Stanford alumni, to sentence Turner to six years in a state prison. The maximum for the three felony charges – 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 – was 14 years.

In justifying the six-month sentence, Judge Persky said positive character references written on Turner’s behalf, such as that given by his father, had factored into his decision. His age, his lack of a criminal history, and the role that alcohol played in the assault were also mitigating factors.

“A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him,” said the judge. “I think he will not be a danger to others.”

Judge Persky is running unopposed for re-election in the Santa Clara county election on Tuesday. A Change.org petition calling for him to be recalled from his judicial position had received more than 15,500 signatures at time of writing

The Santa Clara county district attorney, Jeff Rosen, criticised the “unjust” sentence on Thursday, which he said did not fit the crime.

“Ultimately, the fact that the defendant preyed upon an intoxicated stranger on a college campus should not be viewed as less serious than if he assaulted an intoxicated stranger in downtown Palo Alto,” he said.

“Campus rape is no different than off-campus rape. Rape is rape. We will prosecute it the same.”

Rosen also praised the victim’s statement as “the most eloquent, powerful and compelling piece of victim advocacy that I’ve seen in my 20 years as a prosecutor”.

Palo Alto Online reported that Turner plans to appeal his conviction and will be represented by Dennis Riordan, a well-known San Francisco appellate attorney.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/06/father-stanford-university-student-brock-turner-sexual-assault-statement?CMP=fb_us

MY Comments


“A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him,”

Isn't that the whole point of a prison sentence ?[/I]


... never been violent .. including the night of January ... ( night of the rape )

The charges ... 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 ... certainly indicate violation and violence.

[Jolie Rouge]

Stanford sexual assault case: victim impact statement in full
http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2016/06/03/stanford-sex-assault-victim-you-took-away-my-worth

Too long to cut & paste here ... but should be read and shared

Three Felony sexual assault charges ... and the guy got six months and will only serve three.

[3lilpigs]

Three Felony sexual assault charges ... and the guy got six months and will only serve three.

Someone will get to him.............in prison, on the streets....

that's all I'm sayin'

[Jolie Rouge]

Brock Turner’s Friend Blames His Felony Conviction on Political Correctness
June 6, 2016 @ 8:03 PM
By Evan Real

Brock Turner, a former swimmer at Stanford University, was convicted of three felony counts of sexual assault on Thursday, June 2, for his assault on an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. The 20-year-old Ohio native was sentenced to six months in jail followed by a three-month probation because the judge believed a longer prison stint would have “a severe impact on him.”

The light sentence sparked major outrage on the internet. After it came to light that Turner’s father, Dan Turner, wrote a lengthy letter to judge Aaron Persky — in which the senior Turner referred to the rape as “20 minutes of action” — it has been revealed that Brock’s childhood friend Leslie Rasmussen also penned a letter to Judge Persky in her pal’s support.

In her note, obtained by New York magazine’s The Cut, Rasmussen blamed Turner’s convictions on political correctness.

[quote]“I don’t think it’s fair to base the fate of the next 10+ years of his life on the decision of a girl who doesn’t remember anything but the amount she drank to press charges against him. I am not blaming her directly for this, because that isn’t right,” she wrote to Judge Persky. “But where do we draw the line and stop worrying about being politically correct every second of the day and see that rape on campuses isn’t always because people are rapists.”

She then went on to argue that sexual assaults driven by alcohol are different than an assault in which a woman is abducted and raped.

“This is completely different from a woman getting kidnapped and raped as she is walking to her car in a parking lot,” Rasmussen continued. “That is a rapist. These are not rapists. These are idiot boys and girls having too much to drink and not being aware of their surroundings and having clouded judgment.”

As Us Weekly previously reported, two male graduate students were walking by a fraternity party on January 18, 2015, when they saw Brock on top of an unconscious woman. The guys tackled Brock after he attempted to escape, and then called the police.



If you or anyone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). A trained staff member will provide confidential, judgment-free support as well as local resources to assist in healing and recovering, and more.

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/brock-turner-pal-blames-conviction-on-political-correctness-w209087

[Jolie Rouge]

Excellent article http://www.sportingnews.com/other-sports/news/stanford-swimmer-rape-brock-turner-victim-letter-trial/1xt36onm4plvp1udrelob5a1sa

[Jolie Rouge]

Here Is The Powerful Letter The Stanford Victim Read Aloud To Her Attacker

A former Stanford swimmer who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman was sentenced to six months in jail because a longer sentence would have “a severe impact on him,” according to a judge. At his sentencing Thursday, his victim read him a letter describing the “severe impact” the assault had on her.
Katie J.M. Baker - BuzzFeed News Reporter
posted on Jun. 3, 2016, at 3:17 p.m.

One night in January 2015, two Stanford University graduate students biking across campus spotted a freshman thrusting his body on top of an unconscious, half-naked woman behind a dumpster. This March, a California jury found the former student, 20-year-old Brock Allen Turner, guilty of three counts of felony sexual assault. Turner faced a maximum of 14 years in state prison. On Thursday, he was sentenced to six months in county jail and probation. The judge said he feared a longer sentence would have a “severe impact” on Turner, a champion swimmer who once aspired to compete in the Olympics — a point repeatedly brought up during the trial.

On Thursday, Turner’s victim addressed him directly, detailing the severe impact his actions had on her — from the night she learned she had been assaulted by a stranger while unconscious, to the grueling trial during which Turner’s attorneys argued that she had eagerly consented.

The woman, now 23, told BuzzFeed News she was disappointed with the “gentle” sentence and angry that Turner still denied sexually assaulting her.

“Even if the sentence is light, hopefully this will wake people up,” she said. “I want the judge to know that he ignited a tiny fire. If anything, this is a reason for all of us to speak even louder.”

She provided her statement, printed in full below, to BuzzFeed News.

Your Honor, if it is all right, for the majority of this statement I would like to address the defendant directly.

You don’t know me, but you’ve been inside me, and that’s why we’re here today.

On January 17th, 2015, it was a quiet Saturday night at home. My dad made some dinner and I sat at the table with my younger sister who was visiting for the weekend. I was working full time and it was approaching my bed time. I planned to stay at home by myself, watch some TV and read, while she went to a party with her friends. Then, I decided it was my only night with her, I had nothing better to do, so why not, there’s a dumb party ten minutes from my house, I would go, dance like a fool, and embarrass my younger sister. On the way there, I joked that undergrad guys would have braces. My sister teased me for wearing a beige cardigan to a frat party like a librarian. I called myself “big mama”, because I knew I’d be the oldest one there. I made silly faces, let my guard down, and drank liquor too fast not factoring in that my tolerance had significantly lowered since college.

The next thing I remember I was in a gurney in a hallway. I had dried blood and bandages on the backs of my hands and elbow. I thought maybe I had fallen and was in an admin office on campus. I was very calm and wondering where my sister was. A deputy explained I had been assaulted. I still remained calm, assured he was speaking to the wrong person. I knew no one at this party. When I was finally allowed to use the restroom, I pulled down the hospital pants they had given me, went to pull down my underwear, and felt nothing. I still remember the feeling of my hands touching my skin and grabbing nothing. I looked down and there was nothing. The thin piece of fabric, the only thing between my vagina and anything else, was missing and everything inside me was silenced. I still don’t have words for that feeling. In order to keep breathing, I thought maybe the policemen used scissors to cut them off for evidence.

Then, I felt pine needles scratching the back of my neck and started pulling them out my hair. I thought maybe, the pine needles had fallen from a tree onto my head. My brain was talking my gut into not collapsing. Because my gut was saying, help me, help me.

I shuffled from room to room with a blanket wrapped around me, pine needles trailing behind me, I left a little pile in every room I sat in. I was asked to sign papers that said “Rape Victim” and I thought something has really happened. My clothes were confiscated and I stood naked while the nurses held a ruler to various abrasions on my body and photographed them. The three of us worked to comb the pine needles out of my hair, six hands to fill one paper bag. To calm me down, they said it’s just the flora and fauna, flora and fauna. I had multiple swabs inserted into my vagina and anus, needles for shots, pills, had a Nikon pointed right into my spread legs. I had long, pointed beaks inside me and had my vagina smeared with cold, blue paint to check for abrasions.

[Jolie Rouge]

After a few hours of this, they let me shower. I stood there examining my body beneath the stream of water and decided, I don’t want my body anymore. I was terrified of it, I didn’t know what had been in it, if it had been contaminated, who had touched it. I wanted to take off my body like a jacket and leave it at the hospital with everything else.

On that morning, all that I was told was that I had been found behind a dumpster, potentially penetrated by a stranger, and that I should get retested for HIV because results don’t always show up immediately. But for now, I should go home and get back to my normal life. Imagine stepping back into the world with only that information. They gave me huge hugs and I walked out of the hospital into the parking lot wearing the new sweatshirt and sweatpants they provided me, as they had only allowed me to keep my necklace and shoes.

My sister picked me up, face wet from tears and contorted in anguish. Instinctively and immediately, I wanted to take away her pain. I smiled at her, I told her to look at me, I’m right here, I’m okay, everything’s okay, I’m right here. My hair is washed and clean, they gave me the strangest shampoo, calm down, and look at me. Look at these funny new sweatpants and sweatshirt, I look like a P.E. teacher, let’s go home, let’s eat something. She did not know that beneath my sweatsuit, I had scratches and bandages on my skin, my vagina was sore and had become a strange, dark color from all the prodding, my underwear was missing, and I felt too empty to continue to speak. That I was also afraid, that I was also devastated. That day we drove home and for hours in silence my younger sister held me.

My boyfriend did not know what happened, but called that day and said, “I was really worried about you last night, you scared me, did you make it home okay?” I was horrified. That’s when I learned I had called him that night in my blackout, left an incomprehensible voicemail, that we had also spoken on the phone, but I was slurring so heavily he was scared for me, that he repeatedly told me to go find [my sister]. Again, he asked me, “What happened last night? Did you make it home okay?” I said yes, and hung up to cry.

I was not ready to tell my boyfriend or parents that actually, I may have been raped behind a dumpster, but I don’t know by who or when or how. If I told them, I would see the fear on their faces, and mine would multiply by tenfold, so instead I pretended the whole thing wasn’t real.

I tried to push it out of my mind, but it was so heavy I didn’t talk, I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep, I didn’t interact with anyone. After work, I would drive to a secluded place to scream. I didn’t talk, I didn’t eat, I didn’t sleep, I didn’t interact with anyone, and I became isolated from the ones I loved most. For over a week after the incident, I didn’t get any calls or updates about that night or what happened to me. The only symbol that proved that it hadn’t just been a bad dream, was the sweatshirt from the hospital in my drawer.

One day, I was at work, scrolling through the news on my phone, and came across an article. In it, I read and learned for the first time about how I was found unconscious, with my hair disheveled, long necklace wrapped around my neck, bra pulled out of my dress, dress pulled off over my shoulders and pulled up above my waist, that I was butt naked all the way down to my boots, legs spread apart, and had been penetrated by a foreign object by someone I did not recognize. This was how I learned what happened to me, sitting at my desk reading the news at work. I learned what happened to me the same time everyone else in the world learned what happened to me. That’s when the pine needles in my hair made sense, they didn’t fall from a tree. He had taken off my underwear, his fingers had been inside of me. I don’t even know this person. I still don’t know this person. When I read about me like this, I said, this can’t be me, this can’t be me. I could not digest or accept any of this information. I could not imagine my family having to read about this online. I kept reading. In the next paragraph, I read something that I will never forgive; I read that according to him, I liked it. I liked it. Again, I do not have words for these feelings.

“And then, at the bottom of the article, after I learned about the graphic details of my own sexual assault, the article listed his swimming times.”

It’s like if you were to read an article where a car was hit, and found dented, in a ditch. But maybe the car enjoyed being hit. Maybe the other car didn’t mean to hit it, just bump it up a little bit. Cars get in accidents all the time, people aren’t always paying attention, can we really say who’s at fault.

And then, at the bottom of the article, after I learned about the graphic details of my own sexual assault, the article listed his swimming times. She was found breathing, unresponsive with her underwear six inches away from her bare stomach curled in fetal position. By the way, he’s really good at swimming. Throw in my mile time if that’s what we’re doing. I’m good at cooking, put that in there, I think the end is where you list your extracurriculars to cancel out all the sickening things that’ve happened.

[Jolie Rouge]

The night the news came out I sat my parents down and told them that I had been assaulted, to not look at the news because it’s upsetting, just know that I’m okay, I’m right here, and I’m okay. But halfway through telling them, my mom had to hold me because I could no longer stand up.

The night after it happened, he said he didn’t know my name, said he wouldn’t be able to identify my face in a lineup, didn’t mention any dialogue between us, no words, only dancing and kissing. Dancing is a cute term; was it snapping fingers and twirling dancing, or just bodies grinding up against each other in a crowded room? I wonder if kissing was just faces sloppily pressed up against each other? When the detective asked if he had planned on taking me back to his dorm, he said no. When the detective asked how we ended up behind the dumpster, he said he didn’t know. He admitted to kissing other girls at that party, one of whom was my own sister who pushed him away. He admitted to wanting to hook up with someone. I was the wounded antelope of the herd, completely alone and vulnerable, physically unable to fend for myself, and he chose me. Sometimes I think, if I hadn’t gone, then this never would’ve happened. But then I realized, it would have happened, just to somebody else. You were about to enter four years of access to drunk girls and parties, and if this is the foot you started off on, then it is right you did not continue. The night after it happened, he said he thought I liked it because I rubbed his back. A back rub.

Never mentioned me voicing consent, never mentioned us even speaking, a back rub. One more time, in public news, I learned that my ass and vagina were completely exposed outside, my breasts had been groped, fingers had been jabbed inside me along with pine needles and debris, my bare skin and head had been rubbing against the ground behind a dumpster, while an erect freshman was humping my half naked, unconscious body. But I don’t remember, so how do I prove I didn’t like it.

I thought there’s no way this is going to trial; there were witnesses, there was dirt in my body, he ran but was caught. He’s going to settle, formally apologize, and we will both move on. Instead, I was told he hired a powerful attorney, expert witnesses, private investigators who were going to try and find details about my personal life to use against me, find loopholes in my story to invalidate me and my sister, in order to show that this sexual assault was in fact a misunderstanding. That he was going to go to any length to convince the world he had simply been confused.

I was not only told that I was assaulted, I was told that because I couldn’t remember, I technically could not prove it was unwanted. And that distorted me, damaged me, almost broke me. It is the saddest type of confusion to be told I was assaulted and nearly raped, blatantly out in the open, but we don’t know if it counts as assault yet. I had to fight for an entire year to make it clear that there was something wrong with this situation.

“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. “

When I was told to be prepared in case we didn’t win, I said, I can’t prepare for that. He was guilty the minute I woke up. No one can talk me out of the hurt he caused me. Worst of all, I was warned, because he now knows you don’t remember, he is going to get to write the script. He can say whatever he wants and no one can contest it. I had no power, I had no voice, I was defenseless. My memory loss would be used against me. My testimony was weak, was incomplete, and I was made to believe that perhaps, I am not enough to win this. His attorney constantly reminded the jury, the only one we can believe is Brock, because she doesn’t remember. That helplessness was traumatizing.

Instead of taking time to heal, I was taking time to recall the night in excruciating detail, in order to prepare for the attorney’s questions that would be invasive, aggressive, and designed to steer me off course, to contradict myself, my sister, phrased in ways to manipulate my answers. Instead of his attorney saying, Did you notice any abrasions? He said, You didn’t notice any abrasions, right? This was a game of strategy, as if I could be tricked out of my own worth. The sexual assault had been so clear, but instead, here I was at the trial, answering questions like:


How old are you? How much do you weigh? What did you eat that day? Well what did you have for dinner? Who made dinner? Did you drink with dinner? No, not even water? When did you drink? How much did you drink? What container did you drink out of? Who gave you the drink? How much do you usually drink? Who dropped you off at this party? At what time? But where exactly? What were you wearing? Why were you going to this party? What’ d you do when you got there? Are you sure you did that? But what time did you do that? What does this text mean? Who were you texting? When did you urinate? Where did you urinate? With whom did you urinate outside? Was your phone on silent when your sister called? Do you remember silencing it? Really because on page 53 I’d like to point out that you said it was set to ring. Did you drink in college? You said you were a party animal? How many times did you black out? Did you party at frats? Are you serious with your boyfriend? Are you sexually active with him? When did you start dating? Would you ever cheat? Do you have a history of cheating? What do you mean when you said you wanted to reward him? Do you remember what time you woke up? Were you wearing your cardigan? What color was your cardigan? Do you remember any more from that night? No? Okay, well, we’ll let Brock fill it in.

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. After a physical assault, I was assaulted with questions designed to attack me, to say see, her facts don’t line up, she’s out of her mind, she’s practically an alcoholic, she probably wanted to hook up, he’s like an athlete right, they were both drunk, whatever, the hospital stuff she remembers is after the fact, why take it into account, Brock has a lot at stake so he’s having a really hard time right now.

And then it came time for him to testify and I learned what it meant to be revictimized. I want to remind you, the night after it happened he said he never planned to take me back to his dorm. He said he didn’t know why we were behind a dumpster. He got up to leave because he wasn’t feeling well when he was suddenly chased and attacked. Then he learned I could not remember.

So one year later, as predicted, a new dialogue emerged. Brock had a strange new story, almost sounded like a poorly written young adult novel with kissing and dancing and hand holding and lovingly tumbling onto the ground, and most importantly in this new story, there was suddenly consent. One year after the incident, he remembered, oh yeah, by the way she actually said yes, to everything, so.

He said he had asked if I wanted to dance. Apparently I said yes. He’d asked if I wanted to go to his dorm, I said yes. Then he asked if he could finger me and I said yes. Most guys don’t ask, can I finger you? Usually there’s a natural progression of things, unfolding consensually, not a Q and A. But apparently I granted full permission. He’s in the clear. Even in his story, I only said a total of three words, yes yes yes, before he had me half naked on the ground. Future reference, if you are confused about whether a girl can consent, see if she can speak an entire sentence. You couldn’t even do that. Just one coherent string of words. Where was the confusion? This is common sense, human decency.

According to him, the only reason we were on the ground was because I fell down. Note; if a girl falls down help her get back up. If she is too drunk to even walk and falls down, do not mount her, hump her, take off her underwear, and insert your hand inside her vagina. If a girl falls down help her up. If she is wearing a cardigan over her dress don’t take it off so that you can touch her breasts. Maybe she is cold, maybe that’s why she wore the cardigan.

Next in the story, two Swedes on bicycles approached you and you ran. When they tackled you why didn’t say, “Stop! Everything’s okay, go ask her, she’s right over there, she’ll tell you.” I mean you had just asked for my consent, right? I was awake, right? When the policeman arrived and interviewed the evil Swede who tackled you, he was crying so hard he couldn’t speak because of what he’d seen.

Your attorney has repeatedly pointed out, well we don’t know exactly when she became unconscious. And you’re right, maybe I was still fluttering my eyes and wasn’t completely limp yet. That was never the point. I was too drunk to speak English, too drunk to consent way before I was on the ground. I should have never been touched in the first place. Brock stated, “At no time did I see that she was not responding. If at any time I thought she was not responding, I would have stopped immediately.” Here’s the thing; if your plan was to stop only when I became unresponsive, then you still do not understand. You didn’t even stop when I was unconscious anyway! Someone else stopped you. Two guys on bikes noticed I wasn’t moving in the dark and had to tackle you. How did you not notice while on top of me?

[Jolie Rouge]

You said, you would have stopped and gotten help. You say that, but I want you to explain how you would’ve helped me, step by step, walk me through this. I want to know, if those evil Swedes had not found me, how the night would have played out. I am asking you; Would you have pulled my underwear back on over my boots? Untangled the necklace wrapped around my neck? Closed my legs, covered me? Pick the pine needles from my hair? Asked if the abrasions on my neck and bottom hurt? Would you then go find a friend and say, Will you help me get her somewhere warm and soft? I don’t sleep when I think about the way it could have gone if the two guys had never come. What would have happened to me? That’s what you’ll never have a good answer for, that’s what you can’t explain even after a year.

On top of all this, he claimed that I orga smed after one minute of digital penetration. The nurse said there had been abrasions, lacerations, and dirt in my genitalia. Was that before or after I came?

To sit under oath and inform all of us, that yes I wanted it, yes I permitted it, and that you are the true victim attacked by Swedes for reasons unknown to you is appalling, is demented, is selfish, is damaging. It is enough to be suffering. It is another thing to have someone ruthlessly working to diminish the gravity of validity of this suffering.

My family had to see pictures of my head strapped to a gurney full of pine needles, of my body in the dirt with my eyes closed, hair messed up, limbs bent, and dress hiked up. And even after that, my family had to listen to your attorney say the pictures were after the fact, we can dismiss them. To say, yes her nurse confirmed there was redness and abrasions inside her, significant trauma to her geni talia, but that’s what happens when you finger someone, and he’s already admitted to that. To listen to your attorney attempt to paint a picture of me, the face of girls gone wild, as if somehow that would make it so that I had this coming for me. To listen to him say I sounded drunk on the phone because I’m silly and that’s my goofy way of speaking. To point out that in the voicemail, I said I would reward my boyfriend and we all know what I was thinking. I assure you my rewards program is non transferable, especially to any nameless man that approaches me.

"This is not a story of another drunk college hook*up with poor decision making. Assault is not an accident.”

He has done irreversible damage to me and my family during the trial and we have sat silently, listening to him shape the evening. But in the end, his unsupported statements and his attorney’s twisted logic fooled no one. The truth won, the truth spoke for itself.

You are guilty. Twelve jurors convicted you guilty of three felony counts beyond reasonable doubt, that’s twelve votes per count, thirty *six yeses confirming guilt, that’s one hundred percent, unanimous guilt. And I thought finally it is over, finally he will own up to what he did, truly apologize, we will both move on and get better. ​Then I read your statement.

If you are hoping that one of my organs will implode from anger and I will die, I’m almost there. You are very close. This is not a story of another drunk college hook*up with poor decision making. Assault is not an accident. Somehow, you still don’t get it. Somehow, you still sound confused. I will now read portions of the defendant’s statement and respond to them.


You said, Being drunk I just couldn’t make the best decisions and neither could she.

Alcohol is not an excuse. Is it a factor? Yes. But alcohol was not the one who stripped me, fingered me, had my head dragging against the ground, with me almost fully n aked. Having too much to drink was an amateur mistake that I admit to, but it is not criminal. Everyone in this room has had a night where they have regretted drinking too much, or knows someone close to them who has had a night where they have regretted drinking too much. Regretting drinking is not the same as regretting sexual assault. We were both drunk, the difference is I did not take off your pants and underwear, touch you inappropriately, and run away. That’s the difference.


You said, If I wanted to get to know her, I should have asked for her number, rather than asking her to go back to my room.

I’m not mad because you didn’t ask for my number. Even if you did know me, I would not want to be in this situation. My own boyfriend knows me, but if he asked to finger me behind a dumpster, I would slap him. No girl wants to be in this situation. Nobody. I don’t care if you know their phone number or not.


You said, I stupidly thought it was okay for me to do what everyone around me was doing, which was drinking. I was wrong.

Again, you were not wrong for drinking. Everyone around you was not sexually assaulting me. You were wrong for doing what nobody else was doing, which was pushing your erect di ck in your pants against my naked, defenseless body concealed in a dark area, where partygoers could no longer see or protect me, and my own sister could not find me. Sipping fireball is not your crime. Peeling off and discarding my underwear like a candy wrapper to insert your finger into my body, is where you went wrong. Why am I still explaining this.


You said, During the trial I didn’t want to victimize her at all. That was just my attorney and his way of approaching the case.

Your attorney is not your scapegoat, he represents you. Did your attorney say some incredulously infuriating, degrading things? Absolutely. He said you had an erection, because it was cold.

You said, you are in the process of establishing a program for high school and college students in which you speak about your experience to “speak out against the college campus drinking culture and the sexual promiscuity that goes along with that.”

Campus drinking culture. That’s what we’re speaking out against? You think that’s what I’ve spent the past year fighting for? Not awareness about campus sexual assault, or rape, or learning to recognize consent. Campus drinking culture. Down with Jack Daniels. Down with Skyy Vodka. If you want talk to people about drinking go to an AA meeting. You realize, having a drinking problem is different than drinking and then forcefully trying to have sex with someone? Show men how to respect women, not how to drink less.

Drinking culture and the sexual promiscuity that goes along with that. Goes along with that, like a side effect, like fries on the side of your order. Where does promiscuity even come into play? I don’t see headlines that read, Brock Turner, Guilty of drinking too much and the sexual promiscuity that goes along with that. Campus Sexual Assault. There’s your first powerpoint slide. Rest assured, if you fail to fix the topic of your talk, I will follow you to every school you go to and give a follow up presentation.


Lastly you said, I want to show people that one night of drinking can ruin a life.

A life, one life, yours, you forgot about mine. Let me rephrase for you, I want to show people that one night of drinking can ruin two lives. You and me. You are the cause, I am the effect. You have dragged me through this hell with you, dipped me back into that night again and again. You knocked down both our towers, I collapsed at the same time you did. If you think I was spared, came out unscathed, that today I ride off into sunset, while you suffer the greatest blow, you are mistaken. Nobody wins. We have all been devastated, we have all been trying to find some meaning in all of this suffering. Your damage was concrete; stripped of titles, degrees, enrollment. My damage was internal, unseen, I carry it with me. You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today.

[Jolie Rouge]

See one thing we have in common is that we were both unable to get up in the morning. I am no stranger to suffering. You made me a victim. In newspapers my name was “unconscious intoxicated woman”, ten syllables, and nothing more than that. 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. That I am not just a drunk victim at a frat party found behind a dumpster, while you are the All* American swimmer at a top university, innocent until proven guilty, with so much at stake. I am a human being who has been irreversibly hurt, my life was put on hold for over a year, waiting to figure out if I was worth something.

My independence, natural joy, gentleness, and steady lifestyle I had been enjoying became distorted beyond recognition. I became closed off, angry, self deprecating, tired, irritable, empty. The isolation at times was unbearable. You cannot give me back the life I had before that night either. While you worry about your shattered reputation, I refrigerated spoons every night so when I woke up, and my eyes were puffy from crying, I would hold the spoons to my eyes to lessen the swelling so that I could see. I showed up an hour late to work every morning, excused myself to cry in the stairwells, I can tell you all the best places in that building to cry where no one can hear you. The pain became so bad that I had to explain the private details to my boss to let her know why I was leaving. I needed time because continuing day to day was not possible. I used my savings to go as far away as I could possibly be. I did not return to work full time as I knew I’d have to take weeks off in the future for the hearing and trial, that were constantly being rescheduled. My life was put on hold for over a year, my structure had collapsed.

I can’t sleep alone at night without having a light on, like a five year old, because I have nightmares of being touched where I cannot wake up, I did this thing where I waited until the sun came up and I felt safe enough to sleep. For three months, I went to bed at six o’clock in the morning.

I used to pride myself on my independence, now I am afraid to go on walks in the evening, to attend social events with drinking among friends where I should be comfortable being. I have become a little barnacle always needing to be at someone’s side, to have my boyfriend standing next to me, sleeping beside me, protecting me. It is embarrassing how feeble I feel, how timidly I move through life, always guarded, ready to defend myself, ready to be angry.


You have no idea how hard I have worked to rebuild parts of me that are still weak. It took me eight months to even talk about what happened. I could no longer connect with friends, with everyone around me. I would scream at my boyfriend, my own family whenever they brought this up. You never let me forget what happened to me. At the of end of the hearing, the trial, I was too tired to speak. I would leave drained, silent. I would go home turn off my phone and for days I would not speak. You bought me a ticket to a planet where I lived by myself. Every time a new article come out, I lived with the paranoia that my entire hometown would find out and know me as the girl who got assaulted. I didn’t want anyone’s pity and am still learning to accept victim as part of my identity. You made my own hometown an uncomfortable place to be.

You cannot give me back my sleepless nights. The way I have broken down sobbing uncontrollably if I’m watching a movie and a woman is harmed, to say it lightly, this experience has expanded my empathy for other victims. I have lost weight from stress, when people would comment I told them I’ve been running a lot lately. There are times I did not want to be touched. I have to relearn that I am not fragile, I am capable, I am wholesome, not just livid and weak.

When I see my younger sister hurting, when she is unable to keep up in school, when she is deprived of joy, when she is not sleeping, when she is crying so hard on the phone she is barely breathing, telling me over and over again she is sorry for leaving me alone that night, sorry sorry sorry, when she feels more guilt than you, then I do not forgive you. That night I had called her to try and find her, but you found me first. Your attorney’s closing statement began, “[Her sister] said she was fine and who knows her better than her sister.” You tried to use my own sister against me? Your points of attack were so weak, so low, it was almost embarrassing. You do not touch her.

You should have never done this to me. Secondly, you should have never made me fight so long to tell you, you should have never done this to me. But here we are. The damage is done, no one can undo it. And now we both have a choice. We can let this destroy us, I can remain angry and hurt and you can be in denial, or we can face it head on, I accept the pain, you accept the punishment, and we move on.

Your life is not over, you have decades of years ahead to rewrite your story. The world is huge, it is so much bigger than Palo Alto and Stanford, and you will make a space for yourself in it where you can be useful and happy. But right now, you do not get to shrug your shoulders and be confused anymore. You do not get to pretend that there were no red flags. You have been convicted of violating me, intentionally, forcibly, sexually, with malicious intent, and all you can admit to is consuming alcohol. Do not talk about the sad way your life was upturned because alcohol made you do bad things. Figure out how to take responsibility for your own conduct.


Now to address the sentencing. When I read the probation officer’s report, I was in disbelief, consumed by anger which eventually quieted down to profound sadness. My statements have been slimmed down to distortion and taken out of context. I fought hard during this trial and will not have the outcome minimized by a probation officer who attempted to evaluate my current state and my wishes in a fifteen minute conversation, the majority of which was spent answering questions I had about the legal system. The context is also important. Brock had yet to issue a statement, and I had not read his remarks.

My life has been on hold for over a year, a year of anger, anguish and uncertainty, until a jury of my peers rendered a judgment that validated the injustices I had endured. Had Brock admitted guilt and remorse and offered to settle early on, I would have considered a lighter sentence, respecting his honesty, grateful to be able to move our lives forward. Instead he took the risk of going to trial, added insult to injury and forced me to relive the hurt as details about my personal life and sexual assault were brutally dissected before the public. He pushed me and my family through a year of inexplicable, unnecessary suffering, and should face the consequences of challenging his crime, of putting my pain into question, of making us wait so long for justice.

[Jolie Rouge]

I told the probation officer I do not want Brock to rot away in prison. I did not say he does not deserve to be behind bars. The probation officer’s recommendation of a year or less in county jail is a soft time*out, a mockery of the seriousness of his assaults, an insult to me and all women. It gives the message that a stranger can be inside you without proper consent and he will receive less than what has been defined as the minimum sentence. Probation should be denied. I also told the probation officer that what I truly wanted was for Brock to get it, to understand and admit to his wrongdoing.

Unfortunately, after reading the defendant’s report, I am severely disappointed and feel that he has failed to exhibit sincere remorse or responsibility for his conduct. I fully respected his right to a trial, but even after twelve jurors unanimously convicted him guilty of three felonies, all he has admitted to doing is ingesting alcohol. Someone who cannot take full accountability for his actions does not deserve a mitigating sentence. It is deeply offensive that he would try and dilute rape with a suggestion of “promiscuity”. By definition rape is not the absence of promiscuity, rape is the absence of consent, and it perturbs me deeply that he can’t even see that distinction.

The probation officer factored in that the defendant is youthful and has no prior convictions. In my opinion, he is old enough to know what he did was wrong. When you are eighteen in this country you can go to war. When you are nineteen, you are old enough to pay the consequences for attempting to rape someone. He is young, but he is old enough to know better.

As this is a first offence I can see where leniency would beckon. On the other hand, as a society, we cannot forgive everyone’s first sexual assault or digital rape. It doesn’t make sense. 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. The consequences of sexual assault needs to be severe enough that people feel enough fear to exercise good judgment even if they are drunk, severe enough to be preventative.

The probation officer weighed the fact that he has surrendered a hard earned swimming scholarship. How fast Brock swims does not lessen the severity of what happened to me, and should not lessen the severity of his punishment. If a first time offender from an underprivileged background was accused of three felonies and displayed no accountability for his actions other than drinking, what would his sentence be? The fact that Brock was an athlete at a private university should not be seen as an entitlement to leniency, but as an opportunity to send a message that sexual assault is against the law regardless of social class.

The Probation Officer has stated that this case, when compared to other crimes of similar nature, may be considered less serious due to the defendant’s level of intoxication. It felt serious. That’s all I’m going to say.

What has he done to demonstrate that he deserves a break? He has only apologized for drinking and has yet to define what he did to me as sexual assault, he has revictimized me continually, relentlessly. He has been found guilty of three serious felonies and it is time for him to accept the consequences of his actions. He will not be quietly excused.

He is a lifetime sex registrant. That doesn’t expire. Just like what he did to me doesn’t expire, doesn’t just go away after a set number of years. It stays with me, it’s part of my identity, it has forever changed the way I carry myself, the way I live the rest of my life.

To conclude, I want to say thank you. To everyone from the intern who made me oatmeal when I woke up at the hospital that morning, to the deputy who waited beside me, to the nurses who calmed me, to the detective who listened to me and never judged me, to my advocates who stood unwaveringly beside me, to my therapist who taught me to find courage in vulnerability, to my boss for being kind and understanding, to my incredible parents who teach me how to turn pain into strength, to my grandma who snuck chocolate into the courtroom throughout this to give to me, my friends who remind me how to be happy, to my boyfriend who is patient and loving, to my unconquerable sister who is the other half of my heart, to Alaleh, my idol, who fought tirelessly and never doubted me. Thank you to everyone involved in the trial for their time and attention. Thank you to girls across the nation that wrote cards to my DA to give to me, so many strangers who cared for me.

Most importantly, thank you to the two men who saved me, who I have yet to meet. I sleep with two bicycles that I drew taped above my bed to remind myself there are heroes in this story. That we are looking out for one another. To have known all of these people, to have felt their protection and love, is something I will never forget.

And finally, to girls everywhere, I am with you. On nights when you feel alone, I am with you. When people doubt you or dismiss you, I am with you. I fought everyday for you. So never stop fighting, I believe you. As the author Anne Lamott once wrote, “Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.” Although I can’t save every boat, I hope that by speaking today, you absorbed a small amount of light, a small knowing that you can’t be silenced, a small satisfaction that justice was served, a small assurance that we are getting somewhere, and a big, big knowing that you are important, unquestionably, you are untouchable, you are beautiful, you are to be valued, respected, undeniably, every minute of every day, you are powerful and nobody can take that away from you. To girls everywhere, I am with you. Thank you.


https://www.buzzfeed.com/katiejmbaker/heres-the-powerful-letter-the-stanford-victim-read-to-her-ra?utm_term=.qiDJ2a810#.dmJ18EeNY

[Jolie Rouge]

June 5 at 1:18pm ·

Washington Post,

1. Use his mugshot. He is a criminal. I didn't ask for his pristine Stanford yearbook photograph or his "All-American Swimmer" smile. This man is a rapist.

2.
"Turner’s future was once bright. He began swimming at age 2 in his home town of Oakwood, Ohio. At age 10, he was named in the local newspaper as helping his swim team win a championship. By the time he entered high school, he had already won the Ohio Junior Olympics. When [Brock] first did the backstroke, his instructor had to jump in and get him because he looked like he was drowning,' his mother, Carleen, told the Dayton Daily News in 2010. 'It’s amazing to see how he’s grown.' He kept going, earning a spot at the U.S. Olympic team trials just two years later, and then leading Oakwood High School to two straight state titles. Turner turned down scholarships at a host of universities to attend Stanford, where he joined a top-10-in-the-country swim team. But on Jan. 17, 2015, midway through his freshman year and first swim season at Stanford, Turner’s life and career were upended during a night of drinking."

Thank you, Washington Post, for this detailed track record of Brock Turner's swimming career, which is so incredibly relevant to the fact that he was just found unanimously guilty of committing an unforgivable act. I'm sorry things were so sudden for you, Brock. That your career was "upended during a night of drinking." Since you know, that's all it was, just a casual night of drinking when you raped an unconscious woman behind a dumpster.

These articles constantly remind me that you go to Stanford, headlining with "All-American Stanford swimmer," as though your attendance at such a prestigious university and your athletic ability should by default consider you to be too intelligent and too talented to be found guilty of rape? A Stanford student who apparently cannot recognize the difference between an unconscious and conscious body, consent and the lack thereof, but a Stanford student nonetheless.

3.
"Although Turner’s blood-alcohol content was twice the legal driving limit, he testified that he remembered what happened that night. The woman, whose BAC was more than three times the limit, did not."

Ok??? So she was drunk, okay. Alcohol didn't take her clothes off, nor did it throw her behind a dumpster and rape her while she was unconscious. Her alcohol consumption does not decrease the severity or validity of this crime. You cannot simply equivocate drinking with rape. It is pathetic and almost comical that this is even included in the article, intoxication and sexual assault are not synonyms.

4.
"It was a stunning fall from grace for Turner. Once a record-setting swimming prodigy, he is now a convicted sex offender at age 20," and towards the end of the article, "Turner was also asked where he hoped to be in 10 years.
'In residency to be a surgeon,' he responded."

I'm so sorry, Brock, that you've suffered so greatly from your own actions. That you believe you are the victim. That this act has stripped you of your degree and titles at the age of 20. Yes, 20 is young, but not young enough to misinterpret an unconscious woman for sexual consent, nor young enough for the malicious and immoral nature of rape to go unrecognized. I do not pity you.

Brock was sentenced to only 6 months in jail, on the basis that, "a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him." As if being raped did not take a severe and irreversible emotional toll on the female victim. This boy is apparently too intelligent, too wealthy, too white, too athletic, to belong in jail.

I could go on for hours about multiple other parts of this article that are unacceptable, but this post is long as it is. The amount of victim shaming in this article, as well as the constant recognition of Brock's accomplishments and aspirations, are both disturbing and inadmissible. The use of this language only further perpetuates the misogyny that is already so deeply engrained in American rape culture. Do better, Washington Post.

Ladies, the handling of this rape case and its portrayal in the media should offend you immensely. It is a slap in the face to the woman involved, as well as to women everywhere. A blatant disregard for our rights and our worth. This is inexcusable.

[Jolie Rouge]

Judge Aaron Persky Under Fire for Sentencing in Stanford Rape Case
By LIAM STACKJUNE 7, 2016

A California judge harshly criticized for giving what many say is a too-lenient sentence to a former Stanford student convicted of sexual assault has been bombarded by threats of violence against him and his family, an official said on Tuesday.

The judge, Aaron Persky, 54, on Thursday sentenced the former student, Brock Allen Turner, 20, to six months in jail for three felony counts: intent to commit rape, sexual penetration with a foreign object of an intoxicated person and sexual penetration with a foreign object of an unconscious person.

Threatening phone calls have flooded into the Santa Clara County Superior Court since then, said Gary Goodman, a supervising attorney for the county public defender’s office.

“People have been calling the court and leaving messages, and if someone answers, they say, ‘Tell your judge he can go to hell, and I hope his kids get raped and he rots in hell,’ ” said Mr. Goodman, who has defended the judge. “He’s getting threats over this, him and his family, from all over the country. Is that right?”

Here is what we know about the jurist.


Who Is Judge Persky?

• A former corporate lawyer and former criminal prosecutor who was appointed to the Santa Clara County Superior Court by Gov. Gray Davis in 2003, according to the Santa Clara County Bar Association. The judge is up for election this year but is running unopposed.

• A Stanford alumnus. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the university, he was the captain of the men’s lacrosse team, according to a 2002 article in The Stanford Daily.

• While campaigning for a judgeship in 2002, he wrote a biography for the League of Women Voters of California that championed his work as a prosecutor in cases involving violent sex crimes and hate crimes.

“I focus on the prosecution of sexually violent predators, working to keep the most dangerous sex offenders in custody in mental hospitals,” he wrote. If elected, he said, his top priorities would be “honesty and integrity” and “equal access to justice for all.” (He lost the election and was later appointed to the bench.)

• He said he served as a member of the executive committee of the Support Network for Battered Women and the Santa Clara County Network for a Hate-Free Community.

What Is the Controversy About?

• The judge handed down a six-month sentence and three years probation to Mr. Turner, a champion swimmer convicted in March of attacking the 23-year-old woman behind a Dumpster on campus in 2015. The victim, who was not a Stanford student, had attended a fraternity party. Two graduate students riding past the Kappa Alpha fraternity house witnessed the assault and intervened to stop it; one chased and tackled Mr. Turner when he fled.

“We saw that she was not moving, while he was moving a lot,” one of the students, Carl Frederik Arndt, told the Swedish news outlet Expressen on Tuesday. “She was unconscious the entire time,” Mr. Arndt also told CBS News. “The guy ran away, and my friend Peter chased after him.”

• The case attracted national attention on Friday after BuzzFeed published a powerful 7,244-word courtroom statement by the victim, who detailed the horror of that night and asserted that male and class privilege had irrevocably marred the trial and the sentencing.

“When the policeman arrived and interviewed the evil Swede who tackled you, he was crying so hard he couldn’t speak because of what he’d seen,” she wrote. She called the students who held her attacker until the police arrived her “heroes.”

But of Mr. Turner, she said: “You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today. The damage is done; no one can undo it.” Her letter was also released by Santa Clara County.

• The furor grew after Michele Dauber, a Stanford law professor and sociologist, tweeted a statement by the defendant’s father complaining that his son’s life had been ruined for “20 minutes of action.”

• Judge Persky was also excoriated for his comments about the defendant. In citing factors he weighed in the sentencing, The Guardian reported, the judge said Mr. Turner had “less moral culpability” for his actions because he was intoxicated, and he had “no significant record of prior criminal offenses.”

The judge also appeared to suggest that the jail sentence might be an “antidote” to the anxiety the former student may have suffered from the intense media attention. He told the courtroom, according to reports: “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him. I think he will not be a danger to others.”

And seeming to accept the defendant’s account (Mr. Turner said the victim consented), the judge said: “I take him at his word that subjectively that’s his version of his events. … I’m not convinced that his lack of complete acquiescence to the verdict should count against him.”

Because of his conviction, Mr. Turner must register as a sex offender. In his courtroom statement, obtained by The New York Times, he cited the university’s “party culture” and drinking as factors in the sexual assault.

Who Are His Main Critics?

• Besides a flood of critical comments online against the judge, Professor Dauber, a friend of the victim’s family, said that she was part of an organization seeking to recall him. She said because the judge had no opponent and will be “automatically re-elected” in November, the recall campaign was the only way to remove him. (Judge Persky won his race in the California primary Tuesday.)

She said his ruling had made female college students unsafe and cited what she called the judge’s misapplication of the law in taking Mr. Turner’s age, academic achievement and alcohol consumption into consideration.

“If you’re going to declare that a high-achieving perpetrator is an unusual case, then you’re saying to women on college campuses that they don’t deserve the full protection of the law in the state of California,” the professor said.

• A Change.org petition backing the judge’s removal had collected more than 400,000 signatures by Tuesday. In order to successfully remove the judge, the recall campaign said it would need the signatures of at least 20 percent of the votes cast in November in Santa Clara County.

• On Tuesday, lawmakers weighed in: Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, who prosecuted sexual assault cases as a lawyer, said the sentence didn’t appear to provide adequate punishment, according to The Hill. “Typically, that would be considered an inappropriate sentence,” she said. The office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, said that a “short sentence sends the wrong message.” (The senators have lobbied fellow legislators to change how the military handles sexual assault cases.)

• The Stanford Daily said the judge’s decision had outraged campus groups. Students were being urged to join a demonstration during the traditional university graduation procession that kicks off commencement on Sunday.

Does the Judge Have Any Defenders?

• The Santa Clara County district attorney, Jeff Rosen, whose office tried the Stanford rape case, said in a statement on Monday, “While I strongly disagree with the sentence that Judge Persky issued in the Brock Turner case, I do not believe he should be removed from his judgeship.”

• Molly O’Neal, the Santa Clara County public defender, said she was “alarmed by the hysteria” surrounding Mr. Turner’s sentence. “The judge is required under California law to consider certain mitigating and aggravating factors,” she said, including past criminal records and the presence of alcohol. “We need to be very careful we’re not hanging judges out to dry based on one decision, especially because he is considered to be a fair and even-tempered judge,” she said.

• Mr. Goodman, the deputy public defender, said he had worked with the judge for three decades and denounced the proposed recall. He said Judge Persky was “an exceptional jurist” who had accurately followed the relevant rules and statutes and formulated the sentence in consultation with the probation department.

“You have to judge a case on its merits only,” Mr. Goodman said. “The narrative on social media is ‘We have to judge this case as part of the larger social issue of campus sexual abuse,’ but as a judge, he is not allowed to do that.”

He rejected the argument that race or social class Because of his conviction, Mr. Turner must register as a sex offender. In his courtroom statement, obtained by The New York Times, he cited the university’s “party culture” and drinking as factors in the sexual assault.


http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/us/judge-in-stanford-rape-case-is-being-threatened-who-is-aaron-persky.html

thought for the day : does this set a dangerous precedent for DWI ?


The Guardian reported, the judge said Mr. Turner had “less moral culpability” for his actions because he was intoxicated, and he had “no significant record of prior criminal offenses.”

[Jolie Rouge]

To Brock Turner’s Father, From Another Father
 06/07/2016 01:54 pm ET | Updated 41 minutes ago
John Pavlovitz -Pastor and Writer


Dear Mr. Turner,

I’ve read your letter to the judge on behalf of your son Brock, asking for leniency in his rape conviction.

I need you to understand something, and I say this as a father who dearly loves my son as much as you must love yours:

Brock is not the victim here.

His victim is the victim.

She is the wounded one.

He is the damager.

If his life has been “deeply altered” it is because he has horribly altered another human being; because he made a reprehensible choice to take advantage of someone for his own pleasure. This young woman will be dealing with this for far longer than the embarrassingly short six months your son is being penalized. She will endure the unthinkable trauma of his “20 minutes of action” for the duration of her lifetime, and the fact that you seem unaware of this fact is exactly why we have a problem.

This is why young men continue to rape women.

This is why so many men believe that they can do whatever they please to a woman’s body without accountability.

This is the reason so many victims of sexual assault never step forward.

This is why white privilege is real and insidious and usually those with it are oblivious to it.

I understand you trying to humanize your son in your letter; talking to the judge about his favorite snacks and swim practice and about the memories that are sweet for you as his father — but to be honest I don’t give a damn and if his victim was your daughter I’m quite sure you wouldn’t either.

I imagine this young woman had favorite snacks and sports too, and parents who had wonderful plans for her that didn’t include this nightmare.

There is no scenario where your son should be the sympathetic figure here. He is the assailant. He is the rapist. I can’t imagine as a father how gut wrenching such a reality is for you, but it is still true.

Brock has to register as a sex offender because he sexually assaulted an incapacitated young women. This is why we have such requirements; because one vile act against another human being is one too many, because we don’t get a do-over when we do unspeakable things, because people need to be protected with knowledge of others in their midst who have failed so egregiously at respecting another person’s basic dignity.

The idea that your son has never violated another woman next to a dumpster before isn’t a credit to his character. We don’t get kudos for only raping one person in our lifetime. I don’t believe your son is a monster but he acted like one and that needs to be accounted for. To be sure, this decision is not the sum total of Brock’s life, but it is an important part of the equation and it matters deeply.

And to be clear, Mr. Turner, “alcohol and sexual promiscuity” are not the story here. The story here is that young men have choices to make and these choices define them, even if those choices are made when temptation is great and opportunity is abundant. In fact, our humanity is most expressed when faced with such things, we choose integrity and decency; when we abstain from doing what is easy but wrong.


We as parents don’t control our children. Most parents understand this. Despite our best efforts to the contrary, they fail and fall and do things we’d never consent to. I certainly hope this is such an occasion, though it is not coming across that way in your letter. It feels like you want more sympathy and goodwill toward your son than you want for the survivor of his crime, and that’s simply not good enough for her or for those young men and women watching.

You love your son and you should. But love him enough to teach him to own the terrible decisions he’s made, to pay the debt to society as prescribed, and then to find a redemptive path to walk, doing the great work in the world that you say he will.

For now though, as one father to another: help us teach our children to do better — by letting them see us do better.

This post originally appeared on JohnPavlovitz.com.

Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-656-HOPE for the National Sexual Assault Hotline.

Follow John Pavlovitz on Twitter: www.twitter.com

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-pavlovitz/to-brock-turners-father-from-another-father_b_10339418.html?

[Jolie Rouge]

Matt Lang
June 6 at 5:13pm ·

I've been drunk many times, even in the presence of promiscuous women who were also drunk, and I managed not to rape them, so I don't think drinking and promiscuity are the problems.

This here is the problem: some guys are entitled pricks, and they're entitled pricks because their fathers and coaches and friends taught them to be entitled pricks. Because they are entitled pricks, they think they can have whatever they want, and that their worth is defined by what they have and what they take.

Alcohol has this capacity to unlock what, deep down, we've always wanted to do. For me, that means, occasionally, running naked in places I probably shouldn't, like through libraries or deserts (remember for next time: deserts=cactuses). But even at my most intoxicated, I've never lost sight of the fact that rape is wrong, because I was raised to know it's wrong. No amount of alcohol can depress that value.

Brock Turner and his ilk were never taught that. They were taught that they can have what they want, when they want, including women. And that's equated with being a man. Brock Turner thought he was entitled to a little "action" any way he could get it, and he thought that long before he got drunk. The alcohol didn't introduce that thought, it unlocked it. That thought: "I can take whatever I want, including her", was planted and watered by a whole, rotten village.

It is right that we shame him, and his father, and the friend that came to his defense, and the judge, and every other entitled prick we meet.

Just as importantly, we need to love our boys, and teach them the dignity of the body, and how to live through disappointment and confusion, and how to navigate confusing feelings, and how to separate feelings from action, and how to communicate and listen. We need to redefine for them what it is to be a man, that their worth doesn't come from that which they have and take.

[Jolie Rouge]

Vice President Joe Biden penned an open letter to the Stanford sexual assault survivor who read a powerful message to her assailant in court detailing the effects of his actions on her.

Her letter has since been read by millions of people and has drawn attention to the judge’s six-month sentence for Brock Turner — the champion swimmer who was convicted of three counts of sexual assault — even though he faced up to 14 years in prison.

Biden, who wrote the 1994 Violence Against Women Act and is involved in the White House’s “It’s On Us” campaign against campus sexual assault, sent the letter to BuzzFeed News on Thursday. In it, he said he is “filled with furious anger — both that this happened to you and that our culture is still so broken that you were ever put in the position of defending your own worth.” He said the woman’s actions “will save lives.”

“I do not know your name — but I know that a lot of people failed you that terrible January night and in the months that followed,” Biden wrote. “It must have been wrenching — to relive what he did to you all over again. But you did it anyway, in the hope that your strength might prevent this crime from happening to someone else. Your bravery is breathtaking.”

Here is Biden’s letter in full:

An Open Letter to a Courageous Young Woman

I do not know your name — but your words are forever seared on my soul. Words that should be required reading for men and women of all ages.

Words that I wish with all of my heart you never had to write.

I am in awe of your courage for speaking out — for so clearly naming the wrongs that were done to you and so passionately asserting your equal claim to human dignity.

And I am filled with furious anger — both that this happened to you and that our culture is still so broken that you were ever put in the position of defending your own worth.

It must have been wrenching — to relive what he did to you all over again. But you did it anyway, in the hope that your strength might prevent this crime from happening to someone else. Your bravery is breathtaking.

You are a warrior — with a solid steel spine.

I do not know your name — but I know that a lot of people failed you that terrible January night and in the months that followed.

Anyone at that party who saw that you were incapacitated yet looked the other way and did not offer assistance. Anyone who dismissed what happened to you as “just another crazy night.” Anyone who asked “what did you expect would happen when you drank that much?” or thought you must have brought it on yourself.

You were failed by a culture on our college campuses where one in five women is sexually assaulted — year after year after year. A culture that promotes passivity. That encourages young men and women on campuses to simply turn a blind eye.

The statistics on college sexual assault haven’t gone down in the past two decades. It’s obscene, and it’s a failure that lies at all our feet.

And you were failed by anyone who dared to question this one clear and simple truth: Sex without consent is rape. Period. It is a crime.

I do not know your name — but thanks to you, I know that heroes ride bicycles.

Those two men who saw what was happening to you — who took it upon themselves to step in — they did what they instinctually knew to be right.

They did not say “It’s none of my business.”

They did not worry about the social or safety implications of intervening, or about what their peers might think.

Those two men epitomize what it means to be a responsible bystander.

To do otherwise — to see an assault about to take place and do nothing to intervene — makes you part of the problem.

Like I tell college students all over this country — it’s on us. All of us.

We all have a responsibility to stop the scourge of violence against women once and for all.

I do not know your name — but I see your unconquerable spirit.

I see the limitless potential of an incredibly talented young woman — full of possibility. I see the shoulders on which our dreams for the future rest.

I see you.

You will never be defined by what the defendant’s father callously termed “20 minutes of action.”

His son will be.

I join your global chorus of supporters, because we can never say enough to survivors: I believe you. It is not your fault.

What you endured is never, never, never, NEVER a woman’s fault.

And while the justice system has spoken in your particular case, the nation is not satisfied.

And that is why we will continue to speak out.

We will speak to change the culture on our college campuses — a culture that continues to ask the wrong questions: What were you wearing?

Why were you there? What did you say? How much did you drink?

Instead of asking: Why did he think he had license to rape?

We will speak out against those who seek to engage in plausible deniability. Those who know that this is happening, but don’t want to get involved. Who believe that this ugly crime is “complicated.”

We will speak of you — you who remain anonymous not only to protect your identity, but because you so eloquently represent “every woman.”

We will make lighthouses of ourselves, as you did — and shine.

Your story has already changed lives.

You have helped change the culture

You have shaken untold thousands out of the torpor and indifference towards sexual violence that allows this problem to continue.

Your words will help people you have never met and never will.

You have given them the strength they need to fight.

And so, I believe, you will save lives.

I do not know your name — but I will never forget you.

The millions who have been touched by your story will never forget you.

And if everyone who shared your letter on social media, or who had a private conversation in their own homes with their daughters and sons, draws upon the passion, the outrage, and the commitment they feel right now the next time there is a choice between intervening and walking away — then I believe you will have helped to change the world for the better.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomnamako/joe-biden-writes-an-open-letter-to-stanford-survivor?utm_term=.bkaB4olgE#.cqa2Gpza1

[Jolie Rouge]

http://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13407308_10209854882632218_4105934581570982561_n.j pg?oh=70f091e860434a5da4b232c88b18303e&oe=57C98769

This post has since been reported and has been removed by Facebook, but look at this.

If you do not believe that a rape culture persists in our society, please explain this to me.

[Jolie Rouge]

Dutch woman convicted in Qatar after reporting rape to police
Tourist sentenced for having sex outside marriage after being drugged and raped
about 8 hours ago

A 22-year-old Dutch holidaymaker has been convicted by a court in Qatar of having sex outside marriage after she reported to police that she’d been drugged and raped.

The woman, who has been named only as “Laura” from Utrecht, was given a one-year jail sentence suspended on condition that she doesn’t offend again during the next three years. She was also fined 3,000 Qatari riyals or about €750.

The court in the capital, Doha, also ordered on Monday that the woman be deported back to the Netherlands once her fine was paid.

Laura’s mother said she was delighted. “She’s been convicted but she’s coming home. That’s the most important thing now. I’m so relieved.”

Laura had been held since she first went to the police on March 14th, but her case only came to light at the weekend when her family decided to go public – alleging that nobody from the embassy had been to visit her for three weeks after she was detained.

Dutch reluctance

As a result, foreign minister Bert Koenders has been under pressure from MPs to make a statement explaining his department’s apparent reluctance to get involved. The assault allegedly took place after Laura went for an evening out at the Crystal Lounge in the Doha Hotel.

She said the next morning she woke up in a strange apartment and realised she’d been drugged first and later raped. She said she’d had flashbacks of leaving the hotel in a taxi with “an Arab man”.

That man turned out to be a Syrian national named Omar Abdullah al-Hassan, who afterwards claimed that the sex had been consensual but that there had been an argument following which Laura had gone to the authorities and falsely claimed she’d been raped.

Critics say the Dutch case raises questions about how Qatar will deal with the thousands of tourists planning to attend the 2022 World Cup.


http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/middle-east/dutch-woman-convicted-in-qatar-after-reporting-rape-to-police-1.2683297

[Jolie Rouge]

juror who served in the Brock Turner case had some strong words for Judge Aaron Persky: “Shame on you.”

The male juror, who chose to remain anonymous, recently sent a letter to Persky expressing his “shock” and disappointment at the judge’s “lenient” sentencing of Turner, the ex-Stanford swimmer convicted of sexual assault.

The letter was obtained and printed in full by Palo Alto Weekly. http://www.paloaltoonline.com/news/2016/06/13/brock-turner-juror-to-judge-shame-on-you

“After the guilty verdict I expected that this case would serve as a very strong deterrent to on-campus assaults, but with the ridiculously lenient sentence that Brock Turner received, I am afraid that it makes a mockery of the whole trial and the ability of the justice system to protect victims of assault and rape,” the letter read. “It seems to me that you really did not accept the jury’s findings. We were unanimous in our finding of the defendant’s guilt and our verdicts were marginalized based on your own personal opinion.”

In the letter to Persky, the unnamed juror in the Turner case slammed the judge for perpetuating a culture that fails to protect survivors of sexual assault.

“Justice has not been served in this case,” the juror wrote. “The jury’s verdict of guilt on all three felony counts of sexual assault was completely disregarded in an effort to spare the perpetrator a ‘hardship.’ What message does this send to Emily Doe, and indeed all victims of sexual assault and rape, especially those on college campuses? Your concern was for the impact on the assailant. I vehemently disagree, our concern should be for the victim.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/juror-brock-turner-aaron-persky_us_575fb31de4b0e4fe51439b00

[Jolie Rouge]

Uploaded: Mon, Jun 13, 2016, 2:28 pm

Brock Turner juror to judge: 'Shame on you'

Juror sends letter saying, 'Justice has not been served'

by Elena Kadvany / Palo Alto Weekly


"Absolutely shocked and appalled" -- that's the reaction of a juror in the Brock Turner sexual-assault case to the sentence handed down by Judge Aaron Persky on June 2. The male juror, speaking publicly for the first time, delivered a cutting letter to Persky on Saturday stating, "This punishment does not fit the crime."

This juror in the case of the former Stanford University student-athlete, who was found guilty on March 30 of three felony sexual-assault charges, provided the letter to the Palo Alto Weekly. He has requested to remain anonymous to protect his privacy. The Weekly met with the juror on Sunday to confirm his identity as a juror on the case by inspecting his court-issued attendance certificate. He is the only one of the 12 jurors to make a public statement about the case.

"After the guilty verdict I expected that this case would serve as a very strong deterrent to on-campus assaults, but with the ridiculously lenient sentence that Brock Turner received, I am afraid that it makes a mockery of the whole trial and the ability of the justice system to protect victims of assault and rape," the juror wrote to Persky. "Clearly there are few to no consequences for a rapist even if they are caught in the act of assaulting a defenseless, unconscious person."

"It seems to me that you really did not accept the jury's findings. We were unanimous in our finding of the defendant's guilt and our verdicts were marginalized based on your own personal opinion," the letter said.

The juror told the Weekly in an interview that he was surprised by Persky's sentence — six months in county jail (which could be reduced to three under normal county practices) and three years' probation — and considered it an affront to the jury.

"To be honest, I felt that the judge had just ignored much of what the jurors said," he told the Weekly.

Turner, now 20, was a freshman at Stanford and All-American swimmer on Jan. 18, 2015, when two graduate students found him on top of an unresponsive, partly dressed young woman lying behind a Dumpster outside a fraternity house on campus. Turner testified during the trial that the woman had verbally, willingly consented to the sexual activity, while witnesses -- the graduate students, law enforcement officers and emergency responders -- said that she was unresponsive.

Persky explained at the sentencing that his decision to impose a lighter sentence than the prosecution had asked for stemmed from positive character letters written on behalf of Turner from his family members and friends, Turner's lack of a prior record and the fact that he was intoxicated at the time of the assault.

The juror, however, said he did not find Turner credible because his story "seemed to change quite a bit."

Evidence that was not introduced during the trial but that was released by the county last week — such as text messages and photos indicating repeated drug use, in contrast to Turner's claims that he was new to the college drinking culture when he arrived at Stanford — further underscored Turner's lack of credibility, the juror said.

"I think it raises into question his testimony," he said.

One of the most compelling pieces of evidence presented during the trial, in this juror's eyes, was the fact that Turner ran away after two Stanford graduate students noticed him on top of an unmoving woman and asked loudly, "What the f— are you doing?" Both of those students testified during the trial that they chased Turner, one tackling him to the ground and holding him until the police arrived.

Another was an incoherent voicemail the woman in the case, Emily Doe (whose name has been changed to protect her privacy), left her boyfriend just minutes before meeting Turner at the campus fraternity party. The prosecution played the voicemail in court to illustrate her state of intoxication at the time and to argue that Turner should have reasonably known she was not able to give consent. In it, Doe is almost entirely incomprehensible, her words slow and slurred.

"We looked at the whole weight of the evidence, but I think those (pieces of evidence) were particularly impactful," he said.

He also commented on the 12-page letter Doe wrote to Persky, which she read in part at the June 2 sentencing and which has since drawn international attention.

"I think it was very powerful. It exemplified the impact it had on her," he said, referring to both the assault and criminal proceedings.

Persky, who has served on the bench since former Gov. Gray Davis appointed him in 2003, is now facing a recall campaign and a national debate among legal experts on whether removal of a judge is an appropriate response.

The juror, who said he had recently become an American citizen after living in the country for more than 30 years, said he does not know enough about the recall process to say whether he supports it but noted he's seen in news reports that Persky is already facing backlash in the courtroom. Last week, during jury selection for a misdemeanor stolen property case, several prospective jurors refused to serve with Persky as the judge.

"This was my first experience as a juror, and frankly I am disappointed," the juror wrote Persky.

The juror declined to answer any questions about jury deliberations. (After a trial ends, jurors are free under California law to discuss the case and deliberations with anyone, including the media, if they choose to do so.)

Like others across the country, the juror worried that Persky's "lenient sentence" will not act as a deterrent for other perpetrators of sexual violence and "will make these victims less willing to report their attacks."

"The jury's verdict of guilt on all three felony counts of sexual assault was completely disregarded in an effort to spare the perpetrator a 'hardship,'" he wrote to Persky. "What message does this send to Emily Doe, and indeed all victims of sexual assault and rape, especially those on college campuses?"

Read his letter in full below.

[Jolie Rouge]

———

To Judge Aaron Persky:

I was a juror in the Brock Turner trial. I have to be honest and say that I was not happy that I was selected for the jury given my work responsibilities, but once I was in the box, I took my civic responsibility very seriously.

Personally I have absolutely no doubt that Mr. Turner is guilty as charged and as convicted on all three counts. The predominantly male jury reached consensus of guilt on all three counts within two days of deliberation. In light of that quick and decisive finding, I was absolutely shocked and appalled when I heard on June 2 about the minimal sentence you announced that Mr. Turner would serve for this crime. After the guilty verdict I expected that this case would serve as a very strong deterrent to on-campus assaults but with the ridiculously lenient sentence that Brock Turner received, I am afraid that it makes a mockery of the whole trial and the ability of the justice system to protect victims of assault and rape. Clearly there are few to no consequences for a rapist even if they are caught in the act of assaulting a defenseless, unconscious person.

I recently became an American citizen after being in the country for over 30 years. This was my first experience as a juror and frankly I am disappointed.

Although I wasn't in the court for the sentencing, you were reported as having said:

"A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him ... I think he will not be a danger to others."

Isn't that the point ... a sentence should have a severe impact on Mr. Turner just as the event for which he has never expressed sorrow or regret has had on Ms. Doe. Also, given Mr. Turner's complete lack of credibility, I certainly would not assume that he will not be of danger to others. Witnesses describe his predatory behavior both the evening of the assault and on at least one other previous occasion, which is evidence of a pattern of dangerous behavior.

It was also reported that you acknowledged the difficulty of trying to balance the jury's guilty verdict with your belief in the events as Mr. Turner described them. A jury of 12 people found Mr. Turner guilty of three charges, but you, despite the information that came to light during the trial and the subsequent sentencing memos filed by both sides, chose to disregard the jury's findings and other evidence and believe the defendant's self-serving version of events. And you disregarded the findings that he had lied about prior alcohol and drug use in high school. You chose to find the defendant credible on the basis of irrelevant character witness testimony; I find that impossible to understand.

During the sentencing, you said, "The trial is a search for the truth. It's an imperfect process. But after the trial all sides should accept the jury's findings." It seems to me that you really did not accept the jury's findings. We were unanimous in our finding of the defendant's guilt and our verdicts were marginalized based on your own personal opinion.

You had to justify that there were "unusual circumstances" to give Mr. Turner less than the two year minimum sentence for his crime. But the unfortunate fact is, these circumstances are not unusual. Women like Ms. Doe suffer daily from similar crimes and I fear your sentence will make these victims less willing to report their attacks.

This punishment does not fit the crime. Mr. Turner, convicted of 3 felony counts of sexual assault, will serve 3 months in county jail since he is scheduled to be released on September 2. And Mr. Turner is going to appeal the verdict, which not only is a complete waste of tax payers' money but could mean, if he gets off, that he will not even have to register as a sex offender. How unjust would that outcome be, the slate wiped clean for a 3-count convicted sex offender?!

Justice has not been served in this case. The jury's verdict of guilt on all three felony counts of sexual assault was completely disregarded in an effort to spare the perpetrator a 'hardship'. What message does this send to Emily Doe, and indeed all victims of sexual assault and rape, especially those on college campuses? Your concern was for the impact on the assailant. I vehemently disagree, our concern should be for the victim.

Shame on you.

A Concerned Juror

[Jolie Rouge]

Former Student Charged With Two College Rapes Gets Probation After Plea Agreement
Ronn Blitzer 8 hrs ago

A man who was charged with raping two women while at Indiana University was sentenced to probation after spending one day in jail, WXIN reported. http://fox59.com/2016/06/24/former-iu-student-charged-in-2-rape-cases-takes-plea-deal-will-serve-1-year-of-probation/

John Enochs was accused of raping a woman at the Delta Tau Delta fraternity house on the Indiana University campus in April 2015. A woman had told police she had been raped but did not know her attacker. She said that he held her down even though she told him to stop more than once. She later managed to get away, but health workers found that she suffered injuries to her genitals. Security footage showed her enter a room with Enochs, and she left after 24 minutes, according to police.

While authorities looked into that case, they discovered a victim from another case from 2013, who identified Enochs as her attacker. After examining DNA evidence and hearing from witnesses, police arrested Enochs for that case as well.

In the end, however, Enochs only spent one day in jail, pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of battery with moderate bodily injury. Prosecutors dismissed both rape charges. Enochs was sentenced to probation on Thursday.

This comes soon after another college rape case resulted in a probation sentence, with Brock Turner being convicted of three sexual assault felonies with a sentence of six months in jail, followed by probation. The difference with this case, however, is that Enochs was not actually convicted of any sex crimes.

Prosecutors have not given details as to why they agreed to dismiss the rape charges, but according to ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/US/student-charged-rape-cases-accepts-plea-deal-serve/story?id=40137628 a statement issued on Enochs’ behalf maintains that he is innocent of those allegations. “As the Monroe County prosecutors’ office has acknowledged through their voluntary dismissal of the rape charges, John Enochs did not rape anyone and he should never have been charged with these offenses, ” the statement said. It also alleged that alcohol was part of what led to confusion, and the woman involved in the 2015 incident acknowledged she had been drinking on the night in question, ABC News reported.

Enochs’ statement blamed the lead investigator in the case for presenting “false and misleading evidence” and not “provid[ing] the Court with exculpatory evidence.”

On June 16, the woman, going by the name Jane Doe, filed a lawsuit against Indiana University and the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. The lawsuit makes claims under Title IX, saying that the school and the fraternity ignored Enochs’ history of sexual assault, citing the alleged 2013 incident.

You can read that lawsuit : Enochs Lawsuit by tom cleary https://www.scribd.com/doc/316790312/Enochs-Lawsuit