Prospective jurors protest Brock Turner sentencing judge

PALO ALTO, Calif. (KTVU) - There is more fallout from the controversial jail sentence given to former Stanford swimmer, Brock Turner, for his sexual assault conviction.

Several potential jurors have refused to serve on a jury in Santa Clara County in an un-related case in which Judge Aaron Persky is presiding. 

The Bay Area News Group reports that number is at least 10 prospective jurors who oppose the sentence, consider it far too lenient, and are refusing to serve on a jury in the separate case. 

Jackie Castro of Sunnyvale said she received a jury summons notice a month ago. She showed up to the courthouse on Wednesday to report for jury duty, but had no idea it would be inside Persky’s courtroom.

“It wasn’t until they said to please rise for the Honorable Judge Aaron Persky that I realized that I was in his courthouse,” she said.

Castro said it wasn’t long before Persky told potential jurors that he was recently part of a high-profile case.

“He said if there’s anybody in the jury that had any feelings toward him to please raise their hand so that’s when I did it,” Castro said. “It was just his tone, just the way he talked about it like it was nothing. That’s what really got to me and got to a lot of the other jurors to want to speak their mind.”

The 19-year-old said she and four other people were required to give a reason for raising their hand. She said she told Persky she didn’t feel comfortable being in front of a judge who she thought favored Turner instead of the victim in the un-related case. She told Persky he made her blood boil.

“The fact that a judge decided to give the defendant, who is a rapist, more feelings toward him and wanted him to be OK and not the victim herself, that’s what made me speak out the most,” Castro said.

Persky reportedly remained calm, thanked the potential jurors and dismissed them.

Castro said she was so focused on Persky being on the bench, rather than the case she was supposed to be there for.

“I was just more into the fact that it was him and he was in that courtroom, still doing his thing and nothing has happened to him,” she added.

Calls to a spokesperson for the Superior Court of California in Santa Clara County were not immediately returned.

Meanwhile, advocates for women's rights are delivering nearly a million signatures on Friday, to the California Commission on Judicial Performance, demanding that Judge Persky be removed from the bench.