2 legal leaders say commission was not the right way to challenge Persky

Two legal leaders who criticized a judge's six-month sentence in a Stanford swimmer's sexual assault case said today they still consider the penalty "far too lenient," but said a state judicial commission was not the right place to challenge the judge.
   
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen and Stanford University law professor Michele Dauber made their comments after the California Commission on Judicial Performance cleared Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky of misconduct allegations.
   
The San Francisco-based commission, which investigates complaints of judicial misconduct, announced today that it found no evidence of bias or abuse of authority by Persky and was closing its probe of him.
   
Persky was widely criticized after meting out a six-month sentence to former Stanford swim team member Brock Turner, now 21, for three felony convictions in a 2015 sexual assault on a woman who was unconscious from intoxication.
   
The agency said the sentence was in keeping with a probation office recommendation and "was within the parameters set by law and was therefore within the judge's discretion."
   
Rosen, whose staff prosecuted Turner and sought a six-year prison sentence, said, "Like so many, I believe that Judge Persky's sentence for
Brock Turner was far too lenient."
   
"While his decision was extremely disappointing, he had the lawful discretion to give it. Thus, we neither appealed the sentence nor did we make a complaint to the commission," Rosen said.
   
Instead, Rosen said, he and local legislators supported a new law enacted this fall that requires people convicted of sexual assault on an unconscious person to spend at least three years in prison.
   
Dauber, who is leading a recall effort against Persky, said she and recall campaign colleagues "strongly disagree" with the commission's conclusion that Persky is not biased against female victims of sexual violence and in favor of white male perpetrators.
   
But she said she believes that a recall, rather than complaints to the commission, is the best way to remove Persky from the bench.
   
"This report simply highlights what we have been saying from the beginning, which is that a petition for judicial discipline was not the correct venue to address these concerns, and the recall is the only realistic way to remove Judge Persky from office," Dauber said.
   
"We will continue to proceed with the recall election as it is important for Santa Clara County voters to decide whether Judge Persky should remain on the bench," Dauber said.
   
If the campaign gathers the approximately 80,000 signatures needed, Persky would be on the county ballot in November 2017.
   
Ultraviolet, a women's advocacy group, said they were "deeply disappointed" by the commission's conclusion that Persky was not biased.
   
Ultraviolet charged that the commission's and Persky's decisions are "yet another an example of our national rape culture epidemic at work."
   
The group said it submitted more than 1 million signatures to the agency on petitions for a probe of Persky.
   
The commission investigates complaints of misconduct such as bias or abuse of authority and can impose punishments ranging from censure to removal from office. It does not function as an appeals court with the power to overturn rulings or sentences.
   
Persky's lawyer, Kathleen Ewins, said, "It is clear that the commission carefully examined the facts and factors Judge Persky considered in sentencing Brock Turner before concluding he engaged in no ethical wrongdoing."
   
"Rather, the commission recognized that he made a reasoned, but unpopular, decision," Ewins said in a statement.
   
The attorney noted that the commission cited the California Code of Judicial Ethics' precept that an independent judiciary "is indispensable to justice in our society."
   
Turner, of Dayton, Ohio, was convicted by a jury in March of assault with intent to commit rape, sexual penetration of an intoxicated person with a foreign object - namely, his finger, and sexual penetration of an unconscious person with a foreign object.
   
The assault, on the ground outside a fraternity party early in the morning of Jan. 18, 2015, was halted by two Swedish graduate students who were bicycling by and saw Turner on top of the unconscious woman.
   
Turner withdrew from Stanford shortly after his arrest.
   
He was released from jail for good behavior after serving about three months of his six-month sentence. Persky also sentenced him to three years of probation. Turner is also subject to lifetime registration as a sex offender.