Stanford Sex Assault Presiding Judge Aaron Persky Goes On Early Vacation
PALO ALTO (CBS SF) -- The judge who presided over the Stanford sexual assault case started his vacation early this year, amid controversy surrounding the assailant's sentence.
Aaron Persky took the rest of this week off.
His early departure came after the Santa Clara District Attorney asked for a different judge to preside over a separate sexual assault case. Perksy was removed from the new case and another judge has been assigned.
Persky is receiving intense criticism from around the country for sentencing convicted sex offender Brock Allen Turner to six months in county jail.
What many don't know is that he was following someone else's recommendation.
The criticism and scrutiny of Judge Persky's sentence has been unrelenting but the probation report which informed and echoed his decision has received far less attention.
KPIX 5 legal analyst and former judge, LaDoris Cordell said the probation officer is supposed to impartially weigh all of the facts of a case before making their recommendation.
In the Turner case the probation officer considered the defendant's "lack of a criminal history, his youthful age, and his expressed remorse and empathy for the victim" before recommending he serve his time in county jail and on probation.
The victim in the case disagreed with the probation report, penning a powerful victim impact statement which was read by millions after it was published online.
In it she says a light sentence would make "a mockery of the seriousness of his assaults."
Cordell says that in the end, Persky wasn't bound by the report's recommendations and that the sentence and the fallout from it are rightly his.
