Her letter, which was read in court defending Brock Turner, sparked national outrage from people who said it perpetuated rape culture and blamed victims 
 
 A woman who blamed a Stanford University sexual assault victim for drinking too much alcohol has issued a defensive apology, marking the latest controversy surrounding an athlete who avoided prison time for attacking an unconscious woman. 
 
 Leslie Rasmussen, a childhood friend of former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner, who was convicted of three felonies, wrote a letter to the judge saying that the assault was “a huge misunderstanding”, Turner is “not a monster”, and that she thought it was unfair “to base the fate of the next ten + years of his life on the decision of a girl who doesn’t remember anything”. 
 
 Stanford sexual assault: dozens of letters to judge urge leniency for Brock Turner Read more 
 
 Her statement continued: “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.” The letter – a selection of which the judge read in court, saying it was a useful reference that highlighted Turner’s strong character – went viral this week, sparking national outrage from people who said it perpetuated rape culture and cast blame on victims. 
 
 In the wake of significant backlash, Northside Festival, a New York music showcase, announced Tuesday that it had dropped Rasmussen’s band from its lineup, and her group, Good English, has now released an apology from Rasmussen. 
 
 The 20-year-old’s letter of support for Turner was one of dozens submitted to the judge, Aaron Persky, who is facing a recall campaign for giving the defendant a light sentence. Although a jury determined, based on witness testimony, that Turner had sexually assaulted an unconscious woman outside a fraternity party on campus, Persky ordered a sentence of six months in county jail, instead of the minimum two years in prison prescribed by law. 
 
 In a statement Good English shared with the Guardian, Rasmussen said she wanted the judge to “consider the effect that alcohol played in this tragedy”, adding: 
 
 I understand that this appeal has now provided an opportunity for people to misconstrue my ideas into a distortion that suggests I sympathize with sex offenses and those who commit them or that I blame the victim involved. Nothing could be farther from the truth, and I apologize for anything my statement has done to suggest that I don’t feel enormous sympathy for the victim and her suffering … There is nothing more sad than the unnecessary, destructive and enormous toll that overuse, misuse and abuse of alcohol and drugs play in people’s lives, and I don’t think my effort to point this out in confidence to a judge while commenting on Brock Turner’s character, as the sober person I knew him to be, was an irresponsible or reckless decision. Unfortunately, due to the overzealous nature of social media and the lack of confidence and privacy in which my letter to the judge was held, I am now thrust into the public eye to defend my position on this matter in the court of public opinion. 
 
 Unlike her original letter, Rasmussen acknowledged the “enormous pain” of the victim and said Turner was “tried and rightfully convicted of sexual assault”. 
 
 The band – which posted the apology on Facebook and subsequently deleted the page – declined to comment further. 
 
 
 
 After publication of this article, Rasmussen posted a second apology on her personal Facebook page, saying it was wrong for her to make assumptions about what happened that night. 
 
 “Most importantly, I did not acknowledge strongly enough the severity of Brock’s crime and the suffering and pain that his victim endured, and for that lack of acknowledgement, I am deeply sorry. 
 
 I fully understand the outrage over Brock’s sentencing and my statement. I can only say that I am committed to learning from this mistake. I am 20 years old, and it has never been more clear to me that I still have much to learn.” 
 
 Rasmussen’s letter was part of the court record of character references Persky considered before sentencing, and activists and supporters of the victim said they were appalled that the judge, who is a former Stanford athlete, placed so much weight on the references and the impact the trial has had on Turner. 
 
 Michele Dauber, a Stanford law professor and family friend of the victim, said it was important that these letters be exposed considering that the judge used them to justify leniency. 
 
 “She says in the letter that rapists don’t cause rape. That’s ridiculous,” said Dauber, who posted an excerpt of Rasmussen’s letter on Twitter and is leading the recall campaign against the judge. “I’m shocked that the judge found that to be persuasive.” 
 
 Michele Dauber (@mldauber) #brockturner court probation report is fetid pond of victim-blaming rapeyness @thehuntinground @hodgman @brielarson pic.twitter.com/hygboyoV9q 
 
 Citing Rasmussen’s references to “being politically correct”, Dauber added, “If that’s what this judge thinks is a good argument, then I think we need to get that out in front of the voters.” 
 
 Dauber noted that the character witnesses participated in a “public process”, adding, “They wanted to help their friend, and it was very effective. He was not sentenced to prison.” 
 
 Turner’s own testimony blaming the assault on “party culture” and his father’s statement that his son is paying a steep price for “20 minutes of action” have also attracted widespread criticisms. 
 
 The judge has declined to comment while an appeal in the case is pending. 
 
 The case originally received international attention when the 23-year-old victim released a powerful statement about rape culture and the suffering she has endured throughout the process. 
 
 • Two quotes in this article were amended on 8 June at the request of Michele Dauber. ||||| Former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner, who was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on campus, exhibited concerning behavior before with other women, according to sentencing documents. 
 
 At a party the night the victim was sexually assaulted, a woman said Turner suddenly grabbed her and kissed her, the court documents show. The woman then turned and pushed him away, describing the interaction as "odd" because they had not talked much and there was no flirtation. 
 
 Later that night, Turner came back and tried to kiss her a second time as she was talking to a friend. He put his hands on her waist, and she "had to move away from him," the sentencing document said. 
 
 On June, 25 2015, detectives received information about two women who encountered Turner the weekend before the sexual assault took place. The woman attended a KA fraternity party on the weekend of Jan. 9, 2015, where one of the women was introduced to Turner. 
 
 The woman said Turner started dancing with her and described him as being “flirtatious” with her, according to sentencing court documents. After she began to feel uncomfortable and “turn her body away so that he would not be directly ‘behind’ her,” he became “touchy” and put his hands on her waist, stomach and upper thighs. 
 
 UIG via Getty Images 
 
 The woman said Turner "creeped" her out because of his persistence, the court document stated. 
 
 It is unclear why it took the women so long to report the incident to the police. 
 
 Turner was previously arrested in 2014, when a police officer saw him and a group of friends walking and drinking beers on campus. When the officer yelled, "Stop! Police!" the group ran away from him and continued running after he yelled it again. 
 
 One of the men who was detained identified Turner as one of his swim teammates whom he was drinking with when the detective first saw him. The detective then called Turner and asked him to return to the scene, and when he did, he was wearing a "bright orange tuxedo" and smelled of alcohol, the document said. He had a backpack with beers inside, as well as a beer in his hand, and admitted to trying to hide the beer because he was under age. 
 
 The prosecutors' sentencing document says it was "abundantly" clear that on the night of the sexual assault, Turner was "on the prowl" and attempted to "hook up" with women who were strangers to him. The sexual assault came one week after he was similarly aggressive with another female, at a different fraternity party, at the same location, the document said. 
 
 The document stated that Turner is still in denial about his criminal culpability and that he violated the victim's body and her right to choose with whom she engages in sexual activity, the document states. In his statement to probation he seems to regret his choice, not because it caused a woman to be sexually assaulted, but because it has greatly affected his life as though he is the "victim" of "peer pressure," the document states. 
 
 In the early morning hours of Jan. 18, after Brock was arrested, police observed a text message sent to Turner in the “Group Me” application that said “Who’s t*** are those?” Police obtained a search warrant for Turner’s phone but were unable to locate that text or any photos relating to that text, according to the documents. 
 
 The search of Turner’s phone “shed some light” into his behavior and character during the time period relating to the sexual assault and in the year prior to when he began attendance at Stanford, according to the sentencing document. 
 
 Prosecutors said there was evidence indicating Turner engaged in “excessive drinking and using drugs,” including a photo of him smoking from a pipe, a close-up photo of a bong, another photo of one of Turner’s swim teammates with a bong in his hand and a December 2014 video showing turner smoking from a bong and drinking out of a bottle of liquor. 
 
 Several text messages indicative of drug use during Turner’s time at Stanford and when he was still in high school in Ohio were also found on his phone, according to the sentencing document, and the texts contained several references to smoking, buying and sharing “weed” from as early as April 2014, as well as references to doing acid or trying to find a “hook up.” 
 
 The document also stated that Turner lied about ever using illicit drugs in his statement to probation and appeared to make it seem as though his first time drinking was at a swim party when he first got to Stanford. Prosecutors also said he also lied about that there was some sort of “flirtation” between the woman he kissed abruptly at the frat party. 
 
 The judge who oversaw Turner’s case has been receiving abusive and threatening phone calls after his six-month sentence caused a media frenzy, said Santa Clara Public Defender Gary Goodman. ||||| Stanford rapist Brock Turner sent a photo of his victim's breasts to friends after the attack outside a frat house party. 
 
 Court documents seen by Daily Mail Online reveal that the disgraced athlete was sent a text via a group messaging app shortly after his arrest that read: 'Whos tit is that'. 
 
 The message, which arrived through the GroupMe app, was sent by Stanford swimmer Justin Buck, originally of Aberdeen, UK. 
 
 Detectives were unable to access the photo sent by Turner. Pictures sent on it can be deleted by third parties. It is unclear who deleted the photograph. 
 
 Buck, 21, was raised in Clearwater, Florida, and is currently working as an investment banking summer analyst' at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in San Francisco. 
 
 Scroll down for video 
 
 Suspicious message: Detectives saw the message about a 'tit' on Turner's phone shortly after his arrest. They could not find an original picture and believe that it was deleted by another member of the group 
 
 Turner (left and right) was convicted of taking the victim from a frat party, partially stripping her, digitally penetrating her, and then dry-humping her unconscious body behind some dumpsters 
 
 Cover-up? Prosecutors say police believe another member of the group chat deleted the image 
 
 Asking the question: Fellow Stanford swimmer Justin Buck was the member of the group chat who sent the message about the 'tit' which led police to believe Turner photographed his victim 
 
 Friend: Justin Buck was one of the group which received am image which prompted him to write about a 'tit' 
 
 He is due to graduate from Stanford with a major in economics next summer. 
 
 Unlike other swim team friends of Turner, among them Israeli Olympic hopeful Tom Kremer, of Los Altos Hills, California, Buck did not send a letter of support to Judge Aaron Persky. 
 
 The reference to the message appears in the People's Sentencing Memorandum, which was prepared by prosecutor Alaleh Kianierci. 
 
 Part of a section on cell phone extraction, which also covers the messages exchanged by Turner and his high school friends about drug taking, it reads: 
 
 'Shortly after the Defendant's arrest in the early morning hours of January 18 2015, Detectives noticed a text message in the 'Group Me' application that appeared on the Defendant's phone. 
 
 'It stated: 'Who's tits are those?' [sic]. A search warrant for the Defendant's phone was obtained and it was searched by the Santa Clara County crime lab. 
 
 'Detectives were unable to locate the text from the 'Group Me' application or any photos related to that text. 
 
 'However, they learned that when there is a third party application, the images are not stored in the phone and can be deleted by a third party member in the group.' 
 
 It is unclear who was a member of the group beyond Buck and Turner. 
 
 Blake Bolton, a witness who was visiting Stanford on the weekend of the sex attack, later told police that he had seen a man standing over the victim with a phone. 
 
 In his statement to cops, Bolton said 'the male subject was standing over her with a cell phone. The cell phone had a bright light pointed in the direction of the female, using either a flashlight app in his phone or its built-in app. 
 
 'He approached the subject and asked if everything was okay. The male subject did not say anything to Bolton. 
 
 'He told the male subject to roll her over onto her side to breathe. The male subject did not do this. Bolton then got on his knees and checked her pulse. 
 
 'When he got back up, the male subject was gone.' 
 
 The police report also notes that a silver iPhone was found close to the victim, with its blue cover lying discarded close by. 
 
 Turner's phone records have come under scrutiny in recent days, with copies of his text exchanges and photographs of him smoking a hash pipe stored on the device submitted to Judge Persky prior to sentencing. 
 
 The 20-year-old, of Dayton, Ohio, repeatedly claimed to be a stranger to drugs and alcohol prior to arriving at Stanford but his lies were exposed through a series of messages referencing marijuana, LSD and MDMA – the powdered form of club drug ecstasy. 
 
 They also revealed that Turner is fond of using the racial slur 'n****' – repeatedly sending text messages containing the word to his high school friend, Brock Alderton. 
 
 Last week, Turner was sentenced to six months in Elmwood Jail, in Milpitas, California, where the majority of the 3500 inmates are housed in military barracks and tents. 
 
 Instant messaging: Buck and Turner were using GroupMe, an instant messaging app which allows anyone in the group to delete the picture. 
 
 Drug interest: How prosecutors rubbished Turner's claims that he had been an innocent young man and stranger to drugs until he arrived at Stanford 
 
 Prosecutor: Alaleh Kianerci sent the file detailing his drug use to the 
 
 However, this website learned that the convicted rapist is being kept away from the general prison population and enjoys a cell to himself. 
 
 Daily Mail Online also discovered that Turner is set to serve just half of his six-month sentence and will be released on September 2. 
 
 He has also applied to serve his three-year probation term in Ohio rather than California. 
 
 Turner was convicted of raping a 23-year-old woman outside a Stanford frat party in March, attacking his victim while she was unconscious. 
 
 Despite Turner's claims that she 'appeared satisfied' with the sexual contact and agreed to it by saying 'yeah' when asked, witnesses said she was totally unresponsive. 
 
 An examination on the night of the attack also revealed that Turner 'fingered' the victim so roughly, her vagina was left covered in lacerations. 
 
 When accosted by Swedish graduate students Peter Jonsson and Carl-Frederik Arndt, Turner attempted to flee the scene but was tackled by Jonsson and held until the police arrived. 
 
 Court documents seen by this website also reveal that the incident was not the first time Turner had behaved in an aggressive manner towards women. 
 
 The previous weekend, Turner had approached two women at another party at the Kappa Alpha frat house – and left them 'creeped out' by his behavior. 
 
 Evidence: Court documents reveal a picture of Turner with what appears to be a hash pipe. The picture was seized from his mobile phone records 
 
 Obsessed: Just some of the texts in which Brock and his friends spoke about drugs repeatedly. He asked 'do y'all n****s have marijuana' on 22 August - slightly less than a month before enrolling at Stanford 
 
 Friend: Brock Alderton, a high school friend of Turner, exchanged messages about drugs with him 
 
 In a statement made to detectives on June 25 2015, Stanford student Allison Harman and Kelly Moran, who was visiting her, said they had encountered Turner at a bash on January 9. 
 
 'While on campus, they attended a party at the Kappa Alpha fraternity where Ms Moran was introduced to the Defendant,' the report reads. 
 
 'She described the Defendant as living in the same dormitory as Ms Harman and said they had mutual friends but were not close. 
 
 'She stated that during the party, she and Ms Harman were dancing on a table and the Defendant followed them onto the table. 
 
 'She described the Defendant as being flirtatious. He put his hat on her and she took it off. He then started to dance behind her and tried to turn her around to face him. 
 
 'She felt uncomfortable and tried to turn her body away so he would not be directly behind her. He became really 'touchy' and put his hands on her waist and stomach. 
 
 'He even put his hands on her upper thighs. She felt more and more uncomfortable and got down off the table. 
 
 'She said the Defendant 'creeped' her out because of his persistence.' 
 
 The sister of Turner's victim also reported a similar experience, telling police that he had attempted to kiss her and acted aggressively on the night of the rape. 
 
 Turner had claimed to have been talking with and kissing the victim herself – a statement later derided as 'lies' by prosecutor Alaleh Kianierci. 
 
 Writing in a sentencing memo to Judge Persky, she added: 'Despite his lies that there was some sort of 'flirtation' between himself and [the victim's sister] both at trial and in his statement to probation, it was abundantly clear from Jane Doe 2's [the victim's sister] testimony that she was caught completely off guard by his multiple attempts to kiss her that night. 
 
 'She even had to get away from him after he grabbed her waist, and she alerted her friend Colleen to his behavior.' 
 
 She concluded: 'Even though he was twice rejected by [the victim's sister], he felt it was acceptable to pursue [the victim] later that night when she was alone and inebriated.
– More aftermath following the conviction of Stanford swimmer Brock Turner on sexual assault charges, including new allegations of previous troubling behavior he showed toward women—with prosecutors noting he was "on the prowl" the night of the attack and was still in denial as of his sentencing that his actions were criminal, ABC News reports. Per sentencing documents, a woman at a party the same night Turner attacked his victim alleges he became sexually aggressive toward her, grabbing her and kissing her, without encouragement. And in June 2015, investigators got wind about two other women who ran into Turner at a frat party the weekend before the January assault. One said he was "flirtatious" while dancing, and that when she began to feel "creeped out" and tried to turn away, he became "touchy." Meanwhile, a Turner supporter facing backlash for calling out the victim's drinking issued a "defensive apology" to the Guardian Wednesday. In her statement, Leslie Rasmussen says people "misconstrued" her defense of Turner into meaning she didn't feel for the victim, a "distortion" she blames on the "overzealous nature of social media" and, per the New York Times, the fact that she mistakenly thought her court letter would be kept private. "I apologize for anything my statement has done to suggest that I don't feel enormous sympathy for the victim and her suffering," she said. The Guardian notes that after its own article was posted with her apology, she wrote a follow-up on Facebook. "I was not there that night. I had no right to make any assumptions about the situation," she wrote Wednesday evening. "Most importantly, I did not acknowledge strongly enough the severity of Brock's crime and the suffering and pain that his victim endured, and for that lack of acknowledgement, I am deeply sorry." She adds that, at the age of 20, "it has never been more clear to me that I still have much to learn." (New York explains why Turner isn't "technically" a convicted rapist.)