SAN JOSE — After vowing for the past year to recall the Santa Clara County judge who gave a lenient sentence to former Stanford athlete Brock Turner for sexually assaulting an unconscious, intoxicated woman, organizers Monday made their pledge official. 
 
 About 35 people gathered as the campaign filed a notice of intent to recall Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky with the county registrar of voters, some holding signs with slogans such as “Soon to be unemployed. Aaron Persky” and “Recall Aaron Persky. Enough is enough.” 
 
 The campaign also submitted a scathing 198-word statement branding the judge as an apologist for rapists and batterers. 
 
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 Judicial commission backs Judge Persky in Brock Turner sentence If the statement is approved by the county registrar of voters, it will appear — along with a response by Persky — on petitions that proponents plan to begin circulating in August. 
 
 Recall proponents must collect 58,634 valid voter signatures within a 160-day period ending in January to qualify the measure for the June 2018 countywide ballot. The campaign, spearheaded by Stanford law professor Michele Dauber, has already hired a firm to help collect signatures. Dauber is a friend of the victim’s family and a longtime activist against campus sexual assault. 
 
 The judge, who has not commented on the uproar over the Turner sentence, could not immediately be reached Monday. 
 
 But a key supporter, District Attorney Jeff Rosen, noted Monday that the case has already had a significant impact, including his successful effort to get a state law passed requiring a prison term for sexual assault of an unconscious or intoxicated person. Rosen said he has also tried to raise national awareness by organizing a campus sexual assault symposium and crafting a ground-breaking protocol on how colleges and law enforcement handle such assaults. 
 
 “Judge Persky’s sentence in that case was wrong, in my opinion, but he had the right to give it,” Rosen said in a written statement. “My focus as we move forward is less about an individual judge than it is to the victims of campus sexual assault.” 
 
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 According to the statement signed by 50 elected officials, Stanford professors and leaders of women’s rights groups, including San Jose Vice Mayor Magdelena Carrasco, “Santa Clara County residents deserve a judge who will protect victims — not rapists,” the statement says. It also claims that Persky, “a former Stanford athlete, has a long history of awarding lenient sentences to athletes and upper-class defendants for sex crimes and violence against women.” 
 
 Persky was transferred to civil court at his own request last summer. But recall proponents note he still could potentially preside over civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault. 
 
 Other signatories included Jillian McNerney, co-founder of Electing Women Silicon Valley; San Jose City Councilman and former police officer Raul Peralez; Palo Alto Councilman Cory Wolbach; and Viera Whye, artistic director of San Jose’s Tabia African American Theater Ensemble. 
 
 The judge now has seven days to submit his up to 198-word response. 
 
 Monday night, a committee fighting the recall released a statement in support of Persky. 
 
 “Recalling a longtime respected judge and former prosecutor over a single decision in which he followed the Santa Clara County Probation Department’s recommendation sets a dangerous precedent that should concern us all,” read the statement from Retain Judge Persky. “Every judge has made an unpopular decision; judicial recalls are an extreme step that should be reserved for actual misconduct. 
 
 “Recall proponents’ claims of Judge Persky’s bias are completely unfounded and unfortunately reflect these unsettling times when judges are more and more frequently coming under political attack.” 
 
 Turner was convicted in June of sexually assaulting an intoxicated, unconscious young woman in 2015 outside a campus fraternity party, after two cyclists caught him in the act. 
 
 Prosecutors asked Persky to sentence Turner to six years in state prison. But Persky, who followed a probation department recommendation in handing down Turner’s sentence last June, opted for jail, plus three years of probation, noting under California law Turner also will have to register as sex offender for the rest of his life. Turner served three months in jail and has moved back to his hometown in Ohio. 
 
 Katherine Spillar, co-founder of the Feminist Majority and executive editor of Ms. magazine, told the crowd at the registrar of voters’ office that county residents not only have the right to recall Persky, “They have a duty” to send a message to the “entire justice system” across the country, she said. 
 
 “Silicon Valley is where women are going to say enough is enough,” Spillar said. 
 
 Civil rights leader and former Santa Clara County Superior Judge LaDoris Cordell disagrees with the sentence, but opposes the recall. 
 
 “Without discretion, we are left with cookie cutter justice that imposes mandatory sentences without any regard to defendants’ circumstances,” she said. “We’ve been there before, and the results are far more damaging than the occasional ill-advised sentence.” 
 
 If the recall qualifies, voters also will have a chance on the same ballot to immediately pick his replacement, just as they did when they ousted Gov. Gray Davis in 2003 and chose Arnold Schwarzenegger to replace him out of 134 other candidates. 
 
 Any lawyer in California may run for judge; there is no requirement in judicial races that candidates must live in the county. 
 
 If the recall qualifies and Persky loses, whoever gets the most votes would serve out the rest of Persky’s six-year term, ending in 2022. The winner needs only a plurality of the votes, not a majority. 
 
 So far, only one candidate is weighing whether to run for Persky’s seat has surfaced: assistant district attorney Cindy Hendrickson, an executive in Rosen’s administration. Hendrickson supports the recall. 
 
 Dauber said Monday that proponents have raised $450,000. By the end of 2016, Persky had raised $64,618, according to his latest campaign finance report. The next statement is not due until midsummer. 
 
 Two judges have been recalled in California, in San Francisco in 1913 and Los Angeles in 1932. The first judge had reduced bail for felony assault of a teenage girl. 
 
 Dauber predicted the campaign’s biggest challenge would be managing what she said has already been a huge outpouring of support and offers by volunteers to collect signatures. 
 
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 Persky’s backers include dozens of law school professors in California, including UC Irvine’s Erwin Chemerinsky and Santa Clara University’s Gerald Uelmen. 
 
 The professors, including 11 who teach at Stanford, are opposed to the proposed recall on the grounds that the sentence was lawful and dovetailed with a probation officer’s recommendation. 
 
 Persky’s ouster, they wrote, would cause great harm, because judges may well feel pressured into making decisions based on public opinion. Other groups, including the California Judges Association, have issued similar statements expressing concern about judicial independence. 
 
 County officials are still conducting research but have said it would cost slightly more than $1.1 million to put the recall on the June 5, 2018, ballot, far less than the $6.8 million cost of holding a special countywide election in November. 
 
 However, recall proponents believe it would cost half that, and are still negotiating with the county on the issue. ||||| Activists in Northern California launched a campaign to recall a judge for what they say is a pattern of lenient sentences for sex crime convictions, including the punishment in the well-publicized Brock Turner case. 
 
 The group said Monday that it filed a notice of intent at the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters to begin collecting signatures to remove Judge Aaron Persky. 
 
 Organizers hope to get the recall on the June 2018 ballot. 
 
 “Santa Clara residents deserve a judge who will protect victims, not rapists,” said Stanford law professor Michele Dauber, who is leading the campaign. She and other activists made remarks to reporters on Monday. 
 
 Persky sentenced the Stanford University swimmer to six months in jail after he was found guilty of three felony sex crimes for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in 2015. 
 
 The judge cited his young age and his lack of criminal record as reasons for the lenient sentence. Turner, now in his early 20s, was released after three months but must register as a sex offender for life. 
 
 Widespread outrage over the sentence 
 
 The incident and the judge’s sentence spawned national outrage. The woman Turner sexually assaulted read a letter to him in court about how the incident affected her mental health. 
 
 Persky faced widespread criticism for the sentence, and more than 1.3 million people signed a Change.org petition calling for his removal from the bench. 
 
 California legislators passed a bill mandating prison sentences for people who sexually assault unconscious or intoxicated victims. 
 
 “The campaign believes that Judge Aaron Persky has a long pattern of bias in cases involving sex crimes, and violence against women in favor of white or privileged defendants, particularly college athletes,” the group said in a news release. 
 
 “The judge’s bias came to light after he sentenced Brock Turner,” the Recall Persky Campaign said. “Thanks to Judge Persky, Turner was released after only three months in county jail.” 
 
 Several dozen community leaders are part of the campaign, including politicians, academics and women’s rights activists. 
 
 Commission weighed in 
 
 In December, the Commission on Judicial Performance, an independent state body, reviewed thousands of complaints about Persky from people who said he abused his judicial authority. 
 
 But the panel said “there is not clear and convincing evidence of bias, abuse of authority” or other reasons “to conclude that Judge Persky engaged in judicial misconduct warranting discipline. 
 
 “Accordingly, the participating commission members voted unanimously to close, without discipline, its preliminary investigation of the complaints against the judge regarding his sentencing decision in the Turner case,” the commission said. 
 
 Amid the furor, Persky recused himself from a child pornography case and stepped down from criminal to civil court. 
 
 A source familiar with the judge’s thinking said Persky wanted to step aside in part because he didn’t want cases before him to receive unfair and unwarranted national attention. ||||| Stanford law professor leads campaign against judge who gave six months to the former Stanford swimmer who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman 
 
 The victim of a sexual assault by a former Stanford University swimmer said on Monday she was “overwhelmed and speechless” at the deluge of support for her as the judge who gave her attacker a light sentence faced a recall campaign. 
 
 Brock Allen Turner, 20, who was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on campus, was sentenced to six months in county jail and probation – a punishment that is significantly less severe than the minimum prison time of two years prescribed by state law for his felony offenses. 
 
 The light sentencing, along with comments from Turner’s father, who said his son is paying a “steep price” for “20 minutes of action”, have sparked global consternation. 
 
 Brock Turner. Photograph: Santa Clara County sheriff's department 
 
 In a brief phone interview with the Guardian on Monday, the victim, whose emotional testimony has since gone viral, said the positive responses to her statement have been moving. “I’m worried that my heart is going to grow too big for my chest,” she said. “I’ve just been overwhelmed and speechless.” 
 
 The Guardian can also reveal that the judge who gave the former Stanford athlete the light sentence will now face a recall campaign led by a law professor at the elite university who argues the jurist took extraordinary measures to allow the student to avoid prison. 
 
 
 
 Further scrutiny on the judge’s remarks at sentencing appear to suggest he concluded the defendant had “less moral culpability” because he was drunk, and that a light sentence would be an “antidote” to the anxiety he had suffered from intense media attention on the case. 
 
 Michele Landis Dauber, a Stanford law professor who has been outspoken about sexual assault policies on campus, said she is launching the recall campaign against Aaron Persky, Santa Clara County superior court judge. 
 
 Persky, a Stanford alumnus, was captain of the lacrosse team when he was an undergraduate. 
 
 “He has made women at Stanford and across California less safe,” said Dauber, who attended the sentencing hearing and is also a family friend of the 23-year-old victim. “The judge bent over backwards in order to make an exception … and the message to women and students is ‘you’re on your own,’ and the message to potential perpetrators is, ‘I’ve got your back.’” 
 
 Turner, who is from Dayton, Ohio, was arrested on the Palo Alto campus on 18 January 2015 after two graduate students found him lying on top of the unconscious victim behind a dumpster outside of a fraternity party. 
 
 The woman, who was not a Stanford student, was partially clothed, had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit, and did not remember the assault when she awoke hours later. 
 
 The witnesses, who intervened and held Turner until police arrived, said they saw him “thrusting” on top of the motionless woman, and a jury ultimately convicted him of assault with intent to rape an intoxicated woman and sexually penetrating an intoxicated and unconscious person with a foreign object. 
 
 There is less moral culpability attached to the defendant who is … intoxicated Judge Aaron Persky 
 
 The case attracted interest across the country, in part because campus sexual assaults rarely lead to criminal prosecutions and convictions. It comes at a time when advocates have increasingly spoken out about the epidemic of sexual violence and harassment on US college campuses – including a string of sexual assault cases at nearby University of California, Berkeley. 
 
 Turner could have faced a maximum of 14 years in state prison, and in order to allow the defendant to avoid prison time altogether, the judge had to determine that this was an “unusual case where the interests of justice would best be served” by a lenient sentence. 
 
 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brock Turner (right) makes his way into the Santa Clara superior courthouse in Palo Alto, California on 2 June. Photograph: Dan Honda/AP 
 
 After the victim delivered a detailed account about how the assault and ensuing trial traumatized her and her family, the judge issued the light county jail punishment and justified making an exception with a speech that onlookers said was unusually sympathetic to the defendant. 
 
 “Obviously, the prison sentence would have a severe impact on him,” Persky said in court. “The defendant is youthful and has no significant record of prior criminal offenses.” 
 
 The judge also implied that because the swimmer was intoxicated at the time of the attack, he should be treated differently than a sober defendant. 
 
 “There is less moral culpability attached to the defendant who is … intoxicated,” the judge said. 
 
 Persky also noted that news coverage of the case had significantly impacted Turner, saying: “The media attention that has been given to this case has in a way sort of poisoned the lives of the people that have been affected. … The question I’ve asked myself is … ‘Is state prison for this defendant an antidote to that poison?’” 
 
 In her 12-page victim impact statement, that has spread on social media, the woman noted that Turner has only admitted to being drunk that night, but has not acknowledged that he assaulted her and has continued to argue that the encounter was consensual. 
 
 
 
 The judge seemed to show some sympathy to Turner’s perspective. “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,” he said. 
 
 Dauber said she was further shocked to see Persky minimize the significance of the guilty verdicts, which came from a jury of eight men and four women. The judge said at sentencing: “A trial is a search for the truth. It’s an imperfect process.” 
 
 Persky also appeared to rely heavily on letters that Turner’s friends and family sent and read an excerpt from a former classmate who told the judge she couldn’t believe the assault allegations. 
 
 ‘Honey bear’: Berkeley student details alleged sexual advances by professor Read more 
 
 “To me that just rings true,” the judge said. “It sort of corroborates the evidence of his character up until the night of this incident, which has been positive.” 
 
 The letter in question, however, includes a lengthy rant that places blame on the woman for being attacked: “I’m sure she and Brock had been flirting at this party and decided to leave together … I don’t think it’s fair to base the fate of the next ten + years of his life on the decision of a girl who doesn’t remember anything but the amount she drank. … 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.” 
 
 Persky repeatedly emphasized the effect the case has had on Turner, at one point saying: “The character letters that have been submitted do show a huge collateral consequence for Mr Turner.” 
 
 Turner, who withdrew from Stanford, will likely only spend three months in jail. 
 
 Dauber also noted that Persky made no mention of a letter signed by more than 250 Stanford students urging him to sentence Turner to at least the minimum years outlined in state law. 
 
 “A light sentence, such as probation or a few months in jail, would send the incorrect message that this was not a serious crime. This would undermine the trust in the legal system at large, diminish reporting, and possibly make the Stanford community a more dangerous place for all,” the letter said. 
 
 Aaron Persky is telling these women don’t bother calling police Michele Landis Dauber 
 
 In her letter to the judge, Dauber wrote that Stanford’s surveys have found that 43% of female undergraduates have experienced sexual assault or misconduct, and that more than two-thirds of them said perpetrators took advantage of intoxicated victims. But only 2.7% of students who experienced assault or nonconsensual sexual contact reported it to the university. 
 
 Turner’s sentencing only does further damage, Dauber added, noting that she has observed nonviolent drug offenders receive much harsher treatment by judges. 
 
 “Aaron Persky is telling these women don’t bother calling police. Even if you get through a trial and even if you manage to get a conviction, I will not impose a serious sanction,” Dauber said. 
 
 Dauber said she would be launching a formal campaign this week to recall the judge from office, and a change.org petition calling for him to be removed has already garnered more than 45,000 signatures. 
 
 A spokesman for Santa Clara superior court said the judge was barred from commenting on this case while there is an appeal pending. After sentencing, Turner’s attorneys notified court that they intend to appeal the conviction. 
 
 In a follow-up email to the Guardian on Monday, the victim said her case speaks to the experiences of women across the country. 
 
 “I remain anonymous, yes to protect my identity. But it is also as a statement, that all of these people are fighting for someone they don’t know. That’s the beauty of it. I don’t need labels, categories, to prove I am worthy of respect, to prove that I should be listened to. I am coming out to you as simply a woman wanting to be heard. Yes there is plenty more I’d like to tell you about me. For now, I am everywoman.”
– "Santa Clara residents deserve a judge who will protect victims, not rapists," said Stanford law professor Michele Dauber as the campaign to recall the judge in the Brock Turner case officially began. Dauber and other activists filed a notice of intent Monday to recall Santa Clara Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky, WGNO reports. The judge has a "long pattern of bias in cases involving sex crimes and violence against women in favor of white or privileged defendants, particularly college athletes," which came to light after he sentenced Turner to just six months in jail for the sexual assault of an unconscious woman in 2015, the Recall Persky campaign said in a statement. Prosecutors had asked for six years. If campaigners can gather 58,634 voter signatures, the measure to recall Persky will appear on the countywide ballot in June of next year. Recall supporters say it will send a message to the whole country. Persky has already shifted from criminal to civil court, and supporters including District Attorney Jeff Rosen note that the Turner case has led to changes in the law, the San Jose Mercury News reports. "Judge Persky’s sentence in that case was wrong, in my opinion, but he had the right to give it,” Rosen said in a statement. "My focus as we move forward is less about an individual judge than it is to the victims of campus sexual assault." (A state commission cleared Persky of misconduct last year.)