Dozens of Santa Clara County leaders on Monday announced the filing of paperwork designed to recall the embattled judge at the center of the Brock Turner sexual assault case.
Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky has been blasted by critics across the nation in the past for bias in sexual assault cases involving collegiate athletes, notably Turner. In response, community leaders filed notice of intent papers in hopes of eventually dismissing the judge from the bench.
"Women have had enough of rape culture," Michele Dauber, Stanford law professor and chairperson of the recall campaign, said. "We are ready to take action and recall this judge."
Persky sentenced Turner, an ex-Stanford swimmer, to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. Turner, who is now a registered sex offender, ended up only serving three months behind bars before being released. That decision drew public outcry, but a California agency that oversees judicial discipline ruled that Persky committed no misconduct in the controversial case.
Persky also came under fire last year for allowing a collegiate football player to escape jail time after the student-athlete confessed to police that he hit his girlfriend in a Sunnyvale parking lot in February 2015.
The campaign to dismiss Persky will now aim to gather signatures in favor of booting Persky. If the recall committee gathers nearly 59,000 signatures, voters will be given the chance to decide whether or not to recall and replace Persky.
The goal is to have the recall effort on the ballot by June 2018.
Local
CORRECTION: (June 27, 2017, 6:55 a.m. PST): An earlier version of this story erroneously reported the first name of the chairperson of the Recall Persky Campaign. The chairperson's name is Michele Dauber, not Michelle Dauber.
