California Judge Who Let Stanford Rapist Off Easy, Recalled by County Vote

Judge who ruled in sex assault case, recalled in Santa Clara County

By Bob Egelko 

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky was recalled

Photo: Jason Doiy / Associated Press

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky was recalled from office by the voters Tuesday, two years after he set off national outrage by sentencing a Stanford athlete to six months in jail for sexually assaulting and attempting to rape an unconscious woman.

With 43 percent of precincts reporting, 59 percent of the county’s voters favored recalling Persky while 41 percent opposed the recall. On the same ballot, Assistant District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson led civil rights lawyer Angela Storey, 70 to 30 percent, in the election to serve the last four years of Persky’s term.

Takeaway: Persky, a judge for 15 years, is the first California jurist to be recalled since 1932.

“This is a sad day for the California judiciary,” said LaDoris Cordell, a former Santa Clara County judge who was active in the campaign against the recall. She said the vote sends a message to judges that “if they don’t go along with popular opinion ... they can lose their job.”

When Judge Persky sentenced Brock Turner to 6 months for raping an unconscious girl - that was a sad day for the California judiciary. Maybe it's time judges learn that popular opinion is what it is because of pathetic decisions like the Brock Turner case. If they don't soon decide that rape is rape whether on a university campus or whether or not the victim is passed out - they should lose their job.

Henderson, Persky’s successor, has been a Santa Clara County prosecutor since 1995. She supported the recall and was endorsed by the campaign’s organizer.

“My goal was to give voters a meaningful choice in the recall election,” she said Tuesday night. She promised to “work really hard to gain the respect of my fellow judges.”

For the first time since 1977 people power has forced a sitting US judge out of office. In 2016 Judge Aaron Persky faced international criticism for giving ex-Stanford student Brock Turner a six-month jail term, He was found guilty of three felonies after sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, for which the law prescribed a minimum of two years. Long before the #MeToo movement exploded, the lenient sentence spurred Stanford law professor Michele Landis Dauber, a family friend of the victim, to launch the successful recall campaign.

Persky did not issue a statement after the vote. Organizers of the recall could not be reached for comment.

Background: Persky, 56, was a deputy district attorney who prosecuted sex crimes before Gov. Gray Davis appointed him to the bench in 2003. He won two new six-year terms without opposition and drew little public attention or criticism until 2016, when he presided over the sexual assault trial of Stanford student Brock Turner.

Turner, 19 at the time, was arrested after two graduate students on bicycles discovered him late one night in January 2015 lying on top of an unconscious woman and caught him when he tried to run away. Turner denied assaulting the 22-year-old woman, maintaining they had acted consensually after meeting at a fraternity party where both had been drinking heavily, but a jury convicted him of three felonies.

The crimes were punishable by up to 14 years in prison, and prosecutors sought a six-year sentence. But Persky noted that the court’s probation officer had recommended a jail sentence of a year or less after speaking with the victim. The judge also cited Turner’s youth and lack of a criminal record, the “severe impact” a prison term would have on him, and his obligation to register annually with police as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

The victim, identified only as Emily Doe, spoke at the sentencing hearing, telling Turner he had taken away “my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my safety, my intimacy, my confidence.” She said she considered the proposed jail sentence “an insult to me and all women.”

The statement went viral, galvanized women’s rights advocates, and touched off a campaign that generated nearly 100,000 signatures on recall petitions. It was also instrumental in the rapid enactment of a new state law requiring at least three years in prison for sexual penetration of an unconscious victim.

The recall campaign was organized by Michele Dauber, a Stanford law professor whose daughter was a friend of Emily Doe. Dauber accused Persky — a former Stanford lacrosse player — of bias in favor of athletes and affluent white defendants. In one of those cases, Persky allowed a man charged with domestic violence to go to Hawaii and try out for the college football team, and to return there after pleading guilty. In another, he gave a domestic violence defendant a jail sentence that allowed him to attend football practices.

The state Commission on Judicial Performance examined those cases, and Turner’s, and said they failed to show that Persky was biased. Turner’s sentence was within the bounds of the law, the commission said, and prosecutors had agreed to the other sentences or did not object to them.

Radicalized Islamic Youths Gang-Rape Girl in Belgium

MUSLIM GANG-RAPISTS IN COURT:

“WOMEN SHOULD LISTEN, THEY SHOULD NOT COMPLAIN”

By Benjamin de Wolf
Gatestone, Europe

German women in Cologne protesting against sexual violence / Getty.

Several young gang-rapists started laughing in a Belgian court while yelling:

“women should not complain, they should listen to men.”

The seven ‘men’ were seen in a video where they are standing around an unconscious girl who is lying on a bed, then seen pulling down her pants and raping her. Also in the video, they are dancing around the victim and singing songs in Arabic.

The gang of perpetrators, aged 14 (!) to 25, consist of five Iraqi nationals, and two who hold Belgian citizenship. At least two of them are currently in their asylum procedure. When asked, one of them said: “the girl asked us to grab her”. This is extremely unlikely, since she is seen on the video hardly moving at all. 

This monstrous event happened last November and was discovered by a schoolteacher at Ostend Technical Institute, Belgium, last week. One of the boys, who is only 14 years old, was showing off pictures of himself on his mobile phone wearing an army uniform and sporting an automatic rifle. The teacher informed the police, who confiscated the phone, and later found the gang-rape video.

Three suspects including the girl's boyfriend are minors. Most of the suspects have confessed. Several made disparaging comments about women.

West Flemish public prosecutors did not bring the facts into the public domain until now, because they hoped to protect the victim and her family. A spokesman said: "The victim, who was made defenceless by the perpetrators so that she did not remember anything, has only been fully aware of the facts since today."

The mayor of Oostende, Socialist Party heavyweight Johan Vande Lanotte, responded strongly to the crime:

“It is clear that some newcomers have problematic beliefs. When they have completed their sentences, they must leave the country.”

It's a bit late for the poor girl. For her, they should never have been in the country in the first place. One wonders how many more such events are unreported in Europe?

Big investment in combating Islamic radicalism

It came as the Belgian government approved a plan to combat Islamic radicalism and extremist violence by hiring 1,000 new police officers over the next four years.

The plan, presented Friday to reporters by Interior Minister Jan Jambon, calls for adding 300 officers this year, and more than 500 by 2017.

Jambon says 300 new officers will be added in Molenbeek and other neighborhoods with a history of radical Islamist activity. 

Ninety-six police investigators will be hired and 260 TV cameras positioned to monitor movements on the highways.

Earlier reports spoke of just 100 new officers being hired.

The November attacks that killed 130 people in Paris were staged from neighboring Belgium and a subsequent official investigation revealed how ineffective the surveillance of suspected radicals in the country has often been.

Four of the Paris attackers, including suspected ringleader Abdelhamid Abaooud, lived in the Brussels commune of Molenbeek, one of eight areas covered by the government's initiative.

MMA Fighter Accused of Kidnapping and Rape in Arizona

© abc15.com

A former professional American MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter Rodolfo Ramirez has been accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in Arizona.

Ramirez was seen on a surveillance video picking up the woman, who is believed to be in her 20s, outside a local bar in Scottsville, Arizona and carrying her away over his shoulder.

Police say the 28-year-old then sexually assaulted her inside a parking garage, before taking her back to his home and raping her two more times.

What makes a man think he has the right to pick up an unconscious woman and abuse her at will? Perhaps 'right' is the wrong word here when some men do things not because they have the right but just because they have the opportunity. I seriously doubt that most rapists ever consider whether or not they have the 'right' to do anything. The question of 'right or wrong' doesn't seem to ever enter their heads. 

Conscience is associated with the highest morals that we know; too many of us have never really been exposed to any reasonable level or morality. Hence, we have a culture of rape in this country.

Ramirez, who now works in a hotel, then dropped the victim off at an intersection in the city of Tempe.

Investigators say the victim passed out in a parking lot before Ramirez saw her and threw her over his shoulder.

A friend of the victim left her to collect her car but when she came back, the victim was missing.

Ramirez initially denied having sexual contact with her, but later said he had “consensual sex” with her several times.

According to court documents he then agreed the woman could not possibly have consented due to her intoxicated state.

Ramirez was arrested on two counts of kidnapping, three counts of sexual assault and one count of sexual abuse.

He appeared in court on Thursday where a judge ordered him to remain in custody without bond ahead of his trial. The case will be heard on September 29.

Ramirez, according to mixedmartialarts.com had three professional MMA fights on his record in three years, with two victories and one defeat.

Police Shame Drug Users with Shocking Photo of Them Passed Out with Child in Backseat

Candidates for Parents of the Year

© City of East Liverpool, Ohio / Facebook

Ohio police posted shocking images online of two parents in the middle of a heroin overdose with their four-year-old child in the back seat.

Police in the city of East Liverpool say they came across an SUV on Wednesday driving erratically before braking hard to avoid hitting a school bus.

Although the bus eventually moved on, the SUV stayed still.

When officers approached the car, they found the driver, James Acord, “bobbing” his head back and forth while his speech was “almost unintelligible,” according to the police report.

The 47-year-old told police he was trying to bring his partner, Rhonda Pasek, to the hospital, who was described as being “completely unconscious and turning blue.”

Acord attempted to make a getaway, but the officer reached into the vehicle and removed the keys.

It was at that point police spotted the 4-year-old child sitting in the back seat, later identified as Pasek’s son.


© City of East Liverpool, Ohio / Facebook

Acord “eventually went completely unconscious” as well, police say.

An ambulance was called to the scene and both users were given Narcan, a common way to reverse an opioid overdose.

Once they regained consciousness, they were taken to the hospital, but now the driver is headed to jail after police found a “pink powdery substance” in their car.

In a controversial move, particularly for those who trying to combat the stigma of drug addiction, police posted two images of the car on Facebook, showing them slumped over in the front seat while the child can be seen behind them.

“We feel it necessary to show the other side of this horrible drug [heroin],” the post opines. “We feel we need to be a voice for the children caught up in this horrible mess. This child can't speak for himself, but we are hopeful his story can convince another user to think twice about injecting this poison while having a child in their custody.”

The child has been placed with a family friend.

Instead of getting drug rehab for their addiction, Acord and Pasek now face criminal charges.

The driver pleaded no contest on Thursday to driving under the influence and endangering children. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail and a $475 fine, according to the Morning Journal.

Pasek, 50, pled not guilty to charges of endangering children and disorderly conduct, as well as a seat belt violation.

Pharmaceutical Companies making billions on legal opioids

Opioid addiction is a growing epidemic in America, causing more deaths than gunshots or car crashes. In spite of that, many opioid-containing drugs are legally available in the US and pharmaceutical companies rake in billions of dollars in profit.

Oklahoma Court of Appeals Upholds Bizarre Lower Court Ruling on Rape

Ruling is sparking outrage among critics who say the

judicial system was engaged in victim-blaming

and buying outdated notions about rape

An Oklahoma court has stunned local prosecutors with a declaration that state law doesn’t criminalize oral sex with a victim who is completely unconscious.



The ruling, a unanimous decision by the state’s criminal appeals court, is sparking outrage among critics who say the judicial system was engaged in victim-blaming and buying outdated notions about rape.

But legal experts and victims’ advocates said they viewed the ruling as a sign of something larger: the troubling gaps that still exist between the nation’s patchwork of laws and evolving ideas about rape and consent.

The case involved allegations that a 17-year-old boy assaulted a girl, 16, after volunteering to give her a ride home. The two had been drinking in a Tulsa park with a group of friends when it became clear that the girl was badly intoxicated. Witnesses recalled that she had to be carried into the defendant’s car. Another boy, who briefly rode in the car, recalled her coming in and out of consciousness.

The boy later brought the girl to her grandmother’s house. Still unconscious, the girl was taken to a hospital, where a test put her blood alcohol content above .34. She awoke as staff were conducting a sexual assault examination.

Tests would later confirm that the young man’s DNA was found on the back of her leg and around her mouth. The boy claimed to investigators that the girl had consented to performing oral sex. The girl said she didn’t have any memories after leaving the park. Tulsa County prosecutors charged the young man with forcible oral sodomy.

OK, first time I've heard that charge.

But the trial judge dismissed the case. And the appeals court ruling, on 24 March, affirmed that prosecutors could not apply the law to a victim who was incapacitated by alcohol.

“Forcible sodomy cannot occur where a victim is so intoxicated as to be completely unconscious at the time of the sexual act of oral copulation,” the decision read. Its reasoning, the court said, was that the statute listed several circumstances that constitute force, and yet was silent on incapacitation due to the victim drinking alcohol. “We will not, in order to justify prosecution of a person for an offense, enlarge a statute beyond the fair meaning of its language.”

Why not, if it is clearly inadequate?

Benjamin Fu, the Tulsa County district attorney leading the case, said the ruling had him “completely gobsmacked”.

“The plain meaning of forcible oral sodomy, of using force, includes taking advantage of a victim who was too intoxicated to consent,” Fu said. “I don’t believe that anybody, until that day, believed that the state of the law was that this kind of conduct was ambiguous, much less legal. And I don’t think the law was a loophole until the court decided it was.” To focus on why the victim was unable to consent, he continued, puts the victim at fault.

But several legal experts declined to fault the appeals court, saying instead that the ruling should be a wake-up call for legislators to update Oklahoma’s laws.

Michelle Anderson, the dean of the CUNY School of Law who has written extensively about rape law, called the ruling “appropriate” but the law “archaic”.

“This is a call for the legislature to change the statute, which is entirely out of step with what other states have done in this area and what Oklahoma should do,” she said. “It creates a huge loophole for sexual abuse that makes no sense,” she said.

Jennifer Gentile Long, who leads a group, AEquitas, that guides prosecutors in sexual and domestic violence cases, agreed. She said the Oklahoma law was an example of a gulf that still exists in some places between the law and evolving notions around consent and sexual agency.

Oklahoma has a separate rape statute that protects victims who were too intoxicated to consent to vaginal or anal intercourse, Long noted. But “there are still gaps in the ways laws are written that allow some cases to fall through the cracks,” she said. “This case” – because it did not involve vaginal rape but an oral violation – “seems to be one of them”.

In the wake of the ruling, Fu has said he will push for lawmakers to change the code. Many states have engaged in a broad overhaul of their rape laws in recent years, Anderson said, part of a movement to fall in line with the modern understanding of rape.

“There is a recognition that social mores have changed, that the law should now try to protect sexual autonomy as opposed to sexual morality,” she said. Often, the law changes after an outcry over unpopular court rulings.

The Oklahoma appeals court declined to make the ruling a precedent. But Fu said he has learned that other defendants are nevertheless making the same argument in other parts of Oklahoma to avoid charges.

The defendant’s attorney, Shannon McMurray, was not available for comment. She told Oklahoma Watch, which was first to report the ruling, that prosecutors were clearly in the wrong to charge the young man with forcible sodomy, and not a lesser crime of unwanted touching.

“There was absolutely no evidence of force or him doing anything to make this girl give him oral sex,” McMurray said, “other than she was too intoxicated to consent.”

Unbelievable! There was penetration (oral) and there was no consent! Isn't that the very definition of rape? Good grief! Use some common sense, judges. I mean the girl was stupid to get passed-out drunk, but that shouldn't make her fair game for rape.