Judge in Stanford sexual assault case previously allowed athletes accused of gang-raping a student to show a civil case jury provocative photos of her 
 
 The judge in the Stanford sexual assault case allowed defendants accused of gang-raping a 17-year-old high school student to show the jury photographs of her wearing a revealing outfit when he presided over another controversial case involving college athletes. 
 
 Judge Aaron Persky, who is under fire for his lenient sentencing of Brock Turner, a former Stanford swimmer convicted of sexual assault, made several controversial rulings in a 2011 civil trial stemming from the alleged gang rape by members of the baseball team at De Anza Community College in Cupertino, California. 
 
 Brock Turner's statement blames sexual assault on Stanford ‘party culture’ Read more 
 
 Among those rulings was the decision to allow the defense to display photographs that showed the alleged victim “nestling a shot glass full of liquor in her exposed cleavage,” as one local reporter described it. Another photo showed the victim making a sexually provocative gesture. 
 
 The judge allowed the images to be shown to the jury in the civil case after the defense argued that they would help prove that the young woman was not, as she claimed, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. 
 
 “Did you have PTSD when you did the acts shown in these pictures?” one defense attorney asked the woman in court, according to the San Jose Mercury News. 
 
 Barbara Spector, one of the attorneys for the alleged victim, who was known as Jane Doe, said that she felt at the time the images “were irrelevant”. 
 
 
 
 “The impact was very definitely prejudicial for Jane Doe and had a positive impact for the defendants on the jury,” she said. 
 
 
 
 Four of the defendants settled, three had charges dismissed and two went through the trial and were found not liable by the jury. 
 
 Persky is now facing international scrutiny, after the victim in the Stanford case released a viral statement on the trauma of her assault, prompting messages of support from vice-president Joe Biden and actor Lena Dunham. 
 
 Critics have also launched a recall campaign against Persky over his decision to sentence Turner to six months in county jail – a punishment that is much more lenient than the two years in prison prescribed by law. 
 
 Persky, who has reportedly faced death threats in the wake of the backlash has, however, received support from an unlikely source: the public defenders who represent indigent defendants in his Santa Clara county. 
 
 Several have told the Guardian the judge has a reputation for being fair to their clients and his apparent leniency in the Stanford swimmer case was in-keeping with his general approach to criminal cases. 
 
 However his role in the De Anza civil trial is likely to raise further questions about his handling of sexual assault cases. 
 
 On the night of 4 March 2007, three members of the De Anza women’s soccer team barged into the bedroom of an off-campus house during a birthday party. They claimed that they found a 17-year-old girl unconscious and being sexually assaulted by a group of men. 
 
 The witnesses testified that they tried to get inside the room, but men initially prevented them from entering. Inside, they said they saw a man thrusting on top of the woman. 
 
 The female soccer players were later hailed as heroes by the San Jose city council. 
 
 Stanford sexual assault case: victim impact statement in full Read more 
 
 Eight members of the baseball team were quickly suspended by the community college’s athletics department, but no arrests were made, even after a second woman came forward to say that she too had been sexually assaulted by De Anza college baseball players. 
 
 Two and a half months later, the Santa Clara County district attorney announced that she would not file criminal charges in the case, despite the fact that the sheriff, whose department investigated the case, stated publicly that she believed “a crime occurred”. 
 
 “The bottom line is it’s not about what we believe happened or think happened. It’s about what we can prove happened,” the district attorney, Dolores Carr, told the San Francisco Chronicle at the time, in the face of intense criticism of her decision not to prosecute. 
 
 The outcry against Carr in 2007 has been echoed by the torrent of anger directed at Persky since his sentencing of Turner. 
 
 “It sent a message to victims that they can’t find justice in Santa Clara County,” Irene Weiser, an advocate for victims of assault, told the Chronicle at the time of the De Anza case. “It also sent a message to perpetrators and would-be perpetrators. It gave them a green light.” 
 
 One year after the alleged 2007 assault took place, the young woman sought another avenue to have her day in court: a civil lawsuit seeking damages from her alleged attackers. 
 
 Looking at the most recent case, it seems that [Persky’s] ruling was rooted in something different Monica Burneikis, attorney 
 
 The case finally went in front of Persky and a jury in March 2011, following three years of legal wrangling overseen by a different judge. As a civil case, the plaintiff and her attorneys were tasked not with proving guilt, but with proving liability and culpability. 
 
 The photographs of Jane Doe at a party less than a year after the alleged assault were allowed by Judge Persky after defense attorneys argued that they contradicted the plaintiff’s claims about how the alleged gang rape had harmed her emotionally and psychologically. 
 
 At the time of the De Anza case, the plaintiff’s other lawyer, Monica Burneikis, speculated that at least one of Persky’s controversial rulings may have been because he was inexperienced in civil cases, but the Stanford case has changed her mind. 
 
 “Looking at the most recent case, it seems that [Persky’s] ruling was rooted in something different,” Burneikis said. 
 
 ‘Nail in a coffin’ 
 
 Jane Doe’s lawyers said the photographs were not the only evidence that Persky unfairly permitted. 
 
 Another controversy related to Persky’s handling of the case stemmed from his decision over testimony from the alleged attackers. 
 
 Four of the baseball players invoked fifth amendment rights not to self-incriminate during the discovery phase of the litigation. 
 
 According to Burneikis, that was a critical juncture: preventing the young woman’s team from obtaining evidence that could have helped them pursue their case. 
 
 The original judge in the case ruled in 2010 that the defendants could stay silent, but that would also mean that they would be prohibited from testifying in a later part of the case. 
 
 
 
 That ruling was, however, overturned by Persky, a move that Jane Doe’s attorneys now say undermined her case. 
 
 Persky, taking over the trail in 2011, allowed one of the defendants, Christopher Knopf, to enter evidence that the woman’s lawyers believed should have been covered by the earlier judge’s order. 
 
 “It was shocking to see judge Persky disregard that order,” Burneikis said. “One judge completely disregarding an order that another judge has entered: yes, that was unusual.” 
 
 “It was devastating,” she continued. “I can remember how I felt the moment the ruling came down and it was like a nail in a coffin. I could not comprehend it.” 
 
 Persky did not respond to requests for comment. Alison Crane, attorney for the defendants, who asked the woman about the questionable photos, also did not respond to requests for comment. 
 
 Persky’s defenders 
 
 Persky was only in the position to influence the outcome of the De Anza case because it was brought in civil, rather than criminal, court, after prosecutors did not bring charges. Such an outcome is indicative of a criminal justice system which, advocates for survivors of sexual assault say, fails to hold perpetrators accountable. Research has repeatedly shown that only a small fraction of rape cases lead to prosecution. 
 
 The Stanford rape case: a white privilege cake with vanilla frosting on top Read more 
 
 Persky’s critics have argued that his actions in the De Anza case and the Stanford assault reflect a lack of empathy for victims, noting that the judge himself was a former Stanford athlete. 
 
 But defenders of the judge have come forward in recent days and argued that it’s critical for judges to have discretion and that he should be applauded for avoiding overly harsh sentences. 
 
 “Persky has a reputation for being a thoughtful jurist and he has been fair and decent to our clients, many of whom come from poor socioeconomic backgrounds,” said Jennifer Redding, a public defender in Santa Clara. 
 
 “Based on my experience and knowledge of judge Persky’s reputation I do not believe that he granted [Turner] probation because the defendant reportedly came from a privileged background,” said Andy Gutierrez, deputy public defender for Santa Clara county. 
 
 Gutierrez noted that it can be especially challenging for judges to issue appropriate sentences when the crimes are violent or horrendous. But sometimes, he said, it’s the right thing to do. 
 
 “In notorious cases, whether it involves a sexual assault, a child molestation, or even a gang crime, there is often public clamor for a heavy sentence. A judge must resist the temptation to be swallowed by such public sentiment. That is one of the toughest things for a judge to do.” 
 
 This article was amended on 9 June 2016. Two quotes attributed to Barbara Spector were actually made by the plaintiff’s other lawyer, Monica Burneikis. ||||| PALO ALTO (CBS SF) — Potential jurors in Santa Clara County are apparently refusing to serve in the courtroom of the judge who handed down a six-month sentence to a former Stanford University student convicted of sexual assault. 
 
 KPIX 5 reporter Len Ramirez confirmed Thursday that 20 jurors refused to serve in Judge Aaron Persky’s courtroom on Wednesday, citing the judge as a hardship. 
 
 Confirmed: potential jurors refusing to serve under #StanfordRape judge. Citing #JudgePersky as hardship. 20 let go yesterday. @CBSSF — Len Ramirez (@lenramirez) June 9, 2016 
 
 The prospective jurors were there for an unrelated misdemeanor case involving a woman accused of receiving stolen goods. 
 
 Persky has faced intense scrutiny for sentencing Brock Turner to six months for sexually assaulting a woman outside a fraternity house. An attorney for the public defender’s office said Persky and his family have been receiving threatening phone calls. A recall effort has also been launched against the judge. 
 
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 The case gained worldwide attention after the victim’s emotional court statement addressing her attacker was posted online. 
 
 Outrage over the case was also stoked by statements issued in Turner’s defense by his father and one of his childhood friends. 
 
 KPIX 5 was in Persky’s courtroom on Thursday when the judge asked 17 potential jurors if they could be impartial in the case, and they all said yes. A short time later, Persky empaneled 12 of them, plus two alternates. 
 
 Dr. Kulsoom Khan was excused for unknown reasons. She had no idea about the Turner case at all, and said it wasn’t brought up in her jury pool. Had she known about the controversy surrounding the judge, things would have gone much differently. 
 
 Khan told KPIX 5 that she would have brought it up. “I didn’t know anything about it, but if I knew I probably would be biased,” she said. 
 
 KPIX 5 Legal Analyst LaDoris Cordell said the turn of events was unprecedented to her knowledge. 
 
 “I have never heard of potential jurors, people in the jury pool, boycotting a judge,” said Cordell. 
 
 Cordell, who presided over criminal cases for 20 years as a Santa Clara County judge, said the turn of events could impact the juror pool. 
 
 “The significance is that if this were to continue, word gets out that, Hey, if you don’t want to serve or don’t like a judge, just refuse to go in the courtroom, it could catch on and that would be bad, said Cordell. We rely on our jurors in order to make the system work.” 
 
 Friday in San Francisco, activists will deliver about one million signatures to the California Commission on Judicial Performance demanding that Persky leave the bench. 
 
 However, the judge is not without his supporters. A powerful voice in Santa Clara County is coming to his defense. 
 
 “I think the sentence is fair,” said Santa Clara County Public Defender Molly O’Neal 
 
 O’Neal may be one of very few people to believe that the sentence was the right call. 
 
 “This was a rough decision for Judge Persky to make. But Mr. Turner is, in fact, going to go to jail, said O’Neal. He’s a convicted felon. He will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.” 
 
 But even one of Persky’s most outspoken critics, prosecutor Alaleh Kianerci, believes that is taking things too far. 
 
 “He was absolutely neutral during the trial,” said Kianerci. “We just don’t agree with his sentence. But I don’t thing being a Stanford grad or a former athlete has anything to do with it.” 
 
 While enormous attention has been focused on how much time turner will spend behind bars — likely three months of a six-month sentence — O’Neal said the judge almost certainly considered the implications of having to register as a sex offender. 
 
 “I think Judge Persky heard all the testimony — weighed all of the considerations he’s required to by law — and arrived at a sentence through a fair process,” said O’Neal. ||||| 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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 Recall leader outraises judge targeted over Brock Turner sentence 
 
 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. ||||| 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.” ||||| 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. ||||| CLOSE A Change.org petition to remove Judge Aaron Persky had thousands of signatures by Monday evening. Video provided by Newsy Newslook 
 
 Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky (Photo: Jason Doiy, AP) 
 
 A California judge who sparked outrage across the nation by sentencing a former Stanford University swim team member convicted of sexual assault to just six months in county jail slid quietly into a new judicial term Tuesday. 
 
 Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky would have faced voters Tuesday, but his election was canceled because he drew no challengers. Stanford law professor Michele Dauber says Persky won't complete this six-year term. 
 
 "His victory will be short-lived," Dauber told USA TODAY. "I am 100% confident we will recall him. His decision hit every woman in the state of California in the gut." 
 
 More than 300,000 people have signed a Change.org online petition demanding Persky's ouster. Dauber has started a formal recall website, which drew $8,000 in donations in eight hours, aimed at making that happen. She said a hand-written petition drive will begin soon aimed at collecting the estimated 70,000 signatures needed to put Persky's recall on the ballot. 
 
 "His ruling was dangerous and wrongheaded," Dauber said. "We need to replace him with someone who understands violence against women." 
 
 Brock Turner, 20, was found guilty in March of three counts of sexual assault for the attack on an unconscious woman in January 2015. He was arrested after two graduate students on bicycles rode up as the assault was taking place near a trash bin, shouted and then tackled Turner when he fled. 
 
 Turner, who claimed the victim had consented to sex, could have faced more than a decade in prison on the charges — assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated/unconscious person, penetration of an intoxicated person and penetration of an unconscious person. At the sentencing hearing last week, the 23-year-old victim read an emotional letter detailing what she remembered of the horror, including taking a shower at the hospital after the attack. 
 
 "I stood there examining my body beneath the stream of water and decided, I don't want my body anymore. I was terrified of it, I didn't know what had been in it, if it had been contaminated, who had touched it," she said. "I wanted to take off my body like a jacket and leave it at the hospital with everything else." 
 
 Turner's father, Dan Turner, countered that his son's life "will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve. That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20-plus years of life." 
 
 Prosecutors sought six years for Turner, while the defense sought a four-month sentence. Probation officials suggested six months. Persky — citing Turner's age, the fact that he was drunk and thus bore "less moral culpability," and the lack of "significant" prior legal problems — issued a six-month sentence, which includes three years of probation. 
 
 State prison, Persky said, could have a "severe" impact on Turner's life. 
 
 Attempts by USA TODAY to contact the judge were not successful. District Attorney Jeff Rosen said he does not support efforts to remove Persky from his post but blasted the ruling. 
 
 “The predatory offender has failed to take responsibility, failed to show remorse and failed to tell the truth," Rosen said. "The sentence does not factor in the true seriousness of this sexual assault, or the victim’s ongoing trauma. Campus rape is no different than off-campus rape. Rape is rape.” 
 
 Stanford distanced itself from the controversy, saying in a statement that the school "did everything within its power to assure that justice was served in this case." 
 
 The ruling drew outrage from many in the Stanford community and across the nation. The Change.org petition calls Persky's ruling a "travesty of justice" and seeks his removal from office. 
 
 "Judge Persky failed to see that the fact that Brock Turner is a white male star athlete at a prestigious university does not entitle him to leniency," the petition reads. "He also failed to send the message that sexual assault is against the law regardless of social class, race, gender or other factors." 
 
 Dauber tweeted that "sitting in that courtroom was like a trip to the Middle Ages. Do we still burn witches?" She dismissed the probation department's recommendation. 
 
 "The judge has to make the call," she told USA TODAY. "He doesn't get to pass the buck." 
 
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– The judge in the Stanford rape case isn't just facing a petition to get him off the bench—he's become so unpopular that potential jurors are bailing. KPIX reports that on Wednesday, some 20 potential jurors refused to serve on a jury in an unrelated stolen-goods case under Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky. "I can't believe what you did," one woman told Persky, referring to his lenient sentence for Stanford sex attacker Brock Turner, the San Jose Mercury News reports. In other developments: Lawyer Barbara Spector tells the New York Daily News that in a 2011 civil trial over the alleged gang rape of a 17-year-old girl, she felt Persky sided with the group of baseball players accused of raping the girl. Spector says Persky allowed lawyers for the defendants to show Facebook photos of the girl wearing revealing clothing months after the incident because they argued the photos showed she did not have PTSD. Persky has his defenders, who say he is fair-minded and not a man known for issuing harsh sentences—or bowing to public pressure. He has "a reputation for being a thoughtful jurist and he has been fair and decent to our clients, many of whom come from poor socioeconomic backgrounds," a public defender in Santa Clara tells the Guardian. In an open letter to Turner's victim published on BuzzFeed, Joe Biden praises her "breathtaking" bravery and "solid steel spine." "Your story has already changed lives," he writes. "You have helped change the culture. You have shaken untold thousands out of the torpor and indifference towards sexual violence that allows this problem to continue." Rep. Ted Poe, a former prosecutor and judge from Texas, read portions of the victim's searing court statement in the House yesterday and called for voters to recall Persky, the Dallas Morning News reports. "This judge got it wrong. There is an archaic philosophy in some courts that sin ain't sin as long as good folk do it," said Poe, a Republican. "The judge should be removed. The rapist should do more time for the dastardly deed he did that night." The Huffington Post reports that on the evening of June 15, lawmakers from both parties will spend an hour reading the Stanford victim's statement in full in the House. (Turner may be freed after serving just half of his six-month sentence.)