text: 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.
target: – "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.)