Leslie Rasmussen, a childhood friend of former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner, who was convicted of three felonies, wrote a letter to the judge saying that the assault was “a huge misunderstanding”, Turner is “not a monster”, and that she thought it was unfair “to base the fate of the next ten + years of his life on the decision of a girl who doesn’t remember anything”.  Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Clara County Sheriff 
 
 While Brock Turner, the ex-Stanford student who sexually assaulted an unconscious woman behind a dumpster last year, has formally been sentenced on three counts of felony sexual assault, he is not being described as a convicted rapist in the media. “We don’t want to be affiliated with anyone that’s going to try to victim-blame or even just downplay rape,” said Larry Hyland, an owner of Bar Matchless.
– More aftermath following the conviction of Stanford swimmer Brock Turner on sexual assault charges, including new allegations of previous troubling behavior he showed toward women—with prosecutors noting he was "on the prowl" the night of the attack and was still in denial as of his sentencing that his actions were criminal, ABC News reports. Per sentencing documents, a woman at a party the same night Turner attacked his victim alleges he became sexually aggressive toward her, grabbing her and kissing her, without encouragement. And in June 2015, investigators got wind about two other women who ran into Turner at a frat party the weekend before the January assault. One said he was "flirtatious" while dancing, and that when she began to feel "creeped out" and tried to turn away, he became "touchy." Meanwhile, a Turner supporter facing backlash for calling out the victim's drinking issued a "defensive apology" to the Guardian Wednesday. In her statement, Leslie Rasmussen says people "misconstrued" her defense of Turner into meaning she didn't feel for the victim, a "distortion" she blames on the "overzealous nature of social media" and, per the New York Times, the fact that she mistakenly thought her court letter would be kept private. "I apologize for anything my statement has done to suggest that I don't feel enormous sympathy for the victim and her suffering," she said. The Guardian notes that after its own article was posted with her apology, she wrote a follow-up on Facebook. "I was not there that night. I had no right to make any assumptions about the situation," she wrote Wednesday evening. "Most importantly, I did not acknowledge strongly enough the severity of Brock's crime and the suffering and pain that his victim endured, and for that lack of acknowledgement, I am deeply sorry." She adds that, at the age of 20, "it has never been more clear to me that I still have much to learn." (New York explains why Turner isn't "technically" a convicted rapist.)