FILE - In this May 15, 2018 file photo, Judge Aaron Persky poses for a photo with a sign opposing his recall in Los Altos Hills, Calif. Northern California voters are deciding on Tuesday, June 5 whether to remove Persky from office for the first time in decades because he sentenced a former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexual assault to a short jail sentence instead of prison. Judge who sentenced Brock Turner ousted amid #MeToo movement

By PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The beginning of the end for the first California judge recalled since 1932 began almost exactly two years ago, when Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky sentenced former Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner to six months in jail instead of a long prison term for sexual assault. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

FILE - In this June 10, 2016 file photo, Stanford law professor Michele Dauber speaks at a rally before activists delivered over one million signatures to the California Commission on Judicial Performance calling for the removal of Judge Aaron Persky from the bench in San Francisco. Under a California provision that provides offenders with one day of “good behavior” for each day served, Turner would be released in about three months. In other words, he helped incarcerate people like Turner, 22, who now lives near Dayton, Ohio, and is required to register annually for life as a sex offender. Prosecutors had asked for a six-year prison sentence, but Persky agreed with the recommendation from the county probation department, which noted that, "When compared to other crimes of similar nature" the Turner case "may be considered less serious due to (his) level of intoxication." Turner’s case gained national attention after he his sentencing hearing on June 2, 2016, when BuzzFeed News published in full the powerful 7,000-word impact statement Doe read out loud to her attacker in court. The Associated Press doesn’t general identify victims of sexual crimes. "You took away my worth, my privacy, my energy, my time, my intimacy, my confidence, my own voice, until today," she said in a statement read in court before the June 2016 sentencing. A statement from the victim captured the national spotlight, recounting the ordeal of the investigation and trial, where she was cross-examined about her drinking habits and sexual experience. It’s not always popular, but it’s the law, and I took an oath to follow it without regard to public opinion or my opinions as a former prosecutor.” Turner’s six-month jail sentence inspired the California legislature to reform its penal code to require judges to sentence sexual assault perpetrators to prison time rather than probation or jail, as in Turner’s case. Persky, who declined to comment Tuesday, said repeatedly that he couldn't discuss the case that spurred the recall because Turner has appealed his conviction. But in a lengthy interview with The Associated Press last month, he said he didn't regret the decision and was taken aback by the reaction. Judge Aaron Persky of the Santa Clara County Superior Court will promptly be replaced by Cindy Hendrickson, an assistant district attorney who supported the recall effort.
Voters in Santa Clara County, California vote to recall Judge Aaron Persky after he sentenced a swimmer convicted of sexual assault to six months in jail in 2016.