Judge Aaron Persky made headlines for all the wrong reasons last month
After he sentenced Stanford rapist Brock Turner to probation and a pathetic six months in county jail for raping an unconscious woman. Now he's making headlines again for sentencing Raul Ramirez, a 32-year-old immigrant from El Salvador who sexually assaulted his female roommate in a case very similar to Turner's, to three years in state prison.
The sentence was part of a plea agreement overseen by the judge and signed in March, but which only became public knowledge recently.
Like Turner, Raul Ramirez had no criminal record before he was convicted. Both women were assaulted in a similar manner, but unlike Turner, Ramirez admitted to the assault and told responding officers that he "knew what he did was wrong and he wanted to say sorry." When two students caught Turner on top of the unconscious woman he made a run for it, and when questioned by police, claimed it was consensual.
Bail for Ramirez was set at $200,000, higher than the $150,000 bail set for Turner.
At some point, we have to point out that Ramirez is an immigrant rather than a star college swimmer.
Critics accuse Persky, a former Stanford athlete himself, of "bending over backwards" to make an exception for Turner.
They say that while Ramirez got the sentence he deserves, Persky could have negotiated a lesser sentence for Ramirez, as he did with Turner. They point out that Persky could have approved or helped negotiate a plea in which Ramirez was only guilty of one lesser charge, assault with intent to commit rape, and dropped the rape charges, as was the case with Turner.
Michele Landis Dauber,
A Stanford professor leading a campaign to get Persky removed, said that this is further proof that the judge needs to go. He added that the vast differences in how Persky treated two very similar cases "shows that Turner got consideration not available to other defendants who aren't as privileged."
