Brock Turner: Tha latest victim of the dreaded “Affluenza teen” syndrome

‘…first we had the infamous “Stand Your Ground” rule as a grab all defense for serious felonies, now we have the “affluenza” syndrome as our latest arguement for heinous acts.
Where do the excuses stop and responsibilty for our actions begin? By the way we are becoming really AWFUL parents, justifying sociopathic behavior to cover our failure to impart the moral codes of social intercourse to our offspring. That said, Dan Turner has shown himself to be a real piece of work in the Stanford rape case.’

Brock Turner the convicted ‘Predator stanford swimmer’  is not sorry he raped an unconcious young woman – just very sorry for himself.

Turner, 20, Stanford student athlete was caught sexually assaulting an unconcious woman by dumpster outside frat house, in Jan 2015

Arrested, the swimmer, an olympic hopeful withdrew from Stanford

Charged with 5 counts felony , reduced to 3: assault with intent to commit rape of an intoxicated or unconscious person, sexual penetration of an intoxicated person and sexual penetration of an unconscious person.

Convicted on all counts, Turner was facing prison sentence of up to 14 years and having to register as a sex offender.

Inexplicably, judge Aaron Perksy, sentenced him to only 6 months and 3 years probation, citing Turner’s age and lack of criminal history as factors in his decision:
“A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him … I think he will not be a danger to others”??

Turner claims he has lost everything he has worked for in life, through no fault of his

Although he has ruined a young woman’s life, Brock Turner and his family are upset that his own life cannot proceed without interruption and consequences

Although Turner portrayed himself  to the judge as an innocent CHOIRBOY from small-town Ohio who “never really” engaged in substance abuse. The prosecutors submitted evidence which directly contradicted that image.
Citing extensive evidence from Turner’s phone, footage from the phone which captured the teenager smoking from a bong and drinking liquor, while texts showed Turner setting up drug deals and discussing benders dating to high school, But according to the prosecutors, the judge never acknowledged contradictory evidence
Now in a repeat of the infamous Texas ‘affluenza Teen’ type defense, Turner in his statement to a Santa Clara judge,   whines about how the  ‘rape conviction’ will keep him from competing in the Olympics, and will derail “the goals that I set out in the first nineteen years of my life.”
He also blames his rape of an unconscious woman on his 4-month experience of the Stanford’s “party culture”.
Although in the letter, Turner acknowledges the “emotional and physical stress” he inflicted on the woman, and said he can “never forgive” himself for it, he never offers a direct apology for raping his 23-year-old, non-student victim.
His brief statement barely mentions the rape itself, let alone the victim, who wrote her own devastating, letter about how the attack scarred her for life.

Father and son in court during the rape  trial. Brock was eventually convicted on all counts of felony rape, but got away with a slap on the wrist during the sentencing

Turner’s ‘slap on the wrist’ sentence of 6 months, after he was was convicted of felony rape, has raised public consternation. Particularly, because the sentencing came after more than a dozen of his supporters, wrote letters to Judge Aaron Persky pleading for leniency.
The most nuseating example of ‘attempts to influence’ in this case is typified by Brock’s father, Dan Turner. He wrote letter a defense of Turner to Michele Dauber, a Stanford law professor and sociologist who led the school’s revision of its sexual assault policies in recent years, the letter appears to have been written prior to Brock’s sentencing to advocate for probation only, in lieu of any jail time. The spirit of the letter however, eerily echoed the tone of Brock’s sentencing.
Dan Turner essentially argues that Brock has already suffered enough for his crimes  with an existential essay on  misogyny.

Enabling dad, Dan Turner complained his son only got 20 minutes of action…

Turner describes how his son’s life has been thrown off track by his sexual assault, but never assigns responsibility to Brock, who repeatedly defended himself by saying that the victim enjoyed the assault and even had an orgasm. It’s not “Brock’s sexual assault” or “Brock’s actions” that occurred in January 2015, according to Dan; it’s “the events.”  As a matter of fact, he goes further to elevate Brock’s loss of appetite to the relm of ample punishment for his awful crime.

Actions of Affluenza teen Brock Turner (right) influenced by the support of his influential father, Dan Turner (left)

 

 

THE CASE:

One night in January 2015, two Stanford University graduate students biking across campus spotted a freshman thrusting his body on top of an unconscious, half-naked woman behind a dumpster. This March, a California jury found the former student, 20-year-old Brock Allen Turner, guilty of three counts of sexual assault. Turner faced a maximum of 14 years in state prison.
After a jury convicted Turner of sexually penetrating an intoxicated and unconscious person with a foreign object, prosecutors asked a judge to sentence him to six years in California prison. Probation officials had recommended the significantly lighter penalty of six months in county jail.
He was sentenced to six months in county jail and probation. The judge said he feared a longer sentence would have a “severe impact” on Turner, a champion swimmer who once aspired to compete in the Olympics — a point repeatedly brought up during the trial.
The judge, Aaron Perksy, cited Turner’s age and lack of criminal history as factors in his decision, saying, “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him … I think he will not be a danger to others.”
After the hearing, Santa Clara County district attorney Jeff Rosen slammed the sentencing, which will likely result in Turner spending three months behind bars – a fraction of the maximum 14 years he was potentially facing.
“The punishment does not fit the crime.”
The victim, who gave emotional testimony during the trial, regained consciousness at a hospital more than three hours after the assault and told police she had no memory of the attack.
She has addressed , Turner directly, detailing the severe impact his actions had on her — from the night she learned she had been assaulted by a stranger while unconscious, to the grueling trial during which Turner’s attorneys argued that she had eagerly consented.
The woman, now 23, thas expressed her disappointment with the “gentle” sentence and angry that Turner still denied sexually assaulting her.
“Even if the sentence is light, hopefully this will wake people up,” she said. “I want the judge to know that he ignited a tiny fire. If anything, this is a reason for all of us to speak even louder.”

The Turner family arrive  at court house  feeling  Brock has suffered enough just showing up. Blame trial for his loss uf appetite

In his letter, Turner laments that after raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster in January 2015, he was “no longer a swimmer, a student, a resident of California, or the product of the work that I put in to accomplish the goals that I set out in the first nineteen years of my life.”

“The thought of this is in my head every second of every day since this event has occurred. These ideas never leave my mind.”
“During the day, I shake uncontrollably from the amount I torment myself by thinking about what has happened. I wish I had the ability to go back in time and never pick up a drink that night, let alone interact with (the victim). I can barely hold a conversation with someone without having my mind drift into thinking these thoughts. They torture me.”
Early in the letter, Turner acknowledges the “emotional and physical stress” he inflicted on the woman, and said he can “never forgive” himself for it. But Turner never offers an outright apology for the attack.
Instead, his dismisses his assault as an alcohol-fueled error, and paints himself rather than the woman, as a victim of the school’s “party culture.”

“Before this happened, I never had any trouble with law enforcement and I plan on maintaining that. I’ve been shattered by the party culture and risk taking behavior that I briefly experienced in my four months at school,” he writes.
“I’ve lost my ability to obtain a Stanford degree. I’ve lost employment opportunity, my reputation and most of all, my life. These things force me to never want to put myself in a position where I have to sacrifice everything.”
In a different statement to the judge, Turner portrayed himself as an innocent boy from small-town Ohio who “never really” engaged in substance abuse.
But prosecutors said that was a lie, citing extensive evidence from Turner’s phone. Footage from the phone captured the teenager smoking from a bong and drinking liquor, while texts showed Turner setting up drug deals and discussing benders dating to high school.
Prosecutors presented the evidence to the judge, but said he never acknowledged it.