Dad opposes Stanford sex offender's sentence: 'Steep price for 20 minutes of action’

Brock Turner. Brock Turner. Photo: Santa Clara County Jail Photo: Santa Clara County Jail Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Dad opposes Stanford sex offender's sentence: 'Steep price for 20 minutes of action’ 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

While many have expressed outrage over the lenient sentencing of a former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexual assault, his father wrote a letter saying his son is "paying a steep price for 20 minutes of action."

Brock Turner, 20, was found guilty Thursday of raping a woman on the night of Jan. 17 and sentenced to six months in a county jail with probation.

Brock's father, Dan Turner, said in the letter submitted to the court before sentencing that a lengthy prison term was "inappropriate" for someone who has "no prior criminal history and has never been violent with anyone including on the night of January 17."

The letter begins: "As it stands now, Brock's life has been deeply altered forever by the events of January 17th and 18th."

It goes on: "He will never be his happy go lucky self with that easy going personality and welcoming smile.

"His every waking minute is consumed with worry, anxiety, fear, and depression.

"You can see it in his face, the way he walks, his weakened voice, and depression."

The father goes on to share that his son has become so stressed that he has lost his appetite.

"Brock always enjoyed certain types of food and is a very good cook himself," he writes.

"I was always excited to buy him a big ribeye steak to grill or to get his favorite snack for him.

I had to make sure to hide some of my favorites pretzels and chips because I knew they wouldn't be around long after Brock walked in from a long swim practice."

"Now he barely consumed any food and eats only to exist."

When Turner, an all-American swimmer who was an Olympic hopeful, was convicted in Santa Clara County Superior Court of three counts of sexual assault in late March, he faced up to 14 years of prison.

The judge, Aaron Persky, opted for a lighter penalty, saying a stiffer sentence would have a "severe impact" on the 20-year-old.

District Attorney Jeff Rosen was disappointed in the outcome. "The punishment does not fit the crime," Rosen said in a statement after the sentence was announced Thursday. "The sentence does not factor in the true seriousness of this sexual assault, or the victim's ongoing trauma. Campus rape is no different than off-campus rape. Rape is rape."

Many others objected and the decision spurred outrage on social media. An editorial in the San Jose Mercury News called the six-month county jail sentence "a slap on the wrist."

"Brock Turner's six-month jail term for sexual assault of an intoxicated, unconscious woman on the Stanford campus last year is a setback for the movement to take campus rape seriously," the Mercury News said. "If Turner's slap on the wrist sentence is a setback, activists can take some comfort that the jurors at the trial in March saw what happened as a very serious crime."

But Brock's father feels his son has received more than a slap on the wrist. He writes that the verdict has "broken" and "shattered" Brock and his family. What's more, he says his son's life will never be the same.

"The fact that he now has to register as a sexual offender for the rest of his life forever alters where he can live, visit, work and how he will be able to interact with people and organizations," his father writes. "What I know is that incarceration is not the appropriate punishment for Brock."

District Attorney Jeff Rosen told the Washington Post the father's letter "was submitted to the court before Turner's sentencing last week and criticized it for reducing a brutal sexual assault to 20 minutes of action."

The father's letter transpired three days after the court released a 12-page impact statement from the victim, who has not been identified. The letter was published in full on Palo Alto online and went viral in social media.

The victim read an abbreviated version of the statement in court and began by addressing Turner directly: "You don't know me, but you've been inside me, and that's why we're here today."

The woman went on to tell the story of what happened to her that night. She's not a Stanford student and said she was visiting her younger sister at the party.

"I made silly faces, let my guard down, and drank liquor too fast not factoring in that my tolerance had significantly lowered since college," she said.

"The next thing I remember I was in a gurney in a hallway. I had dried blood and bandages on the backs of my hands and elbow.

I thought maybe I had fallen and was in an admin office on campus. I was very calm and wondering where my sister was.

"A deputy explained I had been assaulted. I still remained calm, assured he was speaking to the wrong person.

"I knew no one at this party. When I was finally allowed to use the restroom, I pulled down the hospital pants they had given me, went to pull down my underwear, and felt nothing."

Early in the morning on Jan. 18, 2015, two graduate students called police when they found Turner thrusting his hips against a partially clothed unconscious woman lying in a field on campus.

Turner was arrested and told police he consumed seven cans of beer at a Kappa Alpha fraternity party and was having consensual sex with the woman. According to police, the woman was "completely unresponsive" at the time.

The woman didn't remember anything beyond the beginnings of her evening at the party and told investigators that she had "four whiskey shots and two shots of vodka."

The victim addressed the issue of drunkenness in her statement, saying it's unfair for Turner to use it as an excuse for sexually assaulting her.

"Alcohol is not an excuse," the victim said. "Is it a factor? Yes. But alcohol was not the one who stripped me, fingered me, had my head dragging against the ground, with me almost fully naked. Having too much to drink was an amateur mistake that I admit to, but it is not criminal. Everyone in this room has had a night where they have regretted drinking too much, or knows someone close to them who has had a night where they have regretted drinking too much."

She goes on: "Regretting drinking is not the same as regretting sexual assault. We were both drunk, the difference is I did not take off your pants and underwear, touch you inappropriately, and run away. That's the difference."

District Attorney Rosen said the victim's letter was "the most eloquent, powerful and compelling piece of victim advocacy that I've seen in my 20 years as a prosecutor."

With reporting from the Associated Press