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Brock Turner’s Judge Gave Harsher Sentence For Same Crime In Earlier Case

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Amber Randall Civil Rights Reporter
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The judge that presided over the Brock Turner sexual assault case gave an immigrant a harsher penalty in a similar case.

Judge Aaron Persky gave Raul Ramirez a three-year sentence in a state prison for the sexual assault of his roommate, according to the Guardian. According to court documents obtained by the Guardian, Ramirez, a 32-year-old immigrant from El Salvador, “digitally penetrated” his roommate for about 5-10 minutes, only stopping after she kept crying. He had previously given her a love letter.

Ramirez confessed to the crime when police arrived to the scene after receiving a 911 call from his roommate. Ramirez’s bail was posted at $200,000, compared to Turner’s $150,000 bail; he reached a plea agreement in March for three years in state prison.

“What’s happened with Mr Ramirez is standard. The anomaly is the Stanford case,” Alexander Cross, a defense attorney for Ramirez’s case, told the Guardian.

Opponents of Persky’s ruling in the Stanford case point out the similarities between Ramirez’s case and the Turner case and the disparity between the rulings.

Brock Turner assaulted an unconscious victim in January, 2015, and was convicted with the “intent to commit rape of an intoxicated/unconscious person, penetration of an intoxicated person and penetration of an unconscious person.” A jury asked for a six-year sentence, but Persky gave Turner six months probation and lifetime registration as a sex offender.

Persky gave Tuner a light sentence because he felt “a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him … I think he will not be a danger to others.”

California law views the sexual assault of a conscious victim as more serious than the assault of an unconscious victim, reports the Guardian.

Cross told the Guardian he feels that while the court might favor wealthier clients, he does not blame Persky for it.

“I’ve found him to be one of the fairest judges,” Cross said.

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