The judge who sentenced Stanford student Brock Turner to six months in jail for sexual assault, excused himself from a child pornography case, according to court documents.
Judge Aaron Persky was supposed to decide this week whether to lighten the conviction of a plumber who was in possession of child pornography, reports the LA Times. Persky was supposed to decide whether to reduce the plumber’s conviction from a felony to a misdemeanor.
Perksy announced his recusal and put out a brief written ruling saying that the attention surrounding the Turner case made it seem like he could not be impartial.
“While on vacation earlier this month, my family and I were exposed to publicity surrounding this case. This publicity has resulted in a personal family situation such that ‘a person aware of the facts might reasonably entertain a doubt that the judge would be able to be impartial,'” he wrote.
Robert Chain, the plumber, was convicted of having almost 200 child pornography images — some of the images showed children between 5 and 12-years-old. Persky had suggested that he might be open to reducing Chain’s conviction to a misdemeanor when he sentenced him to four days in the county jail last year.
Persky seemed to to be impressed with the fact that Chain had completed a sex offender management program, had stayed sober, gone to therapy and kept a job.
One of the prosecutors on Chain’s case, Assistant District Attorney Terry Harman, told the LA Times that it is “a judge’s responsibility to recuse him or herself if there are issues of impartiality. ”
“We’re focused on the prosecution of the defendant in this matter. We’re confident that the case will be handled by the bench fairly,” Harman said.
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