Let us be clear:
It should not matter whether Brock Turner was an alcoholic on the night he committed rape in January 2015 or if it had never had a drink prior to that night.
Turner was found guilty on three counts of sexual assault after he stuck his fingers and other objects in the vagina of an unconscious woman who was passed out on the street near a dumpster.
Those are the only facts that matter.
HOWEVER, in arguing for a lenient sentence from the judge in this controversial case, Turner claimed he was new to the partying scene as a Stanford freshman and blamed his actions on that night on binge drinking.
“Coming from a small town in Ohio, I had never really experienced celebrating or partying that involved alcohol,” Turner wrote to the judge.
It turns out he was lying.
In prosecutor Alaleh Kiancerci’s sentencing memo (obtained by The San Jose Mercury News), it appears clear that Turner had a history of both alcohol and drug use.
The main pieces of evidence here are text messages and videos found on Turner’s cellphone.
And they point to someone who engaged in plenty of extracurricular activities as a high school student.
The memo notes that there was “video depicting the defendant smoking from a bong and drinking out of a bottle of liquor immediately after taking a ‘bong hit.”
It also says that Turner once “sent a message to [a friend] that stated, ‘Do you think I could buy some wax so we could do some dabs?’”
Dabs, the memo explains, “are a highly concentrated potent form of marijuana that is a THC [tetrahydrocannabinol] concentrated mass.”
There were also text messages making a mention to “doing acid or trying to find a ‘hookup’ to purchase acid both in high school and while at Stanford.””
On December 24, 2014, for example, Turner was sent a text message that read:
“I’ve got a hankerin for a good acid trip when we get back.”
Turner wrote back:
“I’m down for sure.”
The there was July 25, 2014, when Turner then bragged to a pal about doing acid and “candy flipping.”
According to the document, candy flipping is when a person ingests both LSD and MDMA together.
This case has gone viral because Turner could have been sentenced to 14 years in state prison, but a judge said he worried about the “impact” such a punishment would have and only sentenced Turner to six months in county jail.
The victim responded with a moving statement and Turner’s father responded with a despicable statement:
There have been calls for Aaron Persky to be recalled from the bench in light of his sentencing and the reasoning behind it.
In the end, however, this all comes back to the victim and her powerful words in court. She is all that should matter here.
“I remain anonymous, to protect my identity. But it is also a statement that all of these people are fighting for someone they don’t know,” she told Turner in front of the judge.
“That’s the beauty of it.
“I don’t need labels, categories, to prove I am worthy of respect, to prove that I should be listened to. I am coming out to you as simply a woman wanting to be heard. Yes, there is plenty more I’d like to tell you about me. For now, I am every woman.”
