Stanford sexual-assault convict to get drug and alcohol counseling
Reporting from San Francisco — The former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexual assault will be required to attend drug and alcohol counseling in addition to being randomly tested after he was caught lying about his high school habits.
Internal probation department communications obtained Tuesday through a public records request show that Brock Turner, 20, will have the counseling requirements added to his probation before his Sept. 2 release from jail.
Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky in June sentenced Turner to six months in jail after a jury convicted him of sexually assaulting a 23-year-old Palo Alto woman passed out outside a campus fraternity house.
The sentence led to a national outcry from many who viewed the jail term as too lenient. The judge is now the target of a recall effort.
Persky also ordered Turner to register as a sex offender for life and ordered him to submit to random drug and alcohol tests. But the judge didn’t require Turner to undergo counseling and the probation report failed to recommend it.
In a June 15 email, probation manager Jana Taylor said Turner will be returned to court and ordered to attend counseling sessions.
She said Turner needs counseling and the department doesn’t “want to be placed in a position in the event we violate him for positive tests and his attorney argue we never modified probation to include counseling.”
Taylor said a judge other than Persky will handle the change in Turner’s probation terms. No court date was mentioned the emails.
In his first interview with a probation officer in May, Turner denied using illegal drugs and said he began drinking only after arriving at Stanford in September 2014. But text messages investigators retrieved from his phone and made public after his June 2 sentencing showed otherwise.
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The probation manager in her June 15 email said Turner again denied using illegal drugs and drinking in high school during a June 14 jailhouse interview. After the publicizing of his texts discussing drug use in high school was pointed out to him, Tuner conceded he was lying. He said he used LSD on three occasions and frequently smoked marijuana in addition to drinking in high school.
The emails also show that Turner asked to be placed into protective custody while in jail after receiving threats.
His attorney Mike Armstrong didn’t respond to a phone call and email placed late Tuesday.
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UPDATES:
8:10 a.m.: Updated with additional background
This article was posted at 6:55 a.m.
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