Aaron Persky: Judge in Brock Turner Case Hands Down Harsher Sentence To Immigrant With Similar Charges

Aaron Persky, the Santa Clara County Superior Court judge who gave former Stanford swimmer, Brock Turner, six months in jail for felony sexual assault, isn’t being as sympathetic with another man who was convicted of similar charges.

The Guardian reports that Persky will hand down a three-year prison sentence to Raul Ramirez, 32, an immigrant from El Salvador, who, as part of a plea deal, admitted to sexually assaulting his roommate. The case is similar to Turner’s case, who was found guilty of sexually assaulting a female behind a Stanford frat house dumpster.

In both cases, the defendants were charged with sexual assault, yet Ramirez’s experience, starting from the point of his arrest and throughout his experience with the legal system, is in stark contrast when compared to Turner’s.

In November 2014, Ramirez was arrested at his home in Santa Clara County after his female roommate called 911. She told police that he had entered her room and sexually assaulted her with his fingers for at least 10 minutes. He stopped when she started crying.

According to one of the officers dispatched to the victim’s home, Ramirez immediately confessed and admitted he knew he was wrong.

“Ramirez knew what he did was wrong and he wanted to say sorry.”

After his arrest, Ramirez’s bail was set at $200,000, whereas Turner’s was set at $150,000. Both Ramirez and Turner have no prior felony convictions and were both detained in the same county.

However, it’s not Ramirez’s three-year sentence that most people are upset about. In fact, many legal experts agree that it’s the standard amount of time given when a plea deal for this sort of crime is reached (for a first offense). Instead, it’s the simple fact that Persky seemed to go out of his way to ensure Turner got a light sentence, at least according to numerous critics.

Additionally, Persky had the ability to help negotiate a better deal for Ramirez before he took the plea deal, similar to what he did for Turner, but failed to do so. Now that Ramirez took a plea agreement with no room for a lighter sentence or probation, Perksy doesn’t have the type of leeway with sentencing as he did with the Turner case.

Stanford professor Michele Landis Dauber stated that this is even more of a reason for Persky to be recalled as a judge. Numerous people came forward after the Turner case and expressed their views on why Persky shouldn’t be a judge anymore. According to Dauber, the Ramirez case is another reason that justifies the public’s concern.

“This just shows that our concern about Judge Persky’s ability to be unbiased is justified. We continue to think that he abused his discretion in giving an unduly lenient sentence to Turner.”

Dauber also added that the plea deal Ramirez was given “shows that Turner got consideration not available to other defendants who aren’t as privileged.”

Alexander Cross, a defense lawyer who represented Ramirez briefly, stated that privileged defendants have high-priced private attorneys who can convince the judge that prison time would hurt their athletic careers, school, or current employment. In turn, these defendants often get much better sentencing deals when compared to people without the means to hire the same legal representation. In other words, per Cross, for people such as Ramirez, “society is not exactly suffering a loss. At least, that’s not how it’s looked upon.”

Billboard for judge #aaronpersky removal sparks move to back Persky. #BrockTurner https://t.co/Qp0svERK1y pic.twitter.com/6rlqNGKnVe

— Robert Handa (@RHandaNBC) June 22, 2016

Over a million people have already signed a petition to remove Persky from his judicial duties. The judge was recently removed from an upcoming sexual assault case after the district attorney’s office indicated that it “lack(s) confidence” in his judgement.

Judge Aaron Persky is restricted from commenting on pending cases. Ramirez’s attorney haven’t yet returned calls for comments.

[Photo by Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department]