Aaron Persky, known piece of shit, entered the halls of history on Tuesday as the first judge to be recalled from his position in California since 1932.
Persky is most famous for giving former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner a mere six-month sentence after he was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman behind a dumpster. He justified his leniency by expressing worry that “a prison sentence would have a severe impact” on the young Turner. Not long after, he was reelected to his seat in an unopposed election.
The Turner case was not the only time that Persky had proven his tolerance for sexual violence and domestic abuse—in a 2011 gang rape lawsuit, Persky allowed defense attorneys to present “scantily-clad pictures” of the survivor to try to disprove the claim that she had suffered PTSD from the attack. And on the very same day as Turner’s sentencing, Persky also gave domestic abuser Ming Hsuan Chiang—whose ex-girlfriend described his beatings as “torture”—a sentencing that amounted to roughly 12 weekends in county jail. As the Guardian reported, this also meant that Chiang would be able to keep his job as a Silicon Valley engineer while serving his time. Because those are the important things to consider here!
The movement to recall Persky started almost immediately after he was reelected to the bench. On Tuesday—two years later—Santa Clara County voters agreed to give him the boot. A woman and Stanford graduate, Assistant District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson, is poised to win the election to replace him.
Persky told the Associated Press last month that he didn’t regret his Brock Turner decision, saying, “I expected some negative reaction. But not this.”
Goodbye Aaron Persky, and may all the doors hit you on the way out.