Dan Turner wrote a letter to the judge who was presiding over his son’s rape case. In the letter the father basically talked about how the system was victimizing his son and how he thought his son shouldn’t get any jail time, because he was champion athlete and all. Didn’t matter that he was caught raping an unconscious girl behind a dumpster. The plea apparently helped because the Judge handed Brock Allen Turner, the “Stanford rapist,” a mere six months for three sexual assault felony charges. That decision has been causing problems for Judge Persky and there is a petition signed by about 900,000 asking for his impeachment.
Many first became aware of the case on Saturday after reading the powerful viral statement directed at the rapist by victim known as “Emily Doe.” Her articulate and gripping account about her experience after she came to went viral and rightfully so. It should be required reading by every teen and adult.
Millions are taking to social media and expressing their feelings about this case. Rather than just commenting, one woman decided to go a step further. Ali Ozeri decided Dan Turner’s letter needed some help and took it upon herself to edit his statement to the judge. Below is her original tweet followed by the typed out transcript for easier reading (compliments of Huffington Post).
As it stands now, Brock’s life has been deeply altered forever by the events (raping an unconscious woman) of Jan 17th and 18th. He will never be his happy go lucky self with that easy going personality and welcoming smile that was there the whole time he was raping a young woman thinking he wouldn’t get caught. His every waking minute is consumed with not taking responsibility for the rape he committed. You can see this in his face, the way he walks, the fact that he took the girl he raped to trial and blamed it on her, his weakened voice, his lack of appetite. Brock always enjoyed certain types of food before he raped someone and and is a very good cook himself. I was always excited to buy him a big rib eye steak to grill, but it just wasn’t the same after he raped an innocent young woman. I had to make sure to hide some of my favorite pretzels or chips because I knew they wouldn’t be around long after Brock walked in from swim practice, but these cute details don’t have anything to do with the rape he committed. Now he barely consumes any foods and eats only to existed because he screwed his own life and many other lives up by raping someone. The verdicts have broken and shattered him and our family in so many ways, because our son is now a rapist. His life will never be the one that he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve, the one where he gets to rape a beautiful strong human being and then go back to his swim meet. This is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action i.e. raping someone one out of his 20 plus years of life. This isn’t like the three second rule for food, rape still counts no matter how many seconds it lasts. This is rape. The fact that he now has to register as a sexual offender for the rest of his life forever alters where he can live, visit, work, rape, and how he will be able to interact with people who don’t want to be raped and organizations who don’t want their employees to be raped. What I know as his father is that incarceration is not the punishment for Brock, but a longer punishment meant for a rapist. He has no prior criminal history (aside from this rape) and has never been violent to anyone (except for the rape) including his “actions” (and you know what that means - rape) on the night of Jan 17th 2015. Bringing up the fact that this was only his first rape is like bringing up that it’s somebody’s first murder or first terror attack, so it’s still a crime. Brock can do so many positive things as a contributor to society, but instead he chose to rape someone, and is totally committed to educating other college students about the dangers of alcohol consumption and sexual promiscuity, which is irrelevant because he should be talking about how he shouldn’t have raped someone. By having people like Brock educate others on college campuses is how society can begin to break the cycle of drinking and its unfortunate results and get misinformation from a rapist with a light sentence. Probation is the best answer for Brock in this situation and allows him to give back to society in an unjust and seriously creepy way.
Very respectfully and Ignorantly,
Dan A. (father of a rapist) Turner
Thank you, Ali Orzeri. This case and issue of campus rape needs to stay in the national discussion until more action is taken.
If you or someone you know is, or has ever been, a victim of rape/sexual assault, there is help. You can find free support via the National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800.656.HOPE (4673) and/or by visiting the Rape, Abuse Incest National Network/online.RAINN.org. If you are in immediate danger, please call 911. And if you can hold on to one thing, remember this — It’s not your fault.
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