In the early hours of January 18th, 2015, two lives were forever changed.
One became a victim, the other a registered sex offender. The latter of the two most definitely deserves his new identity, but he should have paid a much higher price. Brock Turner, I have been following your case from the very beginning, and I have a few words for you.
For one reason or another, you do not think you should have to live with the weight of this case on your shoulders. Most recently, you have stated that you would like your case overturned, which ultimately means that you'd like to pretend as if all of this never happened.
You do not want to be known as the Stanford freshman who sexually assaulted someone outside of a fraternity house. I don't think that anyone would want that label, but you get what you give.
You are a coward. You are a predator. You are evil.
Your father believes that "20 minutes of action" was not enough to taint your reputation as the Stanford swimmer. You know what? Had you not made the conscientious decision to ultimately ruin somebody else's life, you could still be the Olympic-hopeful that everyone knew and loved.
You could've had it all.
Instead, you chose to rape an unconscious, intoxicated woman behind a dumpster and blame it on alcohol consumption and "sexual promiscuity," whilst also claiming that it was consensual. It's been said before, and I'll say it again:
Somebody who is under heavy influence of drugs and/or alcohol is not able to give proper consent.
No matter how much you'd like to believe she wanted it, too, she did not. She does not remember anything from the incident, and you knew that she likely had too much to drink, so you are the only one at fault here.
Do not blame this on any sexual tendencies she may have had, while at a BAC over three times the legal limit, she was incapable of giving ANY consent. How would you feel if you woke up in a hospital, only to find out later that you were raped at a frat party? Not only that, she was informed of this through the internet and television news.
I want you to take a moment to think about how traumatizing this must have been for her.
Judge Persky was concerned that an actual prison sentence would have "a severe impact" on you, never mind the fact that there is someone out there who probably lost countless hours of sleep because of what you did to her.
Hopefully, you were listening to her 7,000-word statement that she read to you directly at your sentencing on June 2, 2016. Having read the whole thing myself, I found it to be very powerful and emotional, but one of the opening lines is the most iconic by far:
You don't know me, but you've been inside me, and that's why we're here today.
That in itself is enough reason for you to live with the consequences of your actions.
You claim that you would “give anything to change what happened," but would you really? If so, with whose wellbeing in mind? What you did was outwardly selfish, inhumane, and wrong. I'm not sure how many times you'll need to be told that before you finally accept the punishments you HAVE been given.
For what it's worth, you received a VERY lenient punishment. You were sentenced six months in a county jail — not even a federal prison — to only serve half of that due to "good behavior"? Meanwhile, the woman you inflicted inexplicable pain upon will deal with what happened for the rest of her life.
You may be known as the former Stanford swimmer, but you will ALWAYS be a registered sex offender in the state of Ohio. Unfortunately, your previous credentials will always remain with you in the eyes of society, but it does not change the fact that what you did is irreversible.
If anything, following your story has taught me that some things in life are simply unfair. I hope that you will eventually accept that what you did was wrong and that you'll strive to become a better person. I think that would be a long shot, as you will never be able to erase what you did. That in itself could never excuse the injustices your victim faced through all of this, but I hope she knows that there are so many people on her side. Though her identity remains anonymous to the public, she prevailed with dignity, strength, and courage, and she set an example for sexual assault victims nationwide to speak up.
You will not win this one, Mr. Turner.
