State appellate court rejects Brock Turner’s appeal of his sexual assault conviction

A 6th District Court of Appeal panel on Wednesday rejected the appeal of former Stanford University student Brock Turner, who was convicted on three counts of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in 2015. [ruling attached below]

Turner disputed the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction.

"The jury reasonably could have inferred from the foregoing evidence that, at the time of Jane 1's interaction with defendant ... she was too intoxicated to exercise reasonable judgment ... and thus could not give legal consent," wrote Acting Presiding Justice Franklin D. Elia.

Mill Valley defense attorney Eric Multhaup claimed Turner only engaged in "sexual outercourse," which he said excludes vaginal sex, and that the evidence did not meet the standard to convict on intent to rape.

The jury "filled in the blanks" to reach its conclusion, he said.

The case drew national attention when former Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Turner to six months in county jail, of which he served half. People v. Turner, H043709 (Santa Clara Super. Ct., filed June 2, 2016). He must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life as a result of his conviction.

Persky, who became the first judge in 86 years to be recalled, lost his seat on the Santa Clara County Superior Court bench in June. He was recalled by a 60-40 majority and replaced by former Santa Clara County Assistant District Attorney Cindy Hendrickson.

The recall campaign, headed by Stanford Law School Professor Michele Dauber, cast Persky as the face of a broken criminal justice system failing to properly address violence against women. Elia also concluded the jury's conviction was reasonable because Turner ran from graduate students who confronted him when they saw him with the woman, who appeared to be unconscious, and later lied about running when he talked to police.

Justices Adrienne M. Grover and Wendy C. Duffy joined Elia's opinion.