Embattled Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky, who is currently facing a recall campaign for his controversial sentencing of former Stanford University student-athlete Brock Turner, has recused himself from an upcoming hearing in a child-pornography case.
In a statement filed with the court on Friday, Persky wrote that while on vacation earlier this month, he and his family were exposed to publicity surrounding the case, in which Persky sentenced a 48-year-old San Jose resident who pleaded guilty to a felony child-pornography charge to four days in county jail. The Recall Persky campaign released in early August information and documents related to the sentencing, pointing to it as further evidence of Persky's alleged bias in sex-crime cases.
"This publicity has resulted in a personal family situation such that a person aware of the facts might reasonably entertain a doubt that the judge would be able to be impartial," Persky wrote in his brief statement, which the district attorney's office provided to the Palo Alto Weekly.
Persky was set to oversee a hearing for defendant Robert Chain this Thursday on a motion to have his felony charge reduced to a misdemeanor. This has repeatedly been moved to Oct. 6, and will now be overseen by Judge Kenneth Barnum.
Chain was arrested in Sunnyvale in May 2014 following an investigation conducted by the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and charged the next month with one count of possessing/controlling matter depicting a person under age 18 engaging in or simulating sexual conduct, according to court documents. The crime carries a maximum three-year penalty and no minimum. Persky eventually gave him the four-day sentence, three year's probation and ordered him to register as a sex offender.
Chain's attorney, Brian Madden of San Jose firm Madden & Redding, declined to comment on the record.
Assistant District Attorney Terry Harman said in a statement that "It is a judge's responsibility to recuse him or herself if there are issues of impartiality."
"We're focused on the prosecution of the defendant in this matter," she said. "We're confident that the case will be handled by the bench fairly."
Michele Dauber, the Stanford law professor who is chairing the Recall Persky effort, told the Weekly that the campaign is "relieved" Persky won't be handling this case.
"Judge Perksy's record in child-pornography cases shows he's biased when compared with every other judge in Santa Clara County," she said, pointing to research the campaign conducted on sentencing outcomes for 14 similar felony possession of child-pornography cases in Santa Clara County that showed every other defendant received a sentence of six months. Chain's case was the only one overseen by Persky, according to the recall campaign.
The Palo Alto Weekly has created Storify pages to capture ongoing coverage of the Brock Turner case as well as sexual-assault issues at Stanford University. To view them, go to storify.com/paloaltoweekly.
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