Aaron Persky

Michael Aaron Persky is an American judge sitting on the Superior Court of California, County of Santa Clara. Prior to joining the bench, he practiced civil litigation for five years and was a prosecutor in Santa Clara County for six years.

Early life and education

Michael Aaron Persky was born in 1962.^[5] His father, Michael Persky, was a psychiatrist of Jewish descent.^[6] His mother, Susan Elder, was a French teacher.^[7] His paternal grandparents owned a poultry business.^[6] He grew up in San Francisco, California.^[7]

Persky graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University^[8] in 1984^[9] with a bachelor's degree in international relations.^[10] He was the captain of the Stanford men's lacrosse team,^[8] a club sport.^[9] He received a master's degree in international policy studies from Stanford^[10] in 1985.^[9]

He graduated from the UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) in 1990^[9] and was admitted to the bar in California in the same year.^[5] After college, he played for the Berkeley club lacrosse team, for which he was also a captain.

Legal career

Persky worked for the law firm of Morrison & Foerster, practicing corporate civil litigation.^[8][11] While in private practice, he received the California Association of Human Relations Organizations' Civil Rights Leadership Award for work on hate crimes, and the State Bar of California's Wiley Manuel Pro Bono Award for his pro bono work for the poor.^[11]

In 1997, Persky joined the Santa Clara District Attorney's Office.^[11] In this position, he prosecuted criminal offenses which included violent sex crimes and hate crimes. He served on the executive committee of the Support Network for Battered Women and the Santa Clara County Network for a Hate-Free Community.^[8]

By 2003, Persky was a deputy district attorney in the Santa Clara District Attorney's Office and prosecuted juvenile offenders; he was also a member of the DA's Juvenile Wards Team.^[8]

Judicial career

In 2002, Persky unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Superior Court of California in Santa Clara County,^[8] losing to Ron Del Pozzo, who was also a deputy DA.^[10][12] Persky received 102,801 votes (47.9%), to Del Pozzo's 111,679 votes (52.1%) for Seat 16 on the court.^[12] In his 2002 run, Persky was endorsed by the Santa Clara County Bar Association (and its Women Lawyers Committee)^[10] and by the San Jose Mercury News, while Del Pozzo received the endorsement of Sheriff Laurie Smith, U.S. Representatives Zoe Lofgren and Mike Honda, and the AFL-CIO. Both candidates ran a positive race.^[12]

Persky received an appointment to the court from California Governor Gray Davis the following year.^[8]

He is the former Chair of the Court’s Community Outreach Committee.^[13]

In June 2016, Persky was elected without opposition for another six-year term on the bench.^[14] The vast majority of Santa Clara County judges—25 in total— ran unopposed in 2016.^[10][15]

In August 2016, Persky requested to be transferred from criminal to civil court, citing unwanted scrutiny and attention stemming from his ruling in the Turner case.^[16]

Alleged gang rape by De Anza College athletes

In 2011, Persky presided over a civil lawsuit against multiple members of the De Anza college baseball team, who were accused by the underage plaintiff of gang-raping her while she was unconscious until passersby intervened. The district attorney had decided not to file criminal charges over the 2007 incident.^[17] During the civil trial, Persky decided that the jury should be allowed to view seven photos of the plaintiff taken at a party she attended approximately a year after the alleged gang rape, as per the defense's claim that this evidence contradicted the plaintiff's claims. The plaintiff's attorney, who argued the photos were irrelevant, described this decision as prejudicial against her client.^[18] The jury found the defendants not liable.^[19]

Turner sentencing criticism

In 2016, Persky received international media attention and widespread criticism for sentencing Brock Allen Turner, a 20-year-old Stanford student convicted of three felony counts of sexual assault, to six months in jail and three years of probation.^[8] The statutory maximum sentence was fourteen years; prosecutors sought a six-year term, while the Santa Clara County Probation Department, in its presentence investigation report, recommended a six-month term in county jail, and the defense asked for a four-month term in county jail.^[20][21] During sentencing, Persky said he considered the factors noted by the Probation Office and the "severe impact" of imprisonment on the defendant's life.^[21]

Legal experts viewed the sentence in the case as unusually light.^[15][21] Subsequently, District Attorney Rosen filed a peremptory challenge to Persky presiding over the criminal trial of a surgical nurse charged with sexual battery.^[22] One juror in the Turner case wrote to Persky that his sentence was “ridiculously lenient” and made a “mockery” of the entire trial.^[23] Danny Cevallos, a Pennsylvania based criminal defense lawyer and CNN legal analyst, said that while the sentence was lenient, Turner's prior clean record made him a candidate for minimum sentencing.^[21] (Following the controversy, the Associated Press analyzed 20 cases where Persky had passed sentence since January 2015 and found that Persky had followed the sentencing recommendation of the probation department every time).^[24]

Recall campaign

An organization named "Recall Judge Persky" was established seeking to collect the 80,000 signatures of county voters required to hold a special recall election.^[8][14][15] The organizer of the petition is Stanford law professor Michele Dauber.^[23][25] As of November 2, 2016, over 1.3 million people had signed a change.org petition to remove Persky from the bench. Other petitions related to the case at moveon.org and We the People gained over 100,000 signatures each.^[26]

The move to recall Persky was opposed by the Santa Clara County public defender, who said she is "alarmed by the hysteria" about the Turner sentence. Santa Clara County district attorney Jeff Rosen, whose office prosecuted Turner and will not appeal the sentence, stated "While I strongly disagree with the sentence that Judge Persky issued in the Brock Turner case, I do not believe he should be removed from his judgeship."^[8] At the same time, Rosen's office asked to have Persky removed as the judge in an upcoming sexual assault trial, saying that he had lost confidence that the judge could “fairly participate” in the case.^[23] Persky has formed a committee to fight the recall effort, called "Retain Judge Persky -- No Recall".^[27]

The Post reports that a former Santa Clara County judge called the sentence a clear example of “bias” and “white privilege.”^[23]

References