Brock Turner Registers As A Sex Offender In His Home State Of Ohio [Video]

Brock Turner, the assailant in the Stanford rape case, has officially registered as a sex offender in his home state of Ohio. The former Stanford University swimmer, who was convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman in January of last year, was released after serving half of his six-month sentence last Friday. As per the requirements of his sentence, he registered as a sex offender on Tuesday.

The 21-year-old came to the Greene County Sheriff’s office to sign the necessary paperwork in order to register as a Tier III sex offender. Brock was accompanied by his parents, and there were several reporters waiting for him there. His mother attempted to cover his face from the cameras using a white sweater as he filled out the necessary forms. This lasted for about 20 minutes, after which Brock left with his parents. He offered no comments to the media.

Brock, who had five days to register as a Tier III sex offender in the sheriff’s office of his home state, will be required to repeat the whole process in December. According to the court’s requirement, besides having to serve a three-year probation, he will also have to register as a sex offender four times a year for the rest of his life.

Brock Turner, 20, was found guilty for his involvement in the Stanford rape case and was set to face a penalty of up to 14 years in a state prison. However, in his hearing on June, Judge Aaron Persky of the Santa Clara County Superior Court sentenced Turner to six months in a county prison followed by a three-year probation, arguing that a harsher sentence would have a severe impact on the then 20-year-old. The decision was met with a lot of outrage, not only from the victim, but from the general public as well.

The loophole that allowed Judge Aaron Persky to give Brock such a lenient sentence has since been fixed by California lawmakers. It turned out that California law required penetration by the penis for an assault to be considered rape. Since DNA evidence had shown no sign of penile penetration, Brock was only charged of three counts: assault with an intent to commit rape, penetration of an intoxicated person, and the penetration of an unconscious person. This meant that there was no actual rape according to the law, and hence the judge was justified of his lenient sentencing even though the prosecutors had sought a six year sentence.

California lawmakers have since proposed and unanimously passed a new legislation that details harsher prison sentences for anyone convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious person.

Carl-Fredrik Arndt, the man who famously rescued the 23-year old grad student from Brock Turner, recounted the events of the night during an interview in June. In it, Arndt stated that he and his friend Peter Jonsson were cycling through campus near the Kappa Alpha fraternity house on Jan 2015 when they saw something suspicious going on behind a dumpster. The men saw Turner on top of a seemingly unconscious, semi-naked woman, and immediately figured something was wrong. The woman was not moving, but Turner was “aggressively thrusting his hips into her.” Once they intervened, an alarmed Turner tried to flee, but the students tackled him and pinned him down until the police arrived and arrested him.

“We can see that she isn’t moving at all but he is moving a lot. So we stop and think that there is something strange going on.

“Peter walks over and asks what he is doing and I am following him. When he stands up we see that she still isn’t moving, even the slightest, so we approach and ask something like: ‘What the hell are you doing?'”

Many believe that Brock, who will have to register as a sex offender every three months for the rest of his life, deserved a harsher sentence. His lenient sentence has been pointed out as a prime example of white privilege in the United States judicial system. In contrast, there are cases such as that of football player Brian Banks, a black teenager who was falsely accused of rape at 16. Banks, who was tried as an adult, was told by his lawyer that he stood no chance against the jury and was such forced to accept a plea deal, which put him in prison for 12 years.

[Images via Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office]