Judicial Mulligans for Stanford in Santa Clara?

Photo of a bizarre creature from the depths of
the Norwegian Sea taken by Roman Fedortsov 

One of my guilty online pleasures is logging into my Twitter account (@culturegeist) and checking in with some of the almost 1,800 Twitter accounts I follow to try and get a sense of what people and organizations are thinking, feeling and saying about news and current events.

Unlike Trump, who uses his Twitter account like a spigot for his lies, kooky propaganda and incessant whining, I enjoy using Twitter to follow people who have knowledge about topics that interest me.

Be it a journalist, politician, NASA scientist, or Roman Fedortsov, a Russian fisherman who works on a fishing trawler in Murmansk and enjoys posting photos of really bizarre deep sea creatures that get pulled up in the nets.
  
The cuddly fellow on the left is just a small example of the weird life forms he chronicles, for more check out @fedortsov - after you eat.

I never studied economics in college, but as a self-professed political junkie, I am fascinated by the subject, so in addition to reading Nobel laureate-winning economist and Princeton professor Paul Krugman's column in the New York Times, I also follow his posts on Twitter (@PaulKrugman).

One of the more interesting takes on various issues relating to economics I follow on Twitter is a woman who tweets under the pseudonym Ninja Economics (@NinjaEconomics).

Like Krugman, she finds creative ways to intertwine economics, politics and current events in her tweets, and she doesn't make the subject too "highbrow" - so it remains accessible.

A few weeks ago she sent me a message on Twitter about a strange and troubling story about the selective prosecutorial tendencies of the Santa Clara County (California) District Attorney's office when it comes to defendants accused of violent crimes who happen to have ties with Stanford University.

Two-tier justice in the American legal system is a recurring topic of focus on this blog, and this story involving the Santa Clara County DA sheds some light on the ways in which sexual assault against women too often goes under-punished - and privilege and race too often shield individuals who've committed violent felonies from facing substantive legal repercussions for their actions.

So I thought it'd be interesting to take a closer look as Ninja Economics asked me to share the story.

Ex-Stanford University swimmer Brock Turner 

To make better sense of this, let's quickly look back at a case that made national media headlines just a couple years ago.

While it's hardly front-page news from the standpoint of mainstream media coverage, today September 2nd marks the two-year anniversary of what was widely considered one of the more absurd miscarriages of justice in recent American history.

For many in this country, the name Brock Turner has largely faded from the mainstream media spotlight, but many recall the "Stanford Swimmer rape case."

As the Wikipedia summary of the incident notes, sometime around 1am on January 18, 2015, two Swedish graduate students were biking on the Stanford campus near the Kappa Alpha fraternity house when they saw the then 20-year-old Turner behind a dumpster on top of an unconscious 22-year-old female student identified only as "Jane Doe" in court proceedings.

When the two grad students jumped off their bikes and confronted Turner, he tried to run, but one of the students ran after him, tackled him, and with the help of the other grad student, held him until police arrived.

Turner, a member of Stanford's swim team and an Olympic hopeful, was arrested, charged, tried and as Wikipedia summarized, eventually "found guilty of three felonies: assault with the attempt to rape an intoxicated woman, sexually penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object, and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object."

While the maximum possible sentence was 14 years, prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of six years for Turner, but Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky stunned observers by sentencing Turner to just six months in the Santa Clara County jail - plus three months of probation.

Ex-Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky

Then, on September 6, 2016 judge Persky released Turner after he'd served just three months behind bars.

Ensuing outrage over the sentence prompted a grassroots effort spearheaded by Stanford law professor Michelle Dauber and an organization called Recall Judge Aaron Persky made up of volunteers who were successful in getting the thousands of signatures required to get a special recall election on the California ballot.

Many citizens and advocates of stronger domestic violence and sexual assault laws were troubled by the fact that Persky was a Stanford University graduate who'd played lacrosse in college.

To many, the perception that Persky's allegiance to Stanford, and concerns about the negative impact on the prestigious university's reputation as one of the top schools in the nation, clouded his perception of Turner - a talented college athlete on one of the country's best swimming teams.

Some saw that as the real reasoning behind Persky's decision to sentence Brock Turner to just six months in jail for the felony rape and assault of a defenseless, inebriated 22-year old woman who was unconscious at the time.

Many felt that the case was an example of the two-tier justice that too often plagues the American judicial system, a system where young white people from privileged backgrounds who commit felonies are viewed differently than young Hispanic or Africa-American men who commit the same kinds of felonies.

Particularly after Persky openly admitted that he'd worried that "a prison sentence would have a sever impact on him" before he handed down what was effectively a slap on the wrist for Turner for a violent sexual assault of an unconscious woman.

Ethan Couch after being arrested in Mexico

The Turner decision had echoes of the infamous "affluenza" case back in 2013 in which 16-year-old white teenager Ethan Couch was sentenced to probation in a cushy rehab facility because Tarrant County Judge Jean Hudson Boyd reasoned that his wealthy upbringing and being spoiled by his parents had prevented Couch from understanding the concept of being responsible for his actions.

She termed this condition "affluenza" and was widely criticized, considering that she gave another 16-year old teen named Eric Miller 20 years in jail for killing a man while driving drunk in 2004.

Back on June 15, 2013 Ethan Couch was drunk and on Valium when he lost control of a pickup truck he was driving at 70 mph in a 40 mph zone on a residential street in Burleson, Texas.

The ensuing crash killed four people (including a pastor and woman and her daughter who'd stopped to help another driver fix a flat tire) and injuring nine others.

Including a passenger in the truck he was driving who was left permanently paralyzed and only able to communicate by blinking his eyes.

When video surfaced on social media of Couch drinking at a beer pong party in 2015, and he failed to report in to probation officers as required by the court, a national manhunt ensued and Couch and his mother were eventually found and arrested in the Mexican resort city of Puerto Vallarta - where she'd helped him to flee the U.S.

Couch was sentenced to two years in jail for violating his probation and was released back in April to continue the original probation he was sentenced to in 2013 for killing four people.

Now I think it's important to have digressed from the Brock Turner case because while a number of judges and prosecutors in California disagreed with Santa Clara County voters efforts to remove Judge Aaron Persky from the bench because he sentenced Turner to just six months in jail, the outrage by citizens and legal experts alike didn't just happen in some vacuum.

Remember, in 2016 when Turner was released after three months in jail, media headlines were also being dominated by the nine high profile cases of unarmed African-Americans who'd been killed by police officers for no justifiable reason - beginning with Eric Gardner in Staten Island in 2014.

Ex- Santa Clara County Assistant DA
Cindy Hendrickson

For perspective, Turner was released from jail in September, 2016, just two months after Baton Rouge, Louisiana PD officers shot and killed Alton Sterling after confronting him for selling CD's in front of a convenience store, and elementary school cafeteria manager Philando Castile was shot and killed inside his vehicle after being pulled over for a broken tail light in Minnesota.

Neither of the officers responsible for those deaths were found legally responsible for their actions, so there was clearly a lot of frustration and anger over the failure of the court system to hold people accountable for their actions.

On June 5, 2018, Santa Clara County citizens voted to remove judge Aaron Persky from the bench - the first time in 80 years that California voters elected to remove a sitting judge from the bench.

Interestingly, Persky was replaced by an assistant district attorney from the Santa Clara County DA's office named Cindy Hendrickson - whose questionable oversight of a case involving an individual with ties to Stanford University has also caused controversy.

Back in the spring, Hendrickson made headlines herself over a controversial case involving a troubled Stanford University researcher named Alana Pague.

As Roger Whitacre reported for Patch.com back in May, the 32-year-old Pague was accused of hacking into computer devices to illegally obtain personal photographs and video from her ex-boyfriend Drew Moxon.

In a civil lawsuit filed in the California Superior Court Moxon accused Pague and her mother Ana of trying to blackmail him and his girlfriend Cynthia Phan by threatening to release intimate personal photos and videos surreptitiously taken of them to friends and family if he didn't agree to pay Pague money every month.

As Whitacre reported, three days after Moxon called police to report that Pague had threatened him with a knife, she stole that his vehicle and kidnapped their child, Jude Alexander Moxon.

Alan Pague and the child she kidnapped 

Fortunately Pague did return the child (pictured left) but as the then-assistant DA responsible for reviewing the charges related to the kidnapping and blackmail threats, Cindy Hendrickson declined to file charges against Pague and rejected the case.

She also refused to offer any comment about the criminal investigation.

One of the things that's odd about this case is the lack of local media coverage about it.

If you read details of the lawsuit on a Go Fund Me page set up by the plaintiff to help with legal expenses, the lawsuit accuses Pague (pictured left), an Uber driver and someone described as a "San Francisco millionaire" of conspiring to threaten to release intimate video of Moxon and his girlfriend Cynthia Phan in what's come to be known as "revenge porn" - releasing intimate video to enact revenge or shake someone down for cash. 

What's also odd about Cindy Hendrickson refusing to file charges in this case is that Alan Pague admitted to the Mountain View Police Department that she did illegally obtain the video and kidnap she and Moxon's child - so why hasn't she been charged by the Santa Clara County DA's office?

According to an article posted on AngryGamer.net, throughout her campaign for judge, Hendrickson has consistently refused to even answer questions about the case, even though she's been repeatedly asked about it on social media.

Santa Clara County is also home to Mountain View, CA which is essentially the epicenter of Silicon Valley and home to some of the leading computer technology companies including Google, Symantec and Mozilla.

It's situated in close proximity to both San Francisco and is also the home of Stanford University.

Does the as-yet unidentified "San Francisco millionaire" named in the lawsuit alongside Alana Pague have ties to Stanford as well?

Former DA now-judge Cindy Hendrickson certainly does - as her Twitter profile shows, like the man she replaced, Judge Aaron Persky, she's also a Stanford Alum.

So while there are complex sides to the lawsuit against Alana Pague, it's legitimate to ask if her being an employee of Stanford University has influenced the decision of the Santa Clara County DA's office not to file charges against her.

A majority of Santa Clara County voters clearly felt Aaron Persky's ties to Stanford influenced his decision to allow convicted rapist Brock Turner to walk after serving just three months in jail.

So there certainly is the appearance of two-tier justice in Santa Clara County, and it's fair to ask if the DA's office there is effectively handing out judicial mulligans to people who commit felonies simply because they have ties to Stanford.

"Affluenza" - Texas District Judge Jean Boyd's Blind Justice

Texas District Judge Jean Boyd

By now a healthy percentage of the world's population are collectively scratching their heads and trying to figure out exactly what planet Texas judge Jean Boyd (pictured left) is living on.

She presides over the 323rd Family District court that serves Tarrant County, Texas.

While I can't judge her entire legal career based on one case, her recent decision is a testament to the massive inequities inherent in the US justice system.

But her legal rationale and competence to serve on the Texas bar must be questioned in the wake of her issuing one of the most absurd sentences in recent memory after being duped into buying the shaky "affluenza" defense theory cooked up by sixteen year-old Ethan Couch's high-priced defense team.

This story has exploded across the media landscape but let's just quickly review the facts.

Back in June, Couch and his friends stole beer from a Walmart just outside the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and headed off to a party.

With three times the legal alcohol content for an adult over 21 and Valium in his system, Couch gets into his pickup with friends. 400 yards down the road, doing 70 mph in a 40 mph zone he hits four people; Breanna Mitchell, Holly and Shelby Boyles (a mother and daughter who'd stopped to help Mitchell fix a flat) and youth pastor Brian Jennings who'd also stopped to help.

Aside from the four people killed, Couch's fifteen year-old friend Sergio Molina was ejected from the truck and paralyzed (he can now only communicate with his eyes) and fifteen year-old Solimon Mohman suffered internal injuries and multiple bone fractures.

But judge Boyd decides Couch's mother and father's immense wealth, lack of discipline and bad parenting rendered the teen incapable of knowing that stealing beer from a store and getting into his pickup drunk were wrong - so he couldn't be held responsible. Or "affluenza" as a defense expert called it.

So for theft, DUI, four counts of vehicular manslaughter and speeding judge Boyd gives Couch 10 years probation and rather than jail, sentences him to a cushy alcohol rehab facility that looks like a cross between a ski chalet in Vail and a Fantasy Island getaway.

In a state notorious for harsh sentencing and a "get tough on crime" approach that includes boot camps for some juvenile offenders, judge Jean Boyd's decision certainly offers us insight into why Department of Justice statistics show black American males are incarcerated at a rate six times higher than that of white males.

It's also a stark example of how the US justice system works differently for people with wealth than it does for those without.

The sad but unspoken truth of this case is that had Ethan Couch been a poor sixteen year-old Hispanic or African-American male, bad parenting or a dysfunctional upbringing wouldn't even have been considered as an excuse by a judge; they would have just locked him away.

In this case it was the money, not justice, that was served. Affluenza indeed.