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.

America's Situational Attorney General

El Tiempo Cantina faced social media backlash after
posting a photo of Jeff Sessions' visit last Friday

With the appointment of Attorney General Jeff Sessions in 2017, Americans have witnessed the nation's top law enforcement official using his office as a platform to enforce principles that reflect a combination of his own brand of religious fundamentalism, and the rigid, right-wing "Fox News" ideology that has come to define the Republican Party.

His media footprint hasn't exactly been a positive one, either for himself, the Department of Justice, or the Trump administration.

This past weekend Sessions made headlines after a massive social media backlash forced El Tiempo Cantina, a Tex-Mex restaurant in Houston, Texas that he visited last Friday, to shut down their social media accounts because of a flood of criticism after someone posted a photo of the smiling AG standing next to what appears to be a chef (pictured above).

Now if Sessions was under the impression that visiting a Tex-Mex restaurant and taking a selfie with one of the guys who cooked his ethnic food would distract from the fact that he's now widely vilified for championing locking up non-white asylum seekers, banning Muslims from entering the country and separating the innocent children of undocumented immigrants from their parents, he was sadly mistaken.

Sessions was in Houston reportedly meeting with local law enforcement officials to discuss the enforcement of the Trump administration's controversial immigration policies.

Likely on that agenda are the approximately 360 children of asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants who are still locked away in facilities around the U.S. - innocent kids stuck in incarcerated limbo who've yet to be reunited with their parents as ordered by a federal judge weeks ago.

Despite the Tex-Mex restaurant flap, and Houston's notorious jungle-like humidity in August,
Sessions was probably relieved to be as far away from Washington, D.C. as possible.

Hillary-bashing Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy questions
FBI Agent Peter Strzok during July 12th hearings

Especially after the whiny tweet sent out on Saturday by a raving Donald Trump, who was holed up over the weekend at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club - fuming in the midst of one of his frequent tantrums about the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

The unhinged POTUS used his social media account to accuse Sessions of being "scared stiff" and "Missing in Action".


Now 45 tweeted that nonsensical, juvenile claptrap to his followers despite the fact that longtime senior FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok was recently fired by FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich as a result of a lengthy internal investigation conducted by Inspector General Michael Horowitz that revealed a number of private text messages that the married Strzok sent to his then-girlfriend (former FBI attorney Lisa Page) that were highly critical of Trump.

Even though Strzok insisted under oath during a contentious Congressional hearing back in July that his personal opinion of Trump did not interfere with his ability to conduct counterintelligence investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections, some Republicans seized on the text messages as proof of the concocted "Deep State" conspiracy that alleges an internal government "plot" to topple the floundering Trump presidency.

As the New York Times reported on Monday, Strzok's attorney Aitan Goelman told reporters:

"The decision to fire Special Agent Strzok is not only a departure from typical bureau practice, but also contradicts FBI Director Christopher Wray's testimony to Congress and his assurances that the FBI intended to follow its regular process in this and all personnel matters."

FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich

As the Times reported, while the IG report was critical of Strzok's personal text messages given his senior role in both the investigation of Hillary Clinton's email server as well as the investigation into Russian interference, the FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility recommended a 60-day suspension.

But Bowdich, the bureau's deputy director, dismissed the OPR recommendation and fired Strzok, a 20-year veteran of the FBI considered one of the most senior counterintelligence agents in the bureau.

Strzok's firing effectively nullified his ability to collect his government pension and health benefits, so the dismissal was clearly intended to please Trump's childish need for petty vindictiveness against anyone who disagrees with him or criticizes his policies or decisions.

Now I'm not an "FBI insider" or anything, but I don't think Strzok's firing was Bowdich's call; the high-profile firing of a respected career-FBI Special Agent, is not something that's going to be left up to a deputy director.

Especially a dismissal with clear political implications just three months before a mid-term election.

Bowdich was the man tapped to replace former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who was famously fired by Jeff Sessions back on March 16th just 26 hours before he was scheduled to retire in a highly-politicized firing that denied McCabe (a 22-year veteran of the FBI) his pension and benefits.

But if you take a quick look at Bowdich's resume, the former Albuquerque Police Officer distinguished himself as an exceptional FBI agent (like McCabe he previously served on the FBI's SWAT team), it doesn't seem like he's one for the kind of partisan back-stabbing that Trump delights in using to try and protect himself from the Mueller investigation.

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe 

There's little question that Jeff Sessions was behind the blatantly-politicized, vindictive pettiness that was behind Strzok's firing - but he ordered Bowdich to do it to avoid the kind of criticism and charges of cronyism he received after firing McCabe back in March.

So two different widely-respected and accomplished FBI senior officials, each with more than 20 years of service, fired based on trumped-up charges in order to appease Trump.

Yet Trump STILL took to Twitter to suggest Sessions was "scared stiff" and "Missing in Action"?

Why would Trump publicly make such unsubstantiated and inflammatory accusations about his own attorney general?

Apparently because Sessions hasn't publicly defended Trump's own rampant incompetence, myriad ethical lapses, lengthy trail of documented lies and lack of morality more vigorously.

Remarkably, Trump's criticism of Sessions (a man he appointed) seems to suggest that he's still laboring under the misconception that the attorney general of the United States, and head of the Justice Department, is supposed to also function as the president's personal defense lawyer.

Given the job that conservative wack-job Rudy Giuliani seems to be doing, one couldn't blame Trump for pining for capable counsel, but that's not the AG's job - and Sessions brought his own baggage to this meandering clown car of a presidency.

"Linda" the Jenkinson's Aquarium gift shop clerk
refused to serve 7 black girls in Point Pleasant, NJ

What's unfortunate is that we're temporarily stuck with an attorney general who's more loyal to his own extremist ideology and xenophobic beliefs than he is to enforcing the laws that protect all Americans.

He's been all but silent on the sharp rise in incidents of overt racism and bigotry that have made headlines across the country since Trump's inauguration in 2017.

Store clerks and restaurant managers refusing to serve or kicking out people of color, property managers preventing African-American residents from using pool facilities - crazy shit is happening.

You heard nothing from Sessions about the group of 7 young African-American girls from Camden, New Jersey's Princess to Queenz summer mentoring program who were refused service in the Jenkinson's Aquarium gift shop on the boardwalk in Point Pleasant, NJ last Friday by a woman only identified as "Linda" (pictured above) - whose comments caught on video went viral.

According to an NJ.com article posted Tuesday evening, the still-unnamed woman has been fired from her job and Jenkinson's media relations director issued an apology.

As New Jersey Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly told reporters, "these types of displays of racism are occurring entirely too frequently in our country."

White Supremacist James Fields and the car he used
to kill Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, VA in 2017

In my view, Americans being denied service in restaurants, stores, public parks or recreational facilities they have a right to use based on their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation or nationality is a serious issue that warrants at least some degree of leadership or direction from the person who's supposed to be the nation's top law enforcement officer.

Sessions' silence on these kinds of incidents is troubling, but hardly surprising.

Dogged by criticism of his own racial bigotry and xenophobia since he served as a federal prosecutor in Alabama in the 1980's, Sessions was predictably silent about the white supremacists who staged what turned out to be underwhelming public rallies in Charlottesville and in Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C. across the street from the White House last weekend on the anniversary of the violent Unite the Right protests in Virginia last year.

(Remember, he was in Houston meeting with local law enforcement and eating Tex-Mex food.)

Back in June, Sessions did release a fairly tepid public statement when federal hate crime charges were filed against James Fields, Jr., (pictured above) the-then 21-year-old man who intentionally plowed his car into a crowd protesting a white supremacist march in Charlottesville - killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring more than 12 others.

But those federal charges came months after the state of Virginia indicted Fields on charges of first-degree murder and nine other felony counts back in December, 2017.

Jeff Sessions: attorney general for some but not all?

Sessions' unwillingness to enforce the laws of the United States to protect all citizens is indirectly putting people's lives at risk - literally.

As Rob Arthur reported for Vice News back in February, an analysis of records from the Department of Justice reveals that "Total activity in the agency's civil rights division is at a 17-year low, falling well below levels seen in the last two [presidential] administrations. One DOJ section charged with enforcing laws on police misconduct has been completely inactive."

When it comes to mounting ICE raids on places of work to arrest undocumented immigrants trying to earn an honest living, arresting asylum seekers at the U.S. border, or separating children as young as three-years old from their parents, Jeff Sessions is the high-profile attorney general.

When Trump wants respected career FBI senior officials fired because they don't like him, or because they believe the Mueller investigation on Russian interference into the 2016 elections is legitimate and should be allowed to complete it's work without being undermined by partisan political meddling, Sessions is the guy.

Loyal and subservient to an erratic president who both reviles and repeatedly humiliates him.

Since his appointment in 2017, Mr. Law and Order's idea of law enforcement is situational at best - and that situation seems to depend on whether or not it conflicts with his own divisive ideology.

When it comes to enforcing those laws that protect innocent Americans from prejudice, bigotry and hatred based on race, ethnicity or nationality, Sessions is invisible, unseen and absent.

He is America's Situational Attorney General.