The former California judge who was ousted by voters in 2018 after receiving harsh backlash over his handling of former Stanford University swimmer and convicted sex offender Brock Turner’s case will rejoin the workforce a year later as a public high school tennis coach, the school district said Tuesday.
Former Judge Aaron Persky was recently hired to head the junior varsity girls tennis team at Lynbrook High School in San Jose, Calif. The Fremont Union High School District said in a statement that Persky applied over the summer and completed all of the district’s hiring requirements, including a fingerprint background check.
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“He was a highly qualified applicant, having attended several tennis coaching clinics for youth and holds a high rating from the United States Tennis Association,” the district’s statement said.
Lynbrook High School held a meeting Monday with the parents of JV and varsity girls’ tennis teams in response to the community’s concerns over Persky’s employment.
“Our focus remains on ensuring that our students have the best possible educational experience – both academically and athletically,” the statement added.
In 2016, Persky sentenced Turner to six months behind bars after a jury found the then 18-year-old college sophomore guilty of sexually assaulting an intoxicated, unconscious woman outside an on-campus fraternity party. Two Swedish graduate students found Turner on top of the woman’s half-naked body.
The former judge ignored the prosecutors’ recommendation of a seven-year sentence, prompting critics to launch a recall effort in mid-2016 in what is considered one of the first tests of the #MeToo movement's political strength. Turner was released early on good behavior after just three months and was required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
More than 60 percent of Santa Clara County voters who went to the polls voted to recall Persky in June 2018. He is only the fifth judge in California history to be removed from office before serving his full term and the first to be ousted in 86 years, Mercury News reported.
The case garnered national attention when BuzzFeed published the victim’s 7,000-word emotional account of the attack and its aftermath, which she read in court during Turner’s sentencing hearing. The statement eventually was read on the floor of the U.S. Capitol during a congressional session.
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The woman who Turner sexually assaulted, previously identified in court documents under the pseudonym “Emily Doe,” revealed her name last week: Chanel Miller. She is scheduled to release a memoir titled “Know My Name,” on Sept. 24.
Fox News’ Bradford Betz contributed to this report.