Newly released court documents show that Brock Turner, the former Stanford student convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman outside of a frat house, behaved in an “aggressive” and predatory way towards other women just one week before the attack.
The 471 pages of documents released Friday by the Santa Clara County Superior Court show that Turner lied to investigators about having no experience with using drugs and alcohol before college.
Several images that prosecutors referenced during the trial are included. Santa Clara County Superior Court and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office released the case documents Friday.
The newly released photos include a snapshot of Brock Turner smoking a pipe, another of a bong, and another of a young man prosecutors say was Turner's swim team buddy, holding a bong. The court documents also include a photo sent via the "Group Me" app that is said to be the victim's breasts, photographed at the time of the sexual assault.
Brock Turner, with what looks like a hash pipe, in a court-released phone photo.
The former Stanford student was caught in the act of rape by bystanders, who pulled him off of the unconscious woman, behind a dumpster. Turner was convicted. His case outraged the world for many reasons, one of which was the extraordinarily lenient sentence he received. He'll probably be out in a few weeks.
Judge Aaron Persky said he took Brock Turner “at his word” when he sentenced the onetime college swimming star on sexual assault charges.
At the sentencing hearing last Thursday, prosecutors said they wanted Turner to serve six years in prison. His “behavior is not typical assaultive behavior that you find on campus, but it is more akin to a predator who is searching for prey,” they wrote.
Turner told the judge he thought he was having consensual sex with his victim. Remember, this woman was unconscious when he raped her behind a dumpster.
In a pre-sentencing letter to the judge, Turner pled for leniency. He got it.
Judge Persky sentenced Turner to what will probably end up being a total of three months in jail. When news of the sentencing broke, and the ridiculous plea letters to Persky from Turner and his father hit the internet, Turner became the focus of a social media storm of intense outrage.
The court documents released Friday will likely stoke that outrage anew.
Convicted rapist Brock Turner, in court
The morning after the assault and Turner’s arrest, investigators looked through Turner's phone and found a text message in the “Group Me” group chat app that read, “Who’s tits are those?”
Detectives sent the phone to a forensics lab to try and retrieve that message, and any photos from the crime that Turner may have attached. Investigators say the messages and any attachments were already deleted “by a third party.” Who would have deleted such incriminating content? Perhaps his swim team buddies? Or the messaging service operator? We don't know at this time.
In addition to revealing Turner's shockingly predatory behavior, the documents also showed he lied to the court about being inexperienced with drugs and alcohol.
Prosecutors say the texts point to drug use, including a Dec. 18, 2014 message in which Turner asks a friend, "Do you think I could buy some wax so we could do some dabs?" referring to a highly concentrated form of marijuana. Other text messages referenced smoking, buying and sharing "weed" and trying to find a "hook up" to buy acid both while Turner was in high school and at Stanford, the memo says.
On Dec. 24, 2014, according to the memo, Turner received a message from a friend that read, "I've got a hankerin for a good acid trip when we get back." Prosecutors say Turner replied: "I'm down for sure."
The memo says he responded to a friend bragging about "candyflippin" – referring to taking LSD and MDMA together – by saying, "I gotta [expletive] try that. I've heard it's awesome."
The memo says on June 3, 2014 Turner's sister asked him via text, "Did you rage last night?" To which Turner replied, "Yeah kind of. It was hard to find a place to drink. But when we finally did we could only drink for like an hour an a half."
Prosecutors say the records show Turner was already an experienced drinker in high school, had routinely smoked marijuana and experimented with hard drugs including LSD, despite his statement.
The memo blasts Turner for blaming his "predatory and repulsive" actions on "drinking, peer pressure and college culture."
The documents also show that he behaved in a predatory manner towards other young women at the frat party where he met the woman he would rape: he kept forcing kisses on the victim’s younger sister as she “wiggled out of his hold.” One week before at another party, he “creeped out” a woman he tried to grab.
Related coverage:
“Stanford rapist Brock Turner may have sent friends photo of victim's breasts during the attack” [Telegraph]
“Chilling New Details From Police Report Reveal What Happened Moments After Stanford Rapist Brock Turner Was Caught” [cosmopolitan.com]
“Brock Turner's claims to judge contradicted in new documents” [LA Times]
"Documents from Court, District Attorney reveal details in Brock Turner case" [Stanford Daily]
