SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) – Brock Turner, the former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting a young woman on campus, was handed a package by guards as he exited a California jail on Friday after serving half of his six-month sentence: A big packet of hate mail.
Turner’s early release for good behavior was the latest turn in a case that sparked a widespread outcry by many who believed he was given preferential treatment and too light of a sentence for the January 2015 assault. For hours after his pre-dawn release from the Santa Clara County jail, about 200 people demonstrated outside, calling for the judge in the case to resign.
Wearing a wrinkled dress shirt, Turner walked with his head down and didn’t say a word as he made his way through a gauntlet of television camera lights and into a waiting SUV. The 21-year-old intends to live with his parents near Dayton, Ohio, where he is required to register for life as a sex offender.
There, about a dozen protesters stood outside the Turner’s home in Sugarcreek Township, as police watched. One man’s hand-lettered sign said “Let only pain & misery fall upon those who rape their fellow person.”
Turner was convicted of assaulting the woman near a trash bin after they drank heavily at a fraternity party. The woman had passed out and Turner was on top of her when confronted by two graduate students passing by on bicycles. They chased and tackled him when he tried to flee, holding him on the ground until police arrived.