'Affluenza' rape sentence outrage spreads to Philly social media, advocates - and Joe Biden

Fury over a six-month sentence handed to a former Stanford University athlete convicted of raping a passed-out student has spread locally on social media and among advocates who fear a chilling effect on victims.

"I'm outraged along with the public," said Barbara Ashcroft, an associate professor at Temple University's law school and former chief of the Montgomery County Sex Crimes Unit. "I think when you look at the tone at what is happening with millennials ... we're seeing judges that basically give a slap on the wrist."

Ashcroft and others were reacting to Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky's sentencing of Brock Allen Turner. In addition to the six months in jail, Turner received three years probation for his role in sexually assaulting a now 23-year-old, unconscious woman near a fraternity party on campus.

This week, some residents in California launched a petition to recall the judge. Turner could have faced a maximum of 14 years.

"It has an element of affluenza to it," said Michael Malloy, a defense attorney based in Media, who has worked more than 100 cases of sexual assault in the state. He believes the sentence was light, and that social class and sympathy toward the defendant may have been a factor.

"Go into a courthouse and talk to people of different backgrounds," Malloy said, continuing, "I'm not sure they would have received the same sentence."

More public interest about the issue and its place in the criminal justice system is beneficial, he added.

"I think any kind of public discussion about our criminal justice system is good," Malloy said. "Because most of the time, people encounter it first as a victim or as a defendant."

Indeed, campus rape is a presence in Pennsylvania. Uniform Crime Report data show Penn State led the state in campus rapes in 2015 with 24 reported that year. That was up from 12 reported in 2014. Michael Lowery, interim police chief of Penn State's University Park campus, confirmed the figures as accurate.

Penn State was followed in the number of reported rapes in 2015 by the University of Pennsylvania at 16 - up from 6 the year before. Such year-to-year fluctuations are typical.

Rounding out the top five were: Bucknell, 11; Drexel, 8; and, York at 8.

Dr. Monique Howard, executive director of Women Organized Against Rape in Philadelphia, also believes the Turner sentence was too lenient. She added that the actions of two witnesses-Carl-Fredrik Arndt and Peter Jonsson-were critical in arresting Turner and in his eventual conviction of three counts of sexual assault.

"It doesn't happen every day," she said of the two Swedish graduate students' actions. "They stepped in to do something about it ... it's important that if people see something, they do something."

One aspect of the case that has also made the sentence seem short is a powerful letter from the victim-a 12-page account of what happened in January 2015, and her experience since then.

"This letter mandates you need to step up and report," Ashcroft said of its impact. "You need to run the race through trial ... on the flipside, you go through all of the courtroom examination ... what that is saying to the victim is, 'Is it really worth it?'"

Alison Kiss, executive director with the Clery Center for Security on Campus in Delaware County, said the case and sentence might discourage victims from coming forward. Kiss added that it's important to focus on the impact of Arndt and Jonsson's actions.

"If they had not intervened, you wonder if the victim would have reported it, remembered it or quite honestly would have been alive," she said.

In response to the victim's letter, Vice President Joe Biden wrote today his own letter to the victim that was posted on BuzzFeed News:

I do not know your name-but your words are forever seared on my soul," Biden wrote. "Words that should be required reading for men and women of all ages."

bohnels@phillynews.com

215-854-5912

@Steve_Bohnel

Mari Schaefer contributed reporting.