That is about as painful as reading the victims statement. Both statements are very believable.
Now I no longer wonder who marries these guys in prison. 
I have a hard time thinking that Turner’s attorney vetted his. Without going page by page, I’m not sure how a narrative of his “no good, very bad, horrible” day was going to help him at sentencing, especially since he neither acknowledged his true crime or apologized to the victim. It was all about the party culture, his friends, his drinking, where he went, him, him, him.
I’m honestly surprised it didn’t goad the judge into a harsher sentence.
Re: #677
Here is the article from the local ABC 7: http://abc7.com/1361189/
LOL you better not be referring to a person llike me stark! But living as the sole female in my own personal version of animal house I’ve got a pretty good idea what young men are like…basically a hot mess. I knew my husband when he was young and a hot mess…but wouldn’t marry him until he was 30 with completed frontal lobes. But fortunately they are all afraid of me so if they behave it’s primarily because they are afraid of me…or so they tell me.
@ucbalumnus, I feel sorry for the alleged date rape drugger rapist. He just wanted to have sex with an unconscious woman. Who cares what the woman wants? She won’t know what happened.
His first choice was a blow up doll but the blow up doll doesn’t take drugs.
@momofthreeboys, lol.
The letter makes him sound like a dumb-ass kid, which is exactly the impression the lawyer would have wanted him to make to the judge. That’s why the lawyer wouldn’t have edited the letter to eliminate spelling or grammar errors or to clean up the poor writing.
Brock Turner lied about drinking, doing drugs
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/brock-turner-stanford-swimmer-lied-about-drinking-doing-drugs-sentencing-memo-says/
Like @Pizzagirl I’m very surprised by the poor writing skills given that he was a Stanford freshman. By contrast, the victim’s impact statement was, in my opinion, very well written. So much so that I wonder if she had help with it (not that there’s anything wrong with it if she did). And Brock tries to manage a balancing act where he tries to sound contrite and as though he is taking responsibility, while at the same time (1) blaming alcohol, (2) blaming the swim team upperclassmen, (3) blaming a culture of promiscuity, (4) reiterating his unbelievable claim of consent, (5) claiming he wasn’t fleeing because he knew he was guilty of doing something bad but just because he needed to throw up. It has all the hallmarks of his attorneys saying you need to explain away all these damaging facts. He also makes no mention of freshman orientation when I’m willing to bet he went through training on the absolute need for effective, affirmative consent, alcohol abuse and bystander intervention.
I do wonder what the customary situation is with letters of support submitted by family and friends for sentencing. Are they normally made public like this? I’m sure neither Dan Turner or Leslie Rasmussen imagined that their letters would go viral like they have. They were both cringeworthy letters but I’m troubled with the mob backlash against Rasmussen especially. In her case it’s like no good deed goes unpunished. She tried to help a pariah friend and has paid the price. Her approach was tone-deaf and wrong-headed and she needed education on “rape culture” but as with Brock’s sentence, the punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crime.
@DonnaL , I think that he expresses remorse. I agree that he spends more time expressing regret for his own losses.
“have a hard time thinking that Turner’s attorney vetted his. Without going page by page, I’m not sure how a narrative of his “no good, very bad, horrible” day was going to help him at sentencing, especially since he neither acknowledged his true crime or apologized to the victim. It was all about the party culture, his friends, his drinking, where he went, him, him, him.”
If he were a wealthier kid, he’d have had a better essay.
@corinthian, agree the victim’s letter was beautifully written. To me, it reflected such “voice” that I would be surprised to learn she had help writing it. It did not read as a generic “group effort” or overly edited sort of piece.
“As a mother of a daughter, and a woman, the verdict is really depressing. I also can’t help but wonder if people have been giving this kid free passes his whole life, and what else has he done, is this just the first time he was caught?”
There’s no real reason or no evidence to belief he was unduly spoiled, coddled, indulged, given a free pass. This is the classic I-want-to-believe-that-someone-else-made-him-this-way, or there-were-signs-before-this-that-he-was-trouble. The more we do this, the more we can pretend that it couldn’t ever be one of us with our superior parenting. Sometimes there are no deep explanations other than a normally-good kid made a horrible, horrible decision.
I totally agree nottelling. The letter is very believable to me as coming from a young college male. He may have been coached about how to tell organize it, but it hasn’t been polished at all. Really the only stunning thing I read was that he says he got an MIP on campus. They must be pretty lenient in Cali…in Michigan he would still be on probation. The judges in my neck of the woods like to put kids on probation until they are 21…the Proverbial sword of Damoclese. My opinion on his sentencing just wavered a tad.
@katliamom, looks like the judge and the probation officer got snowed.
From your link…
Consolation, I must have read the words from his letter that you quote, but I guess my overall take was so negative that those words made no impression on me. It’s still not exactly an admission of real wrongdoing, the way I read it.
Ok. But you know something? What do bong hits or whatever have to do with the events on hand?
@Pizzagirl There’s no real reason or no evidence to belief he was unduly spoiled, coddled, indulged, given a free pass.
Here’s an interesting editorial on the topic
In Brock Turner’s home town, we’re raising kids who are never told ‘no’https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/06/08/in-brock-turners-hometown-were-raising-kids-who-are-never-told-no/
If he had stuck to smoking pot he probably wouldn’t have been in this predicament. B-)