Brock Turner didn't reveal drug use in letter to judge, documents show

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Saturday, June 11, 2016

SAN FRANCISCO -- The former Stanford swimmer convicted of sexual assault on an unconscious woman failed to reveal his drug and alcohol use in a letter to the judge.

Brock Turner told Judge Aaron Persky that he was an inexperienced drinker and that "the party culture and risk taking behavior" during his four months at Stanford led him to make a bad decision.

But court documents released Friday show that prosecutors cited several examples of Turner using hard drugs and alcohol at Stanford and in high school. Prosecutors say text messages recovered from his cellphone showed Turner discussing using LSD and ecstasy and smoking marijuana and dabs of butane hash oil, known as "wax," from as early as April 2014.

Court documents also show campus police gave him a ticket for underage drinking in November 2014.

Meanwhile, campaigns to recall Persky continue to gain momentum.

On change.org, a petition calling for his removal from the bench had more than 1.1 million signatures online as of early Saturday afternoon.

On Friday, the Recall Judge Aaron Persky campaign said media consultant Joe Trippi, campaign strategist John Shallman and pollster Paul Maslin would help secure the signatures and votes required to remove the Santa Clara County jurist from the bench next year.

Trippi has worked for a number of Democratic presidential candidates, and Maslin's clients include Gov. Jerry Brown and members of Congress. Shallman has worked for the president of the California Senate, who spearheaded passage of a law requiring colleges and universities to apply a "yes means yes" standard in sexual misconduct cases.

Persky was re-elected in an unopposed election Tuesday, five days after sentencing Turner to six months in prison and three years' probation.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.