The California criminal court judge who ignited a national outcry over his lenient sentence of a former Stanford swimmer convicted of rape has voluntarily moved to civil court, the Santa Clara Superior Court said in a statement released Thursday (via the Los Angeles Times).
Judge Aaron Persky sentenced Brock Turner, 20, to six months in jail earlier this year after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting an incapacitated woman in January 2015.
Turner faced up to 14 years in jail, but Persky said a harsher penalty would have a “severe impact” on Turner, who at one point was an Olympic hopeful.