Crime

Stanford Sexual Assault Convict Brock Turner Released from Jail After Serving Half of 6-Month Sentence

A judge has ordered Brock Turner to register as a sex offender

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Published on September 2, 2016 09:15 AM

Brock Turner, the former Stanford University student convicted of sexual assault, was released from jail on Friday – serving just three months of his six-month sentence.

Shortly after 6 a.m. local time, Turner, 21, rushed right passed a crush of media (and protesters) as he left jail and got into an awaiting SUV, which sped off. He was dressed in a white, wrinkled button-up shirt, and made no comment to reporters as he left the jail.

His hair was disheveled and it appears Turner lost some weight while incarcerated.

Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith told reporters soon after Turner’s release that “he should be in prison right now, but he’s not in our custody.”

Smith added that “we need to change the laws in California … if you rape someone who is unconscious and intoxicated, you go to prison.”

She said she was “outraged” by the sentence when it was first handed down.

In March, Turner was found guilty of three felonies for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster outside an on-campus fraternity party last January.

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The case garnered national attention, and sparked outrage, when Judge Aaron Persky sentenced the convict to six months in county jail – after prosecutors asked for six years – holding that a lengthy sentence would have a “severe impact” on him.

Turner has admitted to having sexual contact with the woman, but maintains that it was consensual.

Turner will have to attend drug and alcohol counseling and receive random testing, as part of recommendations of the probation department handling the case.

A judge has also ordered Turner to register as a sex offender, according to ABC News. Reports claim officials in his Ohio hometown are already distributing leaflets about Turner’s sex offender status.