Rapist’s mother wrote letter to judge complaining about decorating—and not one word about the victim

[kpete]

Turner’s mother, Carleen Turner, wrote a letter nearly four pages long and doesn’t mention the victim of the sexual assault once. Instead, she talks about her son’s childhood, how he asked a high school girlfriend to prom and his swimming and academic career for two pages. She then talks about how devastated she and her family has been since the weekend in January when Turner sexually assaulted a 23-year-old woman.

“My first thought upon wakening every morning is ‘this isn’t real, this can’t be real. Why him? Why HIM? WHY? WHY?’ ” Carleen Turner wrote. “I have cried every single day since Jan. 18.”






She said she hasn’t been able to decorate a new home because she can’t bear to put up happy photos of her family. She said Turner was just “trying to fit in with the swimmers he idolized.”

She continues later that Turner will have to register as a sexual offender, and is concerned that he will have to register at the highest tier.

“Brock will have to register at the highest tier which means he is on the same level as a pedophile/child molester. There is no differentiation,” she writes. “The public records will reflect a Tier 3 so people will wrongly assume he is a child molester. I fear for his lifelong safety.”




MORE:
http://www.fresnobee.com/news/nation-world/national/article82960947.html
http://www.rawstory.com/2016/06/rapists-mother-wrote-letter-to-judge-complaining-about-decorating-and-not-one-word-about-the-victim/



UPDATE:
ABC News has their statement on the issue:

“‘USA Swimming condemns the crime and actions committed by Brock Turner, and all acts of sexual misconduct. Brock Turner is not a member of USA Swimming and, should he apply, he would not be eligible for membership,’ USA Swimming spokesman Scott Leightman said in a statement obtained by ABC News today. ‘Had he been a member, he would have been subject to the USA Swimming Code of Conduct. USA Swimming strictly prohibits and has zero tolerance for sexual misconduct, with firm Code of Conduct policies in place, and severe penalties, including a permanent ban of membership, for those who violate the Code of Conduct.'

http://abcnews.go.com/US/usa-swimming-bans-stanford-student-brock-turner-life/story?id=39752826

[DinahMoeHum]

1. Excuse me while I reach for a Kleenex. . .NOT.

[3catwoman3]

28. Reaching for a barf bag...

...would be appropriate.

[Aerows]

29. Hand me one, too

while you are at it.



They have got to be the most disgusting, self-absorbed bunch of ... I can't even find words.

[peace13]

2. I think mommy lives in denial of just who brought this down on 'her'.

This is just sad! He will never be asked to take responsibility for anything. His actions have determined his life. Sucks to be him. Unfortunately he had to take an innocent young woman down with him.

[meow2u3]

3. Pardon me for living

Excuse me while I find an itty bitty violin to play this doofus a sad tune:

[Chasstev365]

4. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

The father, mother, and son DON'T GET IT AND NEVER WILL!

People of privilege often bemoan "fate",as if none of their actions contributed to their circumstances. If their kids, bully, harass, or even do violent harm to another person, it's always someone else's fault or as a last resort they pathetically blame society. Boo Hoo Mommy! What if Brock was a girl and it happened to him? Would you be singing the same tune?

[Cooley Hurd]

5. Moms can be blind when it comes to their child. One hopes...

...that she might be a bit more sympathetic if it were HER daughter who was assaulted and raped.

[TipTok]

20. Probably put a hit out on the rapist...

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

6. I wonder how this asshole family feels NOW

Everyone in America fucking hates them. Enjoy it, lady....

[Doctor_J]

7. I have two sentences of advice for these people

Shut. Up.

[spanone]

8. well ma'am, criminals will be prosecuted. your son is a criminal.

[DrDan]

9. I wonder how many times he has been "bailed out" by his parents

Having read his Father's claim that he can no longer enjoy his ribeye, and his Mother's claim that redecorating has been put on hold, I am quite confident that his bad behavior, bad grades etc have been "fixed" many times by the parents.

I hope Stanford takes appropriate action and kicks him out. There must be a student conduct code that covers this. He was convicted in a court, for heavens sake.

[pinboy3niner]

10. "We knew once he had the opportunity to tell what happened this would all go away."

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. I don't know if student conduct codes apply to athletes.

They seem to get a "pass" at most big sports universities.

[salin]

14. Stanford kicked him out back in January

almost immediately, iirc.

[DrDan]

17. excellent - didn't know that

[Ino]

11. Her letter made me smile.

[Aristus]

12. Shit. What a ham-brained blow-up doll of a woman.

That writing is the sort of dense, stream-of-consciousness jeremiad common among people unaccustomed to writing anything longer than a 'what do you want for dinner?' text.

[davidn3600]

15. This is not uncommon

Any teacher or school administrator will tell you how parents act when their kid is a bully. They usually think their kid is truly the victim in the situation. Maybe it's the defense mechanisms at work that a parent has naturally over their kids. Or perhaps it is a defense against themselves. They may feel it reflects badly on their parenting if their kid displays bad behavior. So they make excuses for it. But there are a lot of parents out there who fully believe their kid can do no wrong and turn a blind eye to the misbehavior.

No parent wants to be told "your kid is a bully/rapist." Instead they will deflect the blame.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

18. people can be weird like that

Reminds me of a friend of mine who was often bullied at school by somebody 2 grades above him, the bullies parents got called in twice with them pointing fingers at us who had witnessed it and said we were just trying to put their kid in trouble. What really made me shake my head tho was that during the second time they were shown a video of their son and some of his 'friends' bullying my friend(with the friends keeping him from fleeing as the fellow had his fun), the parents reaction "Who dared to film their child without permission" and "This was obviously staged by those kids(refering to us)".

So yea, its amazing how blindly biased some people are(the reason it was just two meetings was that they moved away not long after the second one)

[Odin2005]

16. What a disgusting family.

I think a few lawsuits by the victim will cure their Affluenza problem.

[karynnj]

24. Disgusting definitely, but probably not affluenza

Her letter speaks of selling their house, both to downsize and raise money needed because he was in college across the country. If it is true that he was an Olympic level athlete, he very likely had a scholarship paying for school. It would seem that the family was at best upper middle class.

The rapist himself had the potential of becoming rich and famous. However, it was probably at least as likely that he would not make the Olympics. As to becoming a doctor, he was a freshman in college. There is a LOOONG difficult road from doing freshman classes to doing well enough to get into med school - even if his interest remained the same.

As it is, his current prospects may be as bleak as his mother describes -- and he should be grateful that he is not facing years in prison.

On the other hand, not knowing what the interests of his victim are, I hope that she will gain mentors who could help her achieve a position to use the passion, brilliance and eloquence that she has in addition to her amazing strength of character and bravery. Her family raised a fantastic woman, who is a credit to them and to society - the counterpart to the failure that is the rapist's family.

[TipTok]

19. Initially I was concerned for the mother...

Based on dad and the son...

Now I see he just found a female equivalent of himself. That kid was screwed from conception.

[sarisataka]

21. Why him? Why HIM? WHY? WHY?

Answer: because you raised a worthless piece of shit that looks on other people as mere objects for his pleasure. You taught him money and privilege places him above other people.

I would say welcome to reality but instead I will say you should be down on your knees praying thanks to whatever deity, Mammon perhaps, that your child has not faced reality. Where is he not rich and privileged his sentence would have been measured in years rather than months. That is reality.

[Quackers]

22. ...

[karynnj]

23. One sentence stands out in that and demolishes all her pleas - "Why him?"

Full context - “My first thought upon wakening every morning is ‘this isn’t real, this can’t be real. Why him? Why HIM? WHY? WHY?’ ” Carleen Turner wrote. “I have cried every single day since Jan. 18.”

"Why her" would be a reasonable cry for the parents of the victim. Why did their beautiful, courageous, intelligent daughter have to suffer through this experience that could have left her dead. Instead, from that young woman, we have a brutal, honest statement that will forever help other women questioning how to respond after a rape. No one can read it without seeing her strength and to feel respect for her.

This comment from the mother in conjunction with his father's loathsome comment suggest that the rapist was never held to account on anything. He was their golden haired boy, who deserved everything and would succeed in both athletics and academics, effortlessly drifting through life respected and successful.

I can understand the pain that call must have caused, but it is telling that she is so blind that, if her statement is honest, she immediately believed and never questioned her son's actions. She wrote this after the full story was out. How she sees it as some random event that this "happened" to her son is beyond me. It is obnoxious that she infers that he was just acting like the other swimmers.

I get that her letter was intended as a character witness, but by not accepting that what HE DID was a brutal crime, it destroys every other point she is trying to make. If from her perspective, this was not a terrible thing he did, what else did she paper over in earlier years. I understand the pain at seeing her son change from a person of incredible privilege ( a serious athlete, smart enough to be in a Stanford premed program) to someone despised and on the verge of going to jail. What I wonder is whether somewhere inside her, she sees that the only one responsible for that change is her son.

[Holly_Hobby]

25. Her son doesn't know right from wrong...

who's fault is that? It's obvious to me.

[catbyte]

26. Oh, yuck. Another candidate for Mother of the Year, just like Affluenza Teen's despicable mom.

Boo fucking hoo.

[struggle4progress]

27. .

[Aerows]

30. If she had a heart

she would find compassion for the victim of this crime. Her son was the perpetrator, the victim was the woman he raped behind a dumpster.

Actions have consequences.

[Initech]

31. This needs some Sad Hulk Music:

[smirkymonkey]

32. What a thoroughly disgusting family.

May they all rot in hell!