A former Stanford University student and swimming champion is facing up to 10 years in prison after he was convicted of raping an unconscious woman he met at a campus party last year, Santa Clara County officials said Wednesday.
“Today a jury of Santa Clara County residents gave a verdict which I hope will clearly reverberate throughout colleges, in high schools, anywhere where there may be any doubt about the distinction between consent and sexual assault,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement.
Two graduate students riding bikes on Lomita Court around 1 a.m. Jan. 18, 2015, found Turner, a 19-year-old freshman at the time, on top of a partially clothed woman in a field near campus fraternity houses.
Turner smelled of alcohol when he was arrested and told police he had seven cans of beer that night and thought he was having consensual sex with the woman, who authorities said was breathing but “completely unresponsive” as she lay near a tree and a trash bin.
The woman told police she had four whiskey shots and two shots of vodka that night but couldn’t remember anything after talking to a few guys at a Kappa Alpha party, according to a police report.
Turner withdrew from school Jan. 27, 2015, the day prosecutors announced he would be charged, university officials said, adding he is no longer allowed on campus.
California became the first state to pass legislation that shifted the standard of consent for sexual activity at colleges from whether a person said no to whether both partners said yes.
