The California judge facing criticism over his sentencing of a former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexual assault was removed Tuesday from a new sexual assault case after complaints by prosecutors, officials said.
“We lack confidence that Judge (Aaron) Persky can fairly participate in this upcoming hearing in which a male nurse sexually assaulted an anesthetized female patient,” Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said.
Rosen cited the six-month jail sentence Persky handed down to Brock Turner earlier this month.
Prosecutors sought a six-year prison term.
In the new case, Cecil Webb stands accused of sexually harassing a woman who was anesthetized ahead of surgery at a Santa Clara hospital in November 2014.