Oakwood judge defends Brock Turner letter

Oakwood Municipal Court Judge Margaret Quinn said she has been harassed and criticized because she wrote a character letter for convicted sexual assailant Brock Turner, but she doesn’t believe she violated judicial ethics.

Quinn wrote a letter to Santa Clara County Court Judge Aaron Persky on Turner’s behalf and argued against a prison sentence for the Oakwood High School graduate. She said that Turner could counsel, speak to and warn other men “about the devastating consequences of a single decision.”

Turner was found guilty by jury in California in a behind-the-dumpster sexual assault of an intoxicated, unconscious woman at Stanford University in January 2015. He was sentenced to six months in jail.

Ohio’s Code of Judicial Conduct states “a judge shall not testify as a character witness in a judicial, administrative, or other adjudicatory proceeding, or otherwise vouch for the character of a person in a legal proceeding, except when duly summoned.”

Quinn, a retired federal prosecutor, said she wrote the letter as a friend of a family she knows from Holy Angels Parish — not as a part-time judge.

“I did not write the letter as a judge. I never once mentioned that I was a part-time municipal judge,” she said. “I wrote it on my stationery. I wrote it as a citizen, as a mom and as somebody who knew this family and this individual.”

According to the Oakwood court, Quinn’s judgeship is part-time with a $67,000 annual salary.

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