According to a report from InTouch Weekly, members of Stanford’s swim team thought Brock Turner was “very, very odd.” Turner, an ex-swimmer at the California university, was convicted of three felonies, including attempted rape, after he sexually assaulted an unconscious woman on campus.
“Brock would make comments to the women such as ‘I can see your tits in that swimsuit,’” an anonymous swimmer told InTouch. The source alleges that at least one upperclassman refused to be alone with Turner and that his ex-teammates largely believe that he should have received a sentence more befitting his crimes. Turner was sentenced to six months in county jail earlier this month; he will likely serve only three months of that sentence.
In addition, the source also claims that Stanford pressured members of the women’s swim team from coming forward and speaking openly about Turner’s behavior:
“There were discussions among some of the women on the team about submitting letters to the judge about their negative experiences with Brock, says the insider, adding that the discussions were suddenly halted and the letters were never filed.
There were rumblings that the women were pressured by Stanford officials to not do it since they hadn’t witnessed any crime that Brock had committed...”
Stanford denies that they pressured the women’s swim team to remain silent. In a statement to Complex, Stanford’s Associate Vice President of Communications Lisa Lapin, said InTouch’s report is “completely untrue.” Lapin added:
We have spoken to members of the women’s swim team and the allegations published by InTouch are completely false. Students may absolutely speak to anyone they wish, on any topic they wish. And at no time did Stanford University receive a complaint from a member of the women’s swim team about Brock Turner’s conduct.
InTouch’s report comes on the heels of the release of numerous documents which suggest that Turner misrepresented his previous “good behavior” at trial. Court documents unearthed last week also suggest that police believe that Turner took photographs of his victim and shared them with teammates on group messaging app GroupMe.
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