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The Santa Clara County assistant district attorney running against Judge Aaron Persky in an upcoming recall election has officially started fundraising for her campaign.
Cindy Hendrickson, who was a civil litigator before spending 22 years as a prosecutor, launched an onling CrowdPac campaign this week titled “Cindy Hendrickson Seeks Justice for All in Santa Clara County.” She publicly announced her intent to run against Persky this spring.
Since last summer, Persky has been battling a recall effort launched in response to outrage over his sentencing of former Stanford University student Brock Turner for the sexual assault of an unconscious woman on campus in 2015. The recall campaign alleges Persky has shown a pattern of bias against women and defendants of color in other sexual violence cases.
Hendrickson, who currently works on District Attorney Jeff Rosen’s executive team, wrote on the fundraising webpage that her candidacy presents an alternative to Persky. She promised to be a “fair, hard-working judge with a continued devotion to all residents of Santa Clara County.
“I have advocated strongly for victims, and I have been equally committed to safeguarding the rights of the accused,” Hendrickson wrote. “I grew up in a multi-racial family of 13 that has informed my views on bias of all kinds.”
As of Friday afternoon, she had raised $1,685 toward a $15,000 goal.
The webpage details her professional background, from serving as student board president for an organization that provided pro-bono legal assistance to indigent clients during law school to her work on elder abuse, sexual assault and jail reform in Santa Clara County. Hendrickson graduated from Stanford in 1987 and attended the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law.
Hendrickson first joined the local district attorney’s office in 1995. She was named a supervising deputy district attorney in 2011 and became one of Rosen’s six assistant district attorneys in 2015.
Hendrickson currently chairs the county’s Elder Death Review Team and Domestic Violence Death Review Team, which investigate and review all deaths related to these two crimes that occur in Santa Clara County.
As a prosecutor, Hendrickson said she has “remained vigilant about protecting defendants’ rights and the integrity of the criminal justice system. I have a deep understanding of and respect for a prosecutor’s obligation to safeguard the rights of suspects and defendants. I will be a judge who recognizes both the value of rehabilitation and the need for incarceration in certain circumstances.”
Hendrickson’s boss, Rosen, has endorsed Persky. While he publicly criticized the Turner sentencing — and disqualified Persky from hearing an unrelated sexual-assault case a week later — Rosen has previously said the sentence was within Persky’s legal right as a judge and is not grounds to remove him from the bench.
Since receiving the green light from a judge in August, the recall campaign has been gathering the signatures required to place the recall measure on the June 2018 ballot.
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A guest finishes breakfast at the Hope’s Corner open breakfast served on Saturdays at the Trinity United Methodist Church, on August 12, 2017. The same space will be used as a 50-person cold weather homeless shelter for women and families. Voice file photo by Ana Sofia Amieva-Wang -
Akram Khan’s latest dance production focuses on one piece of one book from the 200,000-verse ancient Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. Photo by Lisa Stonehouse.
Does Assistant DA Cindy Hendrickson believe that Judge Persky should be removed by recall? I recall when a recall of Governor Gray Davis qualified for the ballot and sone 200 persons declared their candidacies to replace him. The top vote-getter was a weight-lifter turned “action” actor named Arnold something. The incumbent cannot run for the seat up for recall. So, to have a choice of replacements, we would need at least one more candidate. And with recent revelations of sexual “assault” and harassment throughout the country, voters could sacrifice a very good judge to take a stand and make a statement to the country and the world. I, however, am not there. We have some questionable judges but Judge Persky does not appear to be among them. He is a former prosecutor who appears to take seriously the legal duties of a judge – including the duty to consider of the particular facts of a case and the particular defendant to be sentenced. How many sexual “assault” cases has Ass. DA Hendrickson plea bargained directly or as a supervisor? Did all of those defendants receive more punishment than the defendants before Judge Persky in the 3-4 cases located and cited by the recall proponents?
Did you know Judge Persky is suing Santa Clara County in an attempt to stop his own recall election via bullying tactics and obstruction. County officials and the voters want the recall to happen. Maybe you weren’t sure before, well you can be sure now that Persky is a dishonorable judge who believes that might makes right. Judge Persky is a disgrace to his profession. The fact that he still has a job is a disgrace. People who put quotes around “sexual assault” are a disgrace and are from a time when women were considered property under the law and didn’t merit equal rights. Let the people vote. As a judge, Persky protected white men from Stanford. Unfortunately for him, most voters are not white men from Stanford.
I am a woman age 67, who has experienced my share of sexual harassment. I am against judicial recall unless the judge has committed a criminal act. If not, we have a chance to vote this guy out in a standard election and save the enormous cost to taxpayer of a recall election. I’m very concerned about judicial independence as well. Judge Persky was just doing his job. He seems to be well respected by his colleagues. Seem like a witch hunt to me with future scary repercussions for judges making decisions out of fear rather than what they think is right.
The likes of Cindy Hendrickson and Michele Dauber are not decent women; They are Local-Thugs i.e., thuggish local women (yeah, we are born equal; men can be thugs, so can women); How could we count on them to guard the fairness, justice and the living safety of our socity if they can not answer such serious questions in fighting against real anti-humanity crimes happening right here on land of Santa Clara County, which are directly addressed to them as listed in this public challenge?
Ms. Cindy Hendrickson, A Woman’s-Rights-Rogue-Persecutor from Santa Clara DA’s Office
___What’s the fuss? Why dare you not even mention the much heavier Gabriele Scheler’s Stanford Campus Atrocity Case [Stanford Police Case Number: IR #04-111-0335; Victim Peter Cao; Criminal Suspect Gabriele Scheler], which would be a counter-example to those self-entitled ‘angry woman’s rights activists’ when they played the ‘gender card’ in Brock Turner-‘Emily Doe”s case which led to this PHONY ‘Recall Judge Persky Campaign’?
___Judge Persky adheres to the rules of laws and had made a wise judgment with fairness and justice to both Brock Turner and ‘Emily Doe’, which can be supported by solid legal basis, while in constrast we have not seen any legal basis which could justify such a Rogue Prosecution against Judge Persky led by Ms. Michele Dauber; Ms. Cindy Hendrickson, can you tell us any valid legal basis to continue such a baseless Recall Judge Persky Campaign, of which you are going to take advantage?
___Judge Persky should be respected and retained by the whole society for his resistance to comply to the repeated rogue persecutions by a pack of irrational feminism extremist (agitators to be more exact) in name of “angry woman’s rights activists” represented by Ms. Michele Dauber up in the front; I think the likes of Michele Dauber must have underhandedly abused the very essence of the word ‘Feminism’ or “woman’s rights” … And accordingly, Whoever trying to oust Judge Persky would be remembered as Woman’s-Rights-Rogue-Persecutors in history by the whole world of humanity; No matter what, Judge Persky would remain a hero for his resistance to comply to such Rogue Persecutions;