Good English Drummer Defends Brock Turner, Band is Cut from Festival

Good English drummer and childhood friend of Brock Turner, Leslie Rasmussen, wrote a letter in defense of the Stanford swimmer’s rape of an unconscious woman in January 2015. A judge gave Turner a six-month jail sentence because a longer prison sentence “would have a severe impact on him.”

In her letter, Rasmussen said that Turner is “not a monster” and is “such a sweetheart.” Rasmussen wrote she would not have been writing the letter if she doubted his innocence.

“I don’t think it’s fair to base the fate of the next ten + years of his life girl who doesn’t remember anything but the amount she drank to press charges against him,” Rasmussen wrote. “I am not blaming her directly for this, because that isn’t right. But where do we draw the line and stop worrying about being politically correct every second of the day and see that rape on campuses isn’t always because people are rapists.”

Rasmussen went on to write that sexual assaults on campus are different than when women are abducted and assaulted.

The letter led to Rasmussen’s Dayton, Ohio band’s removal from Northside Festival’s lineup. Northside also moved all shows originally at Black Bear Bar to new stages after the venue hosted a racist skinhead performance. The band of three sisters has since deleted their Facebook page.

You can read Rasmussen’s full letter, provided to The Cut, here and Turner’s victim’s powerful letter to him here.