Brock Turner’s ex-girlfriend is the latest in a string of family friends to defend the former Stanford swimmer’s character in the aftermath of his sexual assault sentencing.
Lydia Pocisk, 20, dated Turner, also 20, when they were juniors and seniors in high school, though their friendship extended back to middle school. In her letter, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Pocisk insists that her ex was a “kind, loving, respectful, relaxed, silently hilarious and determined individual.”
“He was determined to be the best he could be in all he did,” she wrote. “I say this with 100% confidence because I remember a conversation with him a few years back. I asked why he had gotten so good at everything he did, and his answer surprised me. He simply said, ‘It’s not as fun to not be successful or not work hard.’”
Both were on the swim team, and Pocisk said she and Turner would go on dates (“going out to dinner and a movie followed by a trip to get ice cream”) or have dinner with his parents once a week.
“You would think a close friendship of 8 years could predict something like this happening, but the type of person Brock is could never deserve this or do anything he has been convicted of in a thousand of his lives,” she wrote. “I have never been so angry with God in all of my life, for instilling such pain on such an undeserving soul.”
Late last week, a letter from Turner’s mother, Carleen, expressed concern that his six-month jail sentence would irreversibly damage her son and their family.
“I beg of you, please don’t send him to jail/prison,” she wrote. “Look at him. He won’t survive it. He will be damaged forever and I fear he would be a major target. Stanford boy, college kid, college athlete — all the publicity. This would be a death sentence for him.”
Carleen did not mention the victim once in her letter, though she did note that she hadn’t been able to decorate the new house she and her husband had moved into because she was so distraught.
“I know what a broken heart feels like. It is a physical pain that starts just below the collar bone and extends to below the rib cage, it is a crushing and heavy ache that feels like I am being squeezed,” she wrote. “This feeling has not left my body since the verdict. This verdict has destroyed us.”
Turner was banned for life by USA Swimming last week, and began serving his sentence on Thursday, June 2. Though he has been sentenced to six months in prison, he is expected to serve only half of it. Online inmate records indicate his release date as September 2.
The Ohio native was charged with the intent to commit rape of an intoxicated or unconscious person, penetrating an intoxicated person with a foreign object and penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object.
