Judge on Stanford attacker's consent claims: "I take him at his word"

[gratuitous]

6. Classic confusion there, your honor

Of course you can take the defendant at his word that he "remembered consent." It's very convenient and self-serving for Mr. Turner to say so, but there's no reason to doubt that that's what Mr. Turner remembered. After all, even a judge can't read a person's mind.

The problem with Mr. Turner's remembrance, though, is that the woman he was in the process of raping wasn't conscious. It's really tough to get someone's consent in that state. That thing I just said about reading a person's mind? Yeah, it goes for the defendant, too. He can't read his victim's mind and claim there was consent when she wasn't competent to give consent because she was unconscious.

See how that works, your honor? It sounds like you were gulled, either by a devious defendant who is much smarter than you, or of your own volition.