August 24th meeting notes

President Judy Willson called the meeting to order, thanking Jerra for the slideshow, Maureen and George for setting up, Alex for taking photos, and Josh for taking notes.

Pledge: Alyssa Sakkas

Inspiration: Jerra Rowland spoke about how this year, regardless of who you are voting for, is historic because it is the first time a woman is a major party candidate for president. Jerra traced the history of the women’s vote, including the 19th Amendment, introduced in 1878 and ratified in 1920, which gave women the right to vote.

Visiting Rotarians: None today

Rotarians with Guests:David Fung guest of President Judy Wilson, Tom Pyke guest of Orrin Mahoney, Carol Stanek guest of Helene Davis, Sadna Gupta guest of Leslie Hay, Barth Bharwach guest of Niraj Baxi, Peter Landsberger guest of Pearl Chang, Stephanie Tyson guest of George Tyson

President’s Club:

Dana Stern joined the President’s Club to share her excitement over the gallon of honey she harvested from the beehive in her backyard.

President Judy Wilson thanked PPs Wendell, Hung, and Richard for covering meetings while she and Bill are on vacation over the next few weeks.

Announcements:

PP Bev Lenihan announced the last Bocce Ball fellowship, scheduled on August 26 at Blackberry Farm from 5-7pm. This is the last one of this season - bring an appetizer to share.

Helene Davis and PP Wendell Stephens spoke about the Footgolf Fellowship, which is kicking off on Friday, September 2 at 4:30pm at Blackberry Farm Golf Course. The price is $12 for adults and $8 for children 6 and under. The event will be followed by dinner at Hobee’s after. Bring Closed toed shoes.

Stuart Rosenberg announce the Run for Great Schools, the CEEF Fundraiser scheduled for Saturday August 27 at Memorial Park. This event is the kick-off for Great Schools Week. More information can be found online at www.ceefcares.org.

David Doyle & PP Hung Wei reminded the club about Fall Fest, scheduled for September 10 from 10am-5pm. This is one of the biggest club fundraisers and members are encouraged to go online and sign up to volunteer. Click here to volunteer

President Judy Wilson presented a Global Elegance Wrap-Up video produced by DingDingTV, and thanked the International Committee for all of the amazing work they did to put together this beautiful event.

PDG Joe Hamilton & Jerra Rowland encouraged members to consider participating in the Nigeria Polio Immunization Trip, scheduled for October 18-26. Participants will change the life of a child by providing polio drops. The cost is about $1600. Speak with Joe or Jerra for more information.

PP Wendell Stephens celebrated two golf champions at last Golf Fellowship: Jeanne Bradford & PDG Jim Walker. Wendell awarded Jim with a $5 golf legend check.

President’s Corner:

President Judy Wilson presented her Part II of the Partnerships presentation, which covered expectations as it relates to giving money to the Club. Members are asked to do the following:

-Pay dues on time - $380 (will be going up next year ~ $5 or $10).

-Participate in the TRF Campaign in the fall. Historically we have close to 100% participation, and donate the largest amount in district.

-Buy lunch or part of lunch

All in all, it costs about $1000 per year to be a Rotarian. Any other asks for donation are completely discretionary, but Rotarians are encouraged to be as generous as they feel they can be.

Program:

PP Orrin Mahoney introduced today’s speaker, Chief Assistant DA Jay Boyarsky. Boyarsky is the number 2 employee in the largest DA office in Northern California. He has daily responsibility for DA office operations, supervising 500 public servants and with a department budget of $110 million. Raised in La Mirada, Boyarsky went to UC Santa Cruz as an undergrad, and attended law school at Berkeley. He has more than two decades of experience as a prosecutor, and he is an expert in hate crimes. Boyarsky lives with his family in Palo Alto, and enjoys comedy, golf, and tournament poker.

The Brock Turner case had significant cultural impact, and created change in the world. More than $18 million people all over the world read the Jane Doe letter to Brock Turner within 5 days of it being posted on the DA website.

There are 2 million people live in Santa Clara County, and 40,000 criminal cases every year. Most are misdemeanors with approximately 2,000 felonies per year. The DA doesn’t investigate criminal cases - they prosecute - while the police investigate and write police reports. If the police believe they know who did it, they then bring the case to the DA.

DA Staff review police reports to answer the following questions:

-Did a crime occur?
-Do we know who did it?
-Can we prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury of twelve people where all must agree?
-Is charging the case the right thing to do?

In applying these questions to the case story, the DA found the following:

-Did a crime occur? Yes - lack of consent
-Do we know who did it? Yes - Brock Turner
-Can we prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt? There are two witnesses but the victim doesn’t remember anything. DA felt there was sufficient evidence, and that the defendant did not have a credible story.
-Is charging the case the right thing to do? Absolutely.

The case was tried in Palo Alto. Brock Turner decided to take the witness stand, which is unusual in a criminal case, and told elaborate story that undermined his credibility. The jury convicted Turner and returned three felony charges of sexual assault. The probation report recommended 6 months of jail time, and the DA anticipated that the judge would follow the recommendation. Typically a crime like this would carry a prison sentence of 2-4 years per charge, and the prosecutor was seeking a 6 year sentence. Check out the video of this fantastic presentation here.