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Brock Turner Will Begin Attending Drug and Alcohol Counseling

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Brock Turner, the former Stanford University student athlete convicted of sexually assaulting a woman at a January 2015 fraternity party, will now have to attend drug and alcohol counseling and receive random testing, per the recommendation of the probation department handling his case.

The Associated Press reports probation manager Jana Taylor recommended the counseling after Turner, 20, was caught lying about his substance abuse habits in his first probation interview in May. He again denied drug and alcohol use in high school during a June 14 interview from jail.

However, text messages retrieved from his phone reportedly confirmed drug use while he was in high school. Presented with that new information, the AP reports that Turner then admitted he lied.

Turner is expected to appear again in court where he will be ordered to seek counseling before his Sept. 2 release, according to internal probation department communications obtained this week through a public records request by the AP.

Taylor said in an internal email that the probation department does not “want to be placed in a position in the event we violate him for positive tests and his attorney argue we never modified probation to include counseling.”

In March, Turner was found guilty of three felonies for sexually assaulting an unconscious, intoxicated woman outside an on-campus fraternity party.

Taylor said someone other than Santa Clara County Judge Aaron Persky will handle the upcoming court appearance, the date of which has not been released.

Persky received criticism for sentencing the former Stanford swimmer to just six months in prison, despite a potential maximum sentence of 10 years, because he thought a longer sentence in prison “would have a severe impact on him.” The judge now faces recall efforts.

The counseling recommendation comes after prosecutor Alaleh Kiancerci wrote in a sentencing memo that photos and texts found on Turner’s phone pointed to his alcohol and drug use while still in high school – despote telling authorities he an “inexperienced drinker and partygoer” prior to college.

Among the evidence cited in the memo was a Dec. 2014 video allegedly showing Turner smoking from a bong and drinking out of a liquor bottle, as well as numerous alleged references in texts to smoking, buying and sharing marijuana.

“The text messages also referenced doing acid or trying to find a ‘hook up’ to purchase acid both in high school and while at Stanford,” the prosecutor’s memo said, per the Mercury News.

A probation officer had previously cited Turner’s intoxication as a factor that made Turner’s crime “less serious” than other similar instances of felony sexual assault.

Despite his six-month sentence, Turner is expected to be released in Sept. after serving three months due to good behavior.

This article originally appeared on People.com

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