Stanford judge shifts to civil cases
George III, Hampton Court Palace (£54 million) Lord Clive, Claremont, Surrey (£51.8 million) The Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire (£35.3 million) Lord Palmerston, Broadlands, Hampshire (£34.6 million) Earl of Bute, Luton Hoo, Bedfordshire/Hertfordshire (£31.8 million) wealth and displaying their good taste by creating great gardens.
‘‘He was a great businessman as well as an excellent ‘improver’, as he called himself,’’ said Floud. ‘‘The British aristocracy were spending very large sums on gardening. It was for a variety of reasons: you are displaying your wealth; you are providing a nice venue for holidays, love affairs and conspiracies; you are demonstrating that you are in the height of fashion. People in the 18th century regarded gardening as equivalent to poetry and literature, as one of the arts. You could display your taste and discernment in gardening as much as in buying pictures. [Brown] took advantage of that.’’
Brown’s actual earnings were £320,000 but Floud said this was the equivalent of £509m when adjusted for the change in average earnings. The account book will be displayed at the library in London from September 5 to October 29.
Brown gave most of his money to his family and the book records few personal purchases. He did, however, indulge in gambling, spending the equivalent of £180,000 on lottery tickets. No winnings are recorded. He spent £21m buying an estate, Fenstanton in Huntingdonshire, but showed little interest in transforming his own garden.
Fiona Davison, head of exhibitions at the Lindley Library, said: ‘‘Brown created the vistas and waterways that have come to represent the ideal English countryside. His account book gives a glimpse of how he was running a business on a truly national scale.’’ The judge who gave a six-month jail term to a former Stanford University swimmer convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious young woman will stop hearing criminal cases, a court official said yesterday, after a firestorm of criticism.
Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky has requested to be assigned to the court’s civil division, more than two months after imposing the controversial sentence on Brock Allen Turner, 20, for the January 2015 attack, Presiding Judge Rise Jones Pichon said.
‘‘Judge Persky believes the change will aid the public and the court by reducing the distractions that threaten to interfere with his ability to effectively discharge the duties of his current criminal assignment,’’ Pichon said.
He will begin his civil court assignment on September 6, Pichon said.
Persky has received death threats, faced a recall effort and several online petitions seeking his removal in a furor of criticism for what was perceived as a lenient sentence. Prosecutors had asked for Turner to be jailed for six years.
The uproar over the sentence, fuelled in part by the victim’s harrowing letter in which she detailed the assault, is part of growing outrage over sexual assault on US college campuses.
In response to the sentence, lawmakers in California are moving a bill through the legislature that prohibits anyone convicted of sexual assault in the state from being sentenced just to probation.
‘‘Sentencing a felon convicted of such a crime to probation revictimises the victim, discourages other victims from coming forward and sends the message that sexual assault of incapacitated victims is no big deal,’’ said California Assemblymember Bill Dodd, who introduced the measure in June.
The announcement of Persky’s move to civil cases comes two days after women’s groups and social media users criticised as too lenient the two years’ probation given to a Massachusetts student athlete who sexually assaulted two women as they slept.