“I can understand quite a degree of shock here,” said Stanford professor Robert Weisberg, who specializes in criminal law. “Unless there are stringent conditions of probation, (the judge’s indicated ruling) is close to zero punishment,” he said. “A judge’s sentencing in a particular case is not a legal precedent in any other case, but it certainly (serves) as kind of a signal.”

Weisberg said he would have expected at least a short jail sentence, followed by probation with stern conditions, or both.