After being convicted by a jury earlier this summer of sexual abuse for groping a woman in a bar, ex-DPS Officer Robb Gary Evans walked out of a Coconino County Superior Courtroom on Wednesday morning having been sentenced to two years of probation.He got off light because, in part, the judge said it was the victim's fault that the victim was in a bar where shit like that can happen.
Evans received credit for the four days of jail time he served in Coconino County jail.
Prosecutors contended that he drank eight beers and then drove himself to the Green Room, where he flashed his badge in an attempt to get into a concert for free. While inside, he walked up behind the victim, who was a friend of a friend, put his hand up her skirt and then ran his fingers across her genitals.
The judge sentencing Evans, Coconino County Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Hatch, said she hoped both the defendant and the victim would take lessons away from the case.After a bit of public outrage, the judge tried to walk back her comments with a typical non-apologetic apology:
Bad things can happen in bars, Hatch told the victim, adding that other people might be more intoxicated than she was.
"If you wouldn't have been there that night, none of this would have happened to you," Hatch said.
"I hope you look at what you've been through and try to take something positive out of it," Hatch said to the victim in court. "You learned a lesson about friendship and you learned a lesson about vulnerability."
“I apologize to the victim for any additional anguish my comments may have caused,” the judge wrote in her statement.Bullshit.
Unfortunately, real victims lose credibility because of the yapping of fake victims. Predators know this and take full advantage of it. (It doesn't help that false accusers rarely face any consequences.)
ReplyDeleteMay I copy and paste the rape analogy image to my facebook page? I would gladly refer back to your blog or whatever, but I'd love to put that one out there. Hadn't seen it before. I was a rape crisis advocate for several years and yes, Suz, there are definitely occasions where the veracity of the victim is questionable, but in my experience they were few and far between. More common is under or no reporting of attacks because women are so shamed by society and afraid of repercussions from the agressor, from society, family, you name it.
ReplyDeleteIt's not original to me, I have no idea who did it. Apparently it is a rather old analogy and I have not been able to, with ten minutes' worth of exhaustive research and link-following, determine who first wrote it.
DeleteSo steal away!
snort! thanks!
DeleteAnd I have no idea where Dundritch street is. Or if it even exists.
ReplyDelete