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Subscribe to RSSA sexual assault victim who was groped by an off-duty police officer is demanding an apology from an Arizona judge who during a sentencing hearing for the defendant told her: "If you wouldn’t have been there that night, none of this would have happened to you.”
coconino.az.gov
Coconino County Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Hatch.
An online petition drive launched on Change.org, a popular website for social activism, has garnered more than 4,600 supporters nationwide calling for Coconino County Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Hatch to resign for her remarks during a court hearing on Wednesday.
Hatch, a Republican appointed by Gov. Jan Brewer in June 2010, did not return a telephone call from NBC News seeking comment. The woman's name was withheld because she is a victim of a sexual crime.
According to the Arizona Daily Sun, a jury convicted 43-year-old Robb Gary Evans of a felony charge of sexual abuse on July 2. Prosecutors said Evans walked up behind the victim in a Flagstaff bar, put his hand up her skirt and groped her last summer. The former Arizona Department of Public Safety officer had been facing a maximum sentence of up to 2 ½ years in prison, but received two years of probation, community service and treatment. He was fired after his conviction.
The Daily Sun's account of the court hearing:
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.
Hatch told the victim and the defendant that no one would be happy with the sentence she gave, but that finding an appropriate sentence was her duty.
"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."
Hatch said that the victim was not to blame in the case, but that all women must be vigilant against becoming victims.
"When you blame others, you give up your power to change," Hatch said that her mother used to say.
The victim said Hatch's comments were inappropriate, adding that she felt Hatch was accusing her of allowing herself to become a victim.
"It felt like she was saying to me, 'If you wouldn't have been there that night, it wouldn't have happened to you.' Yeah, well, it probably would have happened to someone else," the victim told the Daily Sun during a telephone interview.
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“I’m still kind of in shock that she said that to me,” the victim said. “Coming from a woman, I would expect her to be a little bit more realistic about women being strong and independent and the fact that there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Hatch's comments have caused an uproar in Flagstaff, the Daily Sun reported.
“It takes a lot to come forward, to ask for help, to share the details of a traumatic event with strangers,” Kris Stark, executive director of Victim/Witness Services for Coconino County, told the Daily Sun. “The message from Victim Witness to a sexual assault survivor is that you are not responsible for an unwanted, uninvited assault on your body.”
Hatch, who was elected to a full term in November 2010, is up for reelection in 2014.
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Leave a Comment:
Like the victim, I would expect more sympathy from the judge because she is a woman. Then again, she is also a Republican. She needs to be removed.
I don't care what party this Judge is, she has NO BUSINESS telling any victim, man or woman something like she said. That is not her duty as a JUDGE and she should resign or the Supreme Court should remove her, and NOW!!!!!!!!!!! The bar association should then review to see is she should have her license suspended or removed for the rest of her life. Just wonder, if she was the victim, if she would tell herself the same thing?
Most of us in AZ are saddled with aging long term judges who are most definately more inclined to lean away from women. This story is just one more eample of a judge that needs to be removed.
Just think if this Girl was Raped by this Scum bag Cop and got Pregnant. Any guess what this Republican TeaBilly Conservative Whack job Judge would have told her..................?
You BetCha....Fer Sure.
Her old, old, old GOP, jan b. appointed ass has to go!!!!!
Come next year, you shall start to hear of the one elected in San Diego over a real judge. They actually elected a tea party extremist as a judge. He's one that's very involved with radical ideas. Now he's a judge. Nuts to come 2013. See the news.
WOW a "she was asking for it" defense, I thought only rapists used it. Apparently also judges.
The judge? One callous bitch !!!
This just in……………to try to fight off their “War on Women” Campaign……………da Republican TeaBilly Conservatives are coming out with more Rights for Women:
You have da Right to Remain Silent…..anything you say or do can and will be used against ya.
You BetCha……Fer Sure.
This just in...........Da Republican TeaBilly Conservative Whack jobs have just added "Drew Peterson" to their "War on Women".....Committee.
They had to wait for the Blood Test's to make sure that he did have "Todd Akins Disease".
You BetCha.....Fer Sure.
Pretty safe to say that the judge is correct. Merely stating a fact. "Stay away from bad neighborhoods" type thing.
Arizona has gone to hell in a hand basket.
I am asking my medical association to stay the hell of this state in the future.
I presume that Judge Jacqueline Hatch will say that it was Gabby Giffords fault for getting in the way of the bullet, too. Do you hear any Tea Party attitude here? It was the victim's fault that that poor man took it upon himself to lose his balance and put his hand up her dress and grope her. It is not his fault so he should not be punished like other people because he was a cop, now, ex-cop. Get real, Judge. What if it was you in your chambers? Would it still be your fault? Poor form but I am glad that something is wearing off from AZ being so close to CA.
Talk about lack of judicial common sense and sensitivity. She needs to have a refresher course in judicial ethics and decorum in her role as a sitting judge. The cop should've done time just for being a vile and unrepentant dirt bag.
Another a$$hole republican opening her piehole making stupid comments. She ought to be dis-barred.
What's the big deal with the victim. If she didn't have that "vagina", this wouldn't have happened. The judge need not worry, nobody is going to assult her - can you spell ugly.......
There's no vagina under that robe, most likely and old never usde bible.....
Yo Republicans and TeaBillys:
That’s what happens when you Mix da Republican Kool Aid with da TeaBilly Juice……Bad Decisions, Brain Lock, Stare Into Space, Start saying Stupid Things, and Everybody looks like a Friendly Lobbyist. You Bet Cha……Fer Sure.
The perp was a popular cop(now ex). I don't know if it was part law enforcement sympathy too.
I couldn't believe it when I read it in the Daily Sun this morning.
Then I remembered where I live.
sigh
The judge should be censured by the judicial commission of the state.
Judges can be idiots too. Just like some cops.
When Todd Akins heard this statement..............he got a "Boehner".
You BetCha.....Fer Sure.
"Hatch, a Republican appointed by Gov. Jan Brewer".
Yup, that explains it. Blaming the victim of sexual assault!!! The thuggery, ignorance and backwardness of the (extreme) right never ceases amaze and terrify. Unfortunately, Brewer (and Bachman, Akin, Ryan, Santorum, Limbaugh, Drudge, Hannity, Palin, Beck, Barbour, Cantor, McDonnell, Huckabee, etc...) is typical of what the grand ol' party has become: Anti-science, anti-education, anti-environment, anti-truth, anti-women, anti-government, anti-middleclass, anti-gun saftey, anti-poor, anti-gay, anti-immigration, anti-minority, anti-voting rights.......Anti-American!!!!
FORWARD America!!!
I think it is time to give Arizona back to Mexico. They obviously don't want to be part of the United States and have to deal with all those liberal people in the other 49 states. They can have their right wing state of curruption and we can finally get John McCain out of the senate. And what do you think Mexico will give us, I think three blanets and a cool sombrero is a fair trade. Maybe throw in a bottle of tequila for our celebration.
I feel that the judge was giving this female motherly advice however,she is out of line.My advice is if you can't handle these types of situations it is best that you don't go to low class bars.Patronize dinner house bars with a group of friends.You'll meet nicer people and have a better night out.
rich white boys rape woman all the time in decent places. This whole case should be about the person who committed the crime. So if I get off the freeway on the wrong exit and end up in the wrong side of town, it's my fault that some criminal shoots me.
So, if you leave your door unlocked tonight and someone comes into your house and does more than just tell you that your door was unlocked, thats your fault...
But I agree, if the woman is going to whine about being gropped in a dive bar, she should not be there.. Just like that chick in the Jodie Foster movie, oh yeah, she had it coming too....those guys were framed.
The truth can sometimes hurt.
and da Republican TeaBilly Conservative "War On Women" continues..............