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Friday, September 7, 2012

Just Plain Dumb / Crime & Public Safety Grope-y Flagstaff Cop Gets No Jail Time; Victim Gets Scolded By Judge

Posted by David Mendez on Fri, Sep 7, 2012 at 9:15 AM

On Wednesday, former DPS officer Robb Gary Evans walked out of a courtroom, sentenced with two years of probation for sexual abuse. His victim, a Flagstaff woman who was groped by Evans at a bar, was chastised by the sentencing judge, and told to be more vigilant, according to a report from the Arizona Daily Sun.

From the Sun's report, published yesterday:

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.

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.

What? Let's go back to the Sun's report to see what Evans, who was found guilty in July, did that night:

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.

So it appears that, at some point, this invasion of a woman's right to stand in a bar without being fondled became the victim's fault. Makes sense, considering that the now-former cop drank eight beers, drove to a bar, groped an unwilling party, then threatened the bouncers who removed him with arrest, according to the report.

Yesterday, the Sun quoted the victim as saying that she is "still kind of in shock that [Hatch] said that to me,” the victim said later. “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.”

For more on the sentencing, including absurd reactions from a former "romantic partner" of Evans, see here. For more from the follow-up story, see here.

Tags: Flagstaff, Robb Gary Evans, Judge Jacqueline Hatch, groping