Arizona Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Hatch believes that the incident of a local officer sexually assaulting a woman in a bar is a case from which everyone can learn a lesson. According to Hatch, the officer will learn that there are some consequences to groping women, and the victim will learn that she needs to be more vigilant about her own safety.

No, really.

The judge sentencing [Officer Robb Gary] 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.

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.

I’m sure the victim did learn a valuable lesson–that advocating for yourself is never easy, especially when a judge is determined to declare you partially at fault for someone else’s crime.

(Via Think Progress)