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January 12, 2022

Notice of complaint related to 2022-0003

Complainant alleges that an Austin police officer behaved inappropriately during an interview with a sexual assault survivor.

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Notice of complaint related to 2022-0003223.39 KB

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CLASS OF
OFFICE OF
POLICE OVERSIGHT
NOTICE OF COMPLAINT
January 12, 2022
ICMS #: 2022-0003
On January 3, 2022 the OPO received an online complaint.
The complainant alleges: Officer
responded to a report of sexual assault at
on
He entered the room and quickly introduced himself. The survivor was sitting down on
the couch, and Officer
still standing, said "so what happened?" in a nonchalant tone. I asked
him if he could sit down and he responded that he was "too fat". The forensic nurse,
,
offered to find him a larger chair. He eventually sat down. Officer
repeated the same
questions over and over. He asked the survivor, "did the assault occur before or after you were
released from
?" even though this was irrelevant to the matter
at hand. The survivor stated that the assailant pushed his way into her apartment. Officer
began a question with, "so when you allowed this guy to enter your apartment..." Officer
held up his hand and said "wait" several times throughout the interaction and fixated on certain
details of her story it was clear he didn't believe the survivor. Officer
line of questioning
jumped back and forth between the sexual assault that was being reported that evening and events
that had happened months ago. Officer
asked for either me or
to step outside with
him. At this time he told
that people can experience delusions of sexual assault.
explained that the survivor's memory gaps could be a result of trauma. He insisted he needed to
establish a timeline. When he returned, he resumed the same line of repetitive questioning. When
Officer
stepped outside to call a detective, the survivor stated, "I just want to go home".
Before her interaction with Officer
she stated she wanted to report to law enforcement and
have a full speculum exam. When he left, she opted to just have swabs collected. I believe that the
way Officer
treated this survivor absolutely affected the way that she proceeded and his
behavior discouraged her from having the full exam conducted.
This notice of complaint is a request for Internal Affairs to initiate an investigation to determine
if the employee conduct is within compliance of APD policy, Civil Service Rules, and Municipal
Civil Service Rules.