Four Texas women have sued the City of Austin, Travis County, the city’s police department and the county’s district attorney office for the mishandling of their cases that they say rises to the level of re-traumatization.
In an explosive, 77-page class action lawsuit filed Monday in Austin state court, the plaintiffs claim Austin law enforcement violated their 14th Amendment rights because for years women sexual assault victims “have been disbelieved, dismissed and denigrated” by the Austin Police Department and Travis County District Attorney’s Office.
Specific examples of women being “re-traumatized” by Austin and Travis County law enforcement includes taking years to test rape kits, coercing women to take invasive exams for evidence that will “almost certainly not be used in a prosecution,” suggesting the survivors are lying about their assaults and never informing victims that their cases have been closed.
Monday’s class action suit says it advocates for more than 11,000 women who have been sexually assaulted in Austin who share a universal experience when their cases reach the APD and DA’s office: they languish in the system without “even being afforded the minimum diligence or care.”
“At its core, this case asks whether the Austin Police Department and Travis County District Attorney’s Office can systematically refuse to investigate sex crimes against women based on biased assumptions about their gender,” the lawsuit says. “It is impossible to distill the allegations and experiences detailed herein into a succinct and singular premise, but the experiences survivors have had with the APD and DA’s Office are universal in the sense that they received little support and no justice at all from government officials sworn to protect them and the public.”
A City of Austin spokesperson said they were aware of the lawsuit and will respond appropriately.
“In the meantime, the city continues to move forward with its commitment to improve the criminal justice process for cases involving allegations of sexual assault,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Monday’s lawsuit follows a similar lawsuit filed against the same defendants in August 2018 in Austin federal court on behalf of eight sexual assault victims. That lawsuit is currently up on appeal after U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel dismissed it earlier this year, citing immunity issues and recent changes to Texas statutes that address many of the lawsuit’s claims.
Jennifer Ecklund, a partner in Thompson Coburn’s Dallas office and lead attorney for the plaintiffs on both cases, said she filed Monday’s new lawsuit in state court in part because the judge in the federal suit “suggested that state court would be the more appropriate forum to hear the case.”
She said her clients also elected to file the new suit in state court “rather than be met with another order abstaining from hearing the case.
“In response to this lawsuit, Austin and Travis County have the opportunity to revamp their policies and cultures to ensure that sexual assault survivors are heard and respected,” Ecklund said. “The named plaintiffs in this new class action are hopeful that the addition of their voices to the demand for accountability will help to ensure justice and that the APD and the Travis County DA honor and uphold the constitutional rights of their citizens.”
In a written statement, Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore declined “to comment on specifics,” saying her office is yet to receive a copy of the lawsuit.
“However, I am confident that this office has consistently fought for the constitutional rights of all citizens, including sexual assault victims, thoroughly and vigorously,” Moore said. “I expect this lawsuit to be as unsuccessful in state court as it was in federal court.”
Officials with Travis County and the APD did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Unlike most petitions involving rape victims, the four lead plaintiffs were identified by name in Monday’s lawsuit.
According to the complaint, Hanna Senko realized she had been date-raped after waking up in only her underwear in the home of a man she had gone to dinner and drinks with the previous evening in December 2006. The lawsuit says her case was closed by the DA’s office 87 days after she reported it to the APD, despite the fact that detectives never visited the crime scene to gather evidence, never investigated the conflicting statements made by her attacker and never contacted witnesses.
Amanda Day was repeatedly and violently raped by a man she dated in 2009, the lawsuit says, which led to more than one hospitalization, a miscarriage and anal trauma that triggered ischemic colitis. After reporting the rapes years later (but within the statute of limitations), the lawsuit claims that the officer assigned to her case said her prior consent to “kissing and stuff” killed their chances of proving sexual assault.
Whitley Degollado was the victim of a 2019 gang rape orchestrated by her boyfriend at the time, according to the lawsuit, which says he coordinated the rape on the internet and social media sites, rounding up several other men to participate. Despite overwhelming written evidence confirming the rapes that Degollado submitted when reporting the assault, the complaint says that the DA’s Office determined her prior sexual activity with her boyfriend invalidated the gang rape claims.
North Texas resident Jessica Ragsdill was raped in Austin in 2018 in her hotel room while attending a conference for work, the lawsuit says. She figured it out quickly after waking up to blood on the bed sheets and towels, her clothes folded on a chair and evidence that someone had used her shower. The last thing she remembered from the previous evening was being handed a drink by a man she did not know. Ragsdill’s description matched the man who appeared in security footage obtained by the APD that showed him entering the hotel that evening with Ragsdill, who could not walk on her own. But the lawsuit says that the detective assigned to the case dropped the investigation after the assailant claimed Ragsdill was awake throughout intercourse.
Other Thompson Coburn attorneys representing the plaintiffs include Elizabeth Myers, John Atkins and Mackenzie Salenger from the firm’s Dallas office and Kristen Sanocki from the firm’s St. Louis office.
The case number is D-1-GN-20-004916 and has been assigned to Travis County District Judge Maya Guerra Gamble.