'Powerful and impactful:' City apologizes to survivors in sexual assault cases

Editor's Note: this article discusses sexual assault.

Marina Garrett was weeks away from starting her sophomore year of college when she reported a sexual assault to the Austin Police Department in 2015.

The 19-year-old told police she had been raped, but her experience after reporting the incident led to more trauma.

"APD handled it poorly, my experience with the district attorney went terribly," Garrett said Wednesday, recalling that the rape kit test she took sat in a backlog for two years.

When she got the call that the kit had been tested, she was told it came back with no DNA results and that the Police Department wouldn't be taking the case.

"It was one of the worst days of my life," Garrett said. "It definitely broke me."

Garrett was part of a group of women who sued Austin and Travis County officials, saying police did not take their complaints of sexual assault seriously and that the city lacked the resources to bring their attackers to justice. The first lawsuit in 2018 highlighted concerns that had previously surfaced about a backlog of DNA samples and about mold contaminating some of that evidence.

More: Austin to pay $825K, make policy changes to resolve sexual assault lawsuits

Both the city of Austin and Travis County settled the lawsuit, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars each.

On Tuesday, city leaders at a news conference issued a public apology on behalf of the city, nearly two years after the settlement.

The apology Tuesday was issued from interim Assistant City Manager Bruce Mills, interim Police Chief Robin Henderson and other city leaders. Several current and former Austin City Council members were there as well.

“This public apology was one the most important terms of settlement for myself and several of us plaintiffs,” Hanna Senko, one of the plaintiffs, told the American-Statesman. “I’m grateful that the current APD leadership took this apology seriously and ensured it happened.”

Changes in city practices

In the settlement reached by the city, there were several directions to improve the way Austin addresses sexual assault.

District 10 Council Member Alison Alter, who has been a leading voice in reforming the way the city handles sexual assaults cases, said after the news conference there has been "enormous progress" on the issue.

“We have changed protocols. We have injected staff from victim services into high-level decision making. We have a road map of everything that needs to be done in terms of training and other steps,” Alter told the Statesman Tuesday.

Alter on Wednesday said she initiated a comprehensive evaluation of the city's sexual assault response beginning in 2019. That evaluation came back in late 2022.

In early 2023, former Police Chief Joe Chacon "launched a process that was designed to move forward the recommendations that remained from the lawsuit and the recommendations that were in the PERF report," Alter said.

The project is called the Collective Sex Crimes Response Model and includes more than 40 people from the Police Department and other community agencies, like the SAFE Alliance and the Travis County district attorney's office.

"That group is working on policies, procedures and budgetary needs," Alter said. "My guess, at this point, is that will be in the order of a million dollars that will be coming through the budget process and hopefully it will be in the proposed budget."

Near Acevedo appointment 'erodes' work to rebuild trust

Looming over the apology was news of the expected return of former Police Chief Art Acevedo, who, less than a half-hour before the planned apology, posted on X, formerly Twitter, that he was withdrawing his acceptance of an executive level position overseeing Austin policing after heavy backlash from members of the City Council and the community. He had served as police chief from 2007 to 2016.

Garrett said she was outraged when she heard Acevedo was planning to come back.

Even though he decided to withdraw, Garrett said it's things like these that "can certainly take us back a few steps" on community trust, a lot of which she feels has been reestablished.

"The fact that it was even in consideration, I think that that definitely weighs on people's minds," Garrett said.

Alter on the day Acevedo's appointment was announced said it "erodes years of work to rebuild trust and to keep our community safe."

On Tuesday, Alter said she thinks Acevedo’s decision to withdraw was the right move for the city.

To get helpIf you or someone you know is seeking resources for sexual assault, contact the SAFE Alliance at 512-267-7233 or the Asian Family Support Services of Austin at 877-281-8371.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: City of Austin issues public apology to victims of sexual assault