A federal judge in Austin threw out a class action lawsuit Monday accusing local law enforcement leaders of mishandling sexual assault allegations from approximately 6,000 women and failing to prosecute some attackers or take the steps needed to bring them to justice.
In granting a defense motion to dismiss that had been lingering in his court for more than a year, U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel noted that many of the claims brought forward by lawyers representing eight sexual assault victims have since been addressed through changes at the state and local level and do not require further attention from his court.
Other claims, the judge wrote, were denied because prosecutors in Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore’s office are shielded with immunity that gives them discretion on which cases to pursue.
Yeakel’s 32-page ruling is the latest development in the ongoing tensions between sexual assault victims’ advocates and local officials, and it comes one week before early voting begins in the Democratic primary. Moore, who is up for reelection and drew two challengers in large part over criticism that her office doesn’t prosecute enough sexual assault cases, was among several defendants named in the lawsuit.
Austin Police Chief Brian Manley, whose department was found to have misclassified dozens of sexual assault investigations, thus making it seem as if investigators had solved more cases, was another defendant.
Moore and Manley’s predecessors — former DA Rosemary Lehmberg and former Police Chief Art Acevedo — also were defendants, as were Travis County and the city of Austin.
“We are pleased with Judge Yeakel’s ruling,” Moore wrote in a statement Monday. “With this lawsuit no longer impeding us, we can have candid conversations with stakeholders about the hard work of making our system more responsive to victims and still ensure the rights of the accused.”
Attorney Elizabeth Myers, who is on the legal team representing the plaintiffs in the suit, said her clients are not giving up the fight. They had argued that Austin and Travis County violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by refusing to investigate and prosecute sex crimes against women. The 18 examples cited in the lawsuit included failing to submit or timely test sexual assault kits and allocating more resources to other violent crimes than to sexual assaults against female victims.
“Our clients are obviously disappointed by this ruling, but it is not the end of their case or their fight for justice,” Myers said. “We are reviewing the order in detail, and our clients intend to pursue all legal options available to them.”
Monday’s ruling came 14 months after lawyers for both sides were in Yeakel’s courtroom to argue on the defense’s motion to dismiss. The judge delayed making a decision until the conclusion of the legislative session May 27, when state lawmakers passed multiple bills that, among other changes aimed at protecting victims, imposed deadlines for sexual assault kits to be submitted for testing and created a statewide task force to analyze best practices for investigating sexual assault cases.
The changes at the state level followed a resolution by the Austin City Council in January 2019 to direct the city manager to hire an outside group to conduct an evaluation of how the city investigates sexual assaults.
“There is an extraordinary degree of overlap between the relief requested of the court and what the city’s resolution and the changes to Texas law achieve,” Yeakel wrote. “Intrusion by the court at this juncture would have an impermissibly disruptive effect on the recently enacted Texas laws related to sexual assaults, which the court finds to be a matter of substantial public concern.”
Some other claims, Yeakel wrote, were tossed out because the lawyers for the women failed to state a claim for relief.
Myers said she believes her clients’ lawsuit triggered the discussion that led to the state and local changes that Yeakel mentioned.
“This ruling is certainly not a vindication for any of the defendants or for the systems in Travis County that continue to fail survivors,” Myers said. “We hope the defendants will begin the hard work of listening and trying to make positive change.”
A related lawsuit pending in Yeakel’s court accuses Moore’s first assistant, Mindy Montford, of discussing the details of an investigation involving one of the women with a third party.
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