County Officials in Texas Settle Lawsuit Alleging Mishandling of Sexual Assault Cases – By Mark Greenblatt and Mark Fahey, Newsy (ProPublica) / July 14 2021
Local agencies reform how they handle sexual assault allegations and pay compensation to survivors following a lawsuit and a 2018 investigation by Newsy, Reveal and ProPublica.
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.
Travis County, Texas, officials have settled a lawsuit brought by more than a dozen women who said local law enforcement agencies had failed to properly investigate their sexual assault allegations.
The county agreed to apologize to each victim and pay the plaintiffs $20,000 apiece. It allotted additional funds to pay their lawyers and $250,000 for programs related to prosecuting sexual assault cases and helping victims.
The district attorney’s office also has promised to reform its process for handling rape cases. It has said that, going forward, it will meet personally with rape survivors before declining or rejecting their cases and that prosecutors will receive training on best practices for presenting harder cases to juries.
