AUSTIN, Texas — A woman has filed a lawsuit against the City of Austin and a former Austin Police Department (APD) officer for an alleged sexual assault after the officer met her in 2020 while responding to a mental health call.
Walter Tyson Dodds, the Austin police officer named in the lawsuit, was an officer at the time of the incident in April 2020 and resigned from APD in August of that year.
In September 2020, he was arrested for the alleged sexual assault. He was charged with a second-degree felony and Class A misdemeanor at the time of his arrest. He remains unindicted but the case is expected to be heard by a grand jury this spring, according to records from the Travis County District Attorney's Office.
According to the suit, Dodds responded to an attempted suicide call at a home on the evening of April 18, 2020. There, he made contact with a man and a woman. Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) arrived on the scene and determined the man was a danger to himself. The man was then taken to the hospital.
During Dodds' interview with the woman, referred to as Jane Doe to protect her privacy and safety, Dodds asked for Doe's number and told her he would call her to tell her where the man was taken. At the end of the interview, Dodds asked Doe about locking the door to her apartment.
“What if someone sneaks in there? You don’t want to be sleeping with some dude in there with you," Dodds said, per the lawsuit.
Dodds then accompanied the man to the hospital and completed the required documentation for the man's emergency detention.
Then, at 6:54 p.m., Dodds called Doe from his APD-issued cell phone, the lawsuit continued. Dodds told her which hospital the man had been taken to and then asked if he could go to her home. Doe did not give consent for Dodds to go to her home, the lawsuit stated.
Dodds then asked Doe if she would take off his uniform for him and asked again if he could go over. Doe did not consent to either of the things Dodds said, the lawsuit stated.
He reportedly called her four more times from the APD-issued phone that night but Doe did not pick up any of the calls. After the last call at 9:09 p.m., Doe fell asleep in her bedroom alone, the suit stated.
Sometime after Doe fell asleep, Dodds reportedly went to her apartment and knocked on the door. Doe's nephew, a minor, opened the door and saw Dodds in full uniform along with his gun and full duty belt. Dodds then walked past the minor into Doe's bedroom and shut the door behind him, the suit stated.
Doe said she woke up to Dodds sexually assaulting her in her bedroom.
"Doe was shocked, frightened and confused about what was going on and never consented to any contact of any kind from Officer Dodds," the suit stated.
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Dodds ejaculated onto the sheet, which was later tested for DNA evidence by APD and confirmed that it was his DNA on the sheet.
After the alleged incident and over the next several days, Dodds continued to call Doe, per the suit. He disguised his number on one April 25 call, which Doe answered. She recognized Dodd's voice and heard him ask who she was with and what she was doing.
"Terrified, Doe answered that she was with her husband and hung up the phone," the suit said.
On April 26, Doe saw Dodds drive by her apartment complex in his police vehicle, drive to the dead end of her parking lot, turn around and drive away. Doe's nephew took a photo of the vehicle, which APD confirmed was Dodd's assigned police vehicle for the day.
Following another disguised call and questions asking what she was doing and if he could come over on April 27, Dodds called 911 two days later to report the alleged sexual assault.
In May 2020, APD said that in addition to the criminal investigation, the department's Internal Affairs Division was conducting an internal investigation into Dodds’s alleged actions. According to the department, Dodds had been an APD officer since December 2017 and patrolled the northeast Austin area. At the time, APD said Dodds had been placed on restricted duty pending the outcome of the investigations. He resigned in August 2020.
The lawsuit goes on to describe a "tolerance for sexual misconduct amongst" APD's ranks and cites a handful of alleged sexual violence allegations under previous APD chiefs. The suit also describes a "failure to investigate sexual violence."
A City of Austin spokesperson released the following statement on Thursday:
“The City has not yet been served with the lawsuit but we are familiar with the incident that occurred two years ago. In response to the serious allegations, APD immediately began an investigation. The officer who is separately named in the lawsuit is no longer employed by APD.”
KVUE also reached out to Dodds' attorneys for comments on the case.
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