TARRANT COUNTY, TX
Criminal District Attorney
Adult Sexual Assault
Adult Sexual Assault
The team’s cases all involve an element of sexual assault: offenses on their case lists include capital murder, attempted capital murder, aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, and other felonies.
When handling their cases, prosecutors work to improve how we handle sexual assault cases by working closely with detectives early on to improve investigations, engaging with victims in a trauma informed way, and preparing for cases for trial.
The creation of this team came after a 2018 meeting that included various agencies that worked with victims of crime and law enforcement investigating crime. One organization in attendance noted that July 2018 had been an especially brutal month for sexual assaults in Tarrant county. Over 100 visits by advocates to victims of sexual assault had occurred during that month.
Our office expected a huge increase in filed sexual assault cases. Months passed, but the rise in cases never happened – in total, the DA office received five total cases of the possible 100 victims seen in the month of July 2018. This indicated a larger problem – sexual assaults were being reported at the hospital-exam level. But what was happening to the cases before they reached the DA office?
What we found is the problem is a bit more complex than the simple conclusion “cases aren’t being filed” and involved issues that needed to be addressed in law enforcement, within the DA office, and within our community.