Austin police officer resigns following trespassing charge at ex-girlfriend's apartment
An Austin police officer resigned this month after being charged with trespassing in connection with entering his ex-girlfriend's apartment in March, officials said.
"The Austin Police Department is aware of an incident involving former APD Officer Juan Asencio that occurred on or about March 13, 2024," according to a statement issued by police on Wednesday. "The Department is cooperating with the investigating agency, the Travis County Sheriff’s Office. Per standard protocol, upon receiving notice, the Department immediately placed Officer Asencio on restricted duty and initiated an administrative investigation into this incident."
Asencio resigned on April 1, the statement said. His attorney, Brad Heilman, said Thursday that the probable cause affidavit doesn’t list all the facts of the case. "Mr. Asencio looks forward to presenting all of the facts of his defense in court," Heilman said.
The trespassing charge is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in county jail.
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According to an arrest affidavit, police were notified at 3:30 p.m. March 14 about the incident at an apartment at the Reveal at Onion Creek complex at 12000 Interstate 35 South in Austin.
The victim, Asencio's ex-girlfriend, told police that neighbors messaged her that they had seen Asencio in the window of her apartment at 11:45 p.m. on March 13, the affidavit said. "The neighbors checked the front door and heard what sounded like a crash and ran back to their apartments," the document said.
The victim said she was away on the evening of March 13 because her air-conditioning was broken and she was visiting a friend, the affidavit said. It said that surveillance video from the apartment complex showed a black SUV, similar to the unmarked police vehicle Asencio drove, entering the complex on the night of March 13 and leaving early in the morning on March 14.
It said data from Asencio's police vehicle showed that at 9:43 p.m. on March 13, he had driven 10 miles, which was the distance to his ex-girlfriend's apartment from his residence. The data also showed he had driven the vehicle at 3:33 a.m. on March 14, the affidavit said.
Asencio's ex-girlfriend also told police that two months before, she found an Apple air tag tracking device underneath the passenger side of her vehicle when her phone alerted her that a device was following her, the affidavit said.
When she asked Asencio about it, it said, he said it must have fallen out of his gym bag.
She told police that the air tag was 8 inches under the opening of the carpet in the car so it would have had to be placed there, the affidavit said. It said nothing in her apartment was taken during the break-in but that her computer was moved and so were letters that Asencio had written to her.
Asencio never lived at her apartment, she said, according to the affidavit. It said she told police that in the past after their breakup he would knock on her door for an extended period of time before she let him in and then he stayed to talk about the relationship for hours, the affidavit said.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin police officer resigns after being charged with trespassing
