13 Investigates spoke exclusively with an indecent assault victim whose case was suspended by Houston police last year due to lack of staff.
Chelsea Watkins decided to ring in 2023 with her husband and their friends at a local dive bar."There was a guy on my left who kept on trying to hit on me, and I was explaining that I was married, that I was very much older than him and absolutely in no way, shape or form interested," 38-year-old Watkins said.
Watkins said she called 911, and the bar's security held the suspect for about 30 minutes until police arrived. ABC13 does not typically identify victims of sex-related crimes, but Watkins said she wants to share her story. "I don't have time for sympathy or remorse or just pithy statements. What really would've helped me as a victim of sexual assault is to actually have my case taken seriously in the moments that it happened," Watkins said. "I would've told my story under oath. I was more than happy to do what is often very hard for victims of sexual assault to do, which is to go and first face their perpetrators. But I was never even given that chance.
"If we have missed investigating even one sexual assault, we have failed," Finner said last month. "I promise the Houston Police Department will correct this, and there will be accountability."
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