13 Investigates: Sex crime victim says it's 'too late' for HPD to investigate suspended incident

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Chelsea Watkins decided to ring in 2023 with her husband and their friends at a local dive bar.

But, shortly after midnight, she went to the bar alone to grab another round of drinks.

"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.

She said she turned her shoulder in the opposite direction. Then, the man put his hands in her pants and reached inside her underwear.

"He reaches his hand from behind between my legs, and I was in complete shock. Like, I couldn't believe that someone had the audacity to do that after I had told him clearly 'no' multiple times," she said. "It's disgusting. I don't know how to explain it. I felt really dirty."

Watkins said she called 911, and the bar's security held the suspect for about 30 minutes until police arrived.

She said the responding officer interviewed bar staff and spoke with the suspect and the woman the suspect was on a date with that night. The Houston Police Department assigned her case to the Special Victims Division as an indecent assault with a sexual component.

Between her statement, witnesses, and the bar's security footage, Watkins said her case should have been an easy win for HPD.

Instead, her incident report was labeled as "suspended - lack of personnel" internally.

"HPD definitely told me that someone would reach out to me, not necessarily a detective, but that someone would be in contact with me. I never heard back from Houston police again," Watkins told 13 Investigates. "They should be proactively following up on cases with the victims to make sure that they're OK after an incident occurs. I mean, there just needs to be better advocating for the victims of crimes in this area."

ABC13 does not typically identify victims of sex-related crimes, but Watkins said she wants to share her story.

Her case is one of 4,017 adult sex-related incident reports that were wrongfully assigned the "lack of personnel" status.

HPD Chief Troy Finner said he identified more than 260,000 incident reports across all crime categories suspended due to "lack of personnel" since 2016. That accounts for one in every 10 incident reports over the last eight years.

"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. I was never even given any conclusion of what would happen."

RELATED: 13 Investigates timeline: HPD's 'suspended' code was an issue in 2014

Finner, appointed police chief in April 2021, said he told staff to stop assigning incident reports the "suspended - lack of personnel" code when he first learned about it in November 2021.

Last month, Finner said he learned the code was still being used despite his instructions.

"I immediately ordered a review of those cases. That code was put into effect in 2016. It will not be used again in my administration. It was unacceptable then. It is unacceptable now," Finner said in a February news conference.

Two assistant chiefs were demoted, Houston Mayor John Whitmire appointed what he's calling an "independent" panel, and HPD is conducting its own internal affairs investigation.

Finner said he assigned special staff to start contacting victims, with a priority put on adult sex crimes.

"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."

Still, HPD admits it will be hard to reach every victim since the suspended cases date back to 2016, and some of them have likely changed numbers or moved since then.

HPD told 13 Investigates on Monday that Watkins' case is a misdemeanor and has been assigned an investigator, who should contact her later Monday or Tuesday.

HPD did not have updated information on how many victims of suspended cases they have contacted so far but said it will provide an update when that information is available.

One adult sex assault victim whom 13 Investigates spoke with said they heard from an apologetic HPD about their case being suspended.

However, Watkins said she didn't know her case was on the suspended list until ABC13 contacted her.

"It's extremely disappointing that this came to light in February, and it's now the end of March, and I still haven't been contacted. But them contacting me, it's too late," she said. "I've lost a lot of trust already in law enforcement in our area, and this entire story of hundreds of thousands of cases just never being resolved. What do we pay taxes for?"

Watkins said she's worried so much time has passed that it would be hard to track down any witnesses in the case or the surveillance video that she said the bar was willing to share with police that night.

And 15 months after the incident, she also doesn't know if she could identify the suspect.

"It would probably be pretty difficult, and I wouldn't even want to be put under that kind of pressure because I just, I simply don't know," she said. "To realize that not only have they dropped the ball, but that it's long enough that it takes me a second to actually think back to what happened is really hurtful."

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