NASA engineer facing four new sexual assault charges

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A NASA engineer is now being accused of sexual assault by six different women.

Eric Sim, 37, was charged with two counts of sexual assault at the beginning of March from incidents that allegedly took place in 2021. One woman told investigators she believed she was drugged, according to court records, and another said he forced himself on her.

On Thursday, he was charged with four additional counts of sexual assault with four different victims.

"There is not another intox-related offense, but there were ones in which 'I don't want to have sex' was made by all the other four and in different degrees of force non-consent," Janna Oswald, the division chief of adult sex crimes in the Harris County District Attorney's Office, said.

Oswald said there are similarities between the women's accounts of what happened.

Sim appeared in court Thursday, where he was given a $30,000 bond on each of his new sexual assault charges. He posted bond in the courtroom and bypassed going to jail.

His hired defense attorney, Neal Davis, said Sim maintains his innocence despite the new charges.

"I'm not fazed at all by the number of complainants, whether it's one, six or 10," Davis said. "The question is, 'Do these complainants know each other? How do they know each other? How did they come forward? Why did they wait? What are their motives?' All those things we are exploring."

When asked why individuals would make these claims against Sim, Davis said, "I don't want to get into details other than to say that these were consensual relations and the way they ended were perhaps not the most favorable for the complainants, and we have different motives we are examining."

ABC13 asked NASA about Sim's current employment status, and it sent the following statement:

"NASA does not comment on ongoing investigations. NASA will take any and all appropriate personnel action based on our own investigation as well as facts shared with us from local investigative and prosecutorial organizations. For any additional information, please contact local authorities."

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