Officer Carlos Mayfield of the Austin Police Department was “indefinitely suspended” (read: fired) on Friday.
What did he do? He accessed a police report about a sexual assault case, one he wasn’t assigned to.
Detectives interviewed the suspect after he had gotten details of the report, the memo says. Investigators didn’t know he had this information at the time.
Mayfield acknowledged that this compromised the case, the memo says.
Travis County prosecutors ultimately decided not to prosecute “the compromised sexual assault case,” the memo says. However, they authorized the Sex Crimes Unit to file assault with injury charges against the suspect.
Not mentioned in the Statesman article: the ex-girlfriend was also a convicted felon, and “consorting” with convicted felons is a pretty serious violation of APD policy. (Sharing the report information wasn’t just a violation of policy: it was “misuse of official information”, a third-degree felony.) Former officer Mayfield also admitted that he had looked up other reports for the ex-girlfriend in the past.
Chief’s disciplinary memo here.
No word yet on whether former officer Mayfield will actually be prosecuted for the felony, but I have high hopes.
