Austin Police officer resigns after being charged with trespassing in ex’s apartment
AUSTIN (KXAN) — An Austin Police officer was arrested in March after allegedly entering his ex-girlfriend’s apartment without permission, according to Travis County court records.
Juan Asencio — who was an APD senior officer at the time, according to court documents — was charged with one misdemeanor count of criminal trespass. He was arrested March 25 after a Travis County Sheriff’s Office investigation.
According to APD and Asencio’s attorney, he resigned from APD after his arrest and is currently no longer with the department.
“Asencio did resign so he can focus on the criminal case,” Asencio’s attorney Brad Heilman said in a statement. “The probable cause affidavit doesn’t show all the facts, and he looks forward to presenting all of the facts in his defense.”
“Per standard protocol, upon receiving notice, the Department immediately placed Officer Asencio on restricted duty and initiated an administrative investigation into this incident” APD said in a statement. “Former Officer Asensio has since resigned from the Austin Police Department, effective April 1, 2024. No further information will be released at this time to protect the ongoing investigation.”
Asencio was released the morning of March 25 under a $10,000 bond. Per further conditions of his bond, he is not to contact or be within 200 yards of his ex. He is also not permitted to possess a firearm and his personal vehicle must remain under GPS tracking pending the case’s outcome.
Investigation into apartment trespass
According to an arrest affidavit, one of the victim’s neighbors texted her around 11:45 p.m. on March 13 that they saw a man in her apartment.
That neighbor claims the man attempted to get their attention, but they ran to their apartment and contacted another neighbor. Those neighbors then checked the victim’s apartment, noticing an open window and an unlocked back door, according to the affidavit. They reported hearing a noise and ran back to their apartments.
After the victim and law enforcement arrived on scene on March 14, she told the deputies her ex-boyfriend knew she would return from a business trip that day. He allegedly texted her on March 13, “Do you mind contacting me please. We really need to talk,” but she said she didn’t see the message until March 14.
Inside her apartment, she found that her laptop and letters written to her by Asencio had been moved, according to the affidavit.
APD provided vehicle data for Asencio’s unmarked police SUV, which allegedly shows that the SUV was driven for several miles before stopping at 10:11 p.m. on March 13. According to the affidavit, surveillance footage from the apartment complex shows a vehicle matching Asencio’s police SUV arriving at that same time. The vehicle data also allegedly shows the vehicle moving again at 3:30 a.m. on March 14.
The distance traveled matches the distance between Asencio’s residence and the victim’s apartment, according to the TCSO detective.
In the affidavit, the victim also told the TCSO detective that after her breakup with Asencio, he showed up at her home at night and knocked on her door until she let him inside.
She also told TCSO that she found an Apple Air Tag, a remote tracking device, inside her car a few months before. Her phone alerted her to the tracker, which she found “under the carpet approximately six to eight inches” from the passenger side door, which the affidavit noted “would have been almost impossible for the device to get there on its own.” Asencio told her it “must have fallen out of his gym bag,” according to the affidavit.
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