A 19 year old arrested for an assault
in a city he'd never stepped foot in.
Law enforcement experts say San
Marcos police failed to take basic
investigative steps in this case.
The man says police based his arrest
almost entirely on a Facebook picture,
the case of mistaken identity that left
him battling to clear his name and now,
finally, an acknowledgement
from the Police Department.
Tonight the man sharing
his story with the KV Defenders here,
Senior Reporter Tony Plahetsky.
Gosh, I guess I was working
for six or seven hours.
Austin Coulson had just finished a full
day of classes at Sam Houston State and his
night job as a Pizza Hut delivery driver.
It was a very long day when he headed
home around 10:30 on October 4th, 2021.
On my way home was was my worst nightmare. He
followed his usual 10 minute route
in Montgomery County in the Houston
suburbs along FM 1097 through his
hometown of Willis before turning onto
the quiet Two Lane Coot Cemetery Rd.
As he entered this intersection,
now marked with a stoplight at FM 830,
a sheriff's deputy stopped him for
failing to make a complete stop.
I saw her turn behind me right here
and and she flipped her lights on.
Coulson pulled into this daycare parking lot
when the cop pulled me over.
That was that was the first
time ever being pulled over.
Oh, I was scared. I wasn't doing
nothing wrong, but I was scared.
I mean, my my heart was beating less
than a mile from home.
He thought he'd get a ticket and
be on his way within minutes.
Instead, a second deputy
arrived. Both walked up to my window
and she told me to get out of the car.
I was under arrest.
I had a warrant out for my arrest
for assault with bodily injury.
I was like, where where did this happen?
Where did this assault happen?
Her response was Hays County.
And like, can you tell
me where Hays County is?
She's like, I I don't know.
Coulson spent the next 16 hours in the
Montgomery County jail confused about
how he could possibly be charged with
a crime for which he could face up to a
year in jail in a city 200 miles away.
Never been there before,
and I was stunned by it.
On the day of his release,
he and his father began
immediately making phone calls,
trying to find out what could have
possibly led to his arrest. When you
call a town you know 3 hours away
and you try to talk to their
Police Department, they're not real
willing to give information
or to talk to you at all.
Dozens of phone calls and weeks later,
they finally unraveled what happened,
much of what they discovered in a
lawsuit against the City of San Marcos
and multiple officers and supervisors
from the San Marcos Police Department.
According to the lawsuit,
a man in San Marcos was the victim
of an assault by multiple men in June
2021 outside a bar called Showdown.
That man positively identified
one of his alleged assailants,
and police later arrested and
charged that suspect with assault.
He happened to be from Coulson's hometown.
I haven't seen this guy in five years,
the lawsuit claims.
The assault victim,
scrolling through the alleged
assailant social media feeds,
saw a picture of Coulson and told San
Marcos police he'd figured out the
identity of the second perpetrator.
He gave them the name Austin Coulson.
The suit alleges that in an effort
to place Coulson in San Marcos,
the lead investigator got incorrect
information that Coulson was a
student at Texas State University.
Then they got this arrest warrant
that popped up that night when
deputies pull Coulson over.
If you want to see a wrong
investigation, you look at this case,
Timothy Williams, a national
law enforcement expert in Los
Angeles who specializes in police
procedures and wrongful convictions,
said San Marcos police failed to
take basic investigative steps before
getting a warrant for Coulson's arrest.
Like questioning the suspect, you
got to corroborate what the
witness is telling you and how
you corroborate That is you do
your independent investigation,
talk to this person,
find out where this person was at,
Does he or she have an alibi?
And you investigate those alibis as well,
Williams says. What happens
represents a failure of both
investigators and supervisors.
The city responded to the lawsuit
by asking a court to dismiss it.
In a statement, the City of San Marcos says,
quote, Austin Colson was specifically
identified by the assault victim
as one of the assailants.
It added quote After the arrest,
the Police Department received
additional information and conducted
additional investigation that resulted
in the determination that the
suspect was incorrectly identified.
The statement concluded that quote.
The district attorney's office was
promptly contacted and advised
the state would facilitate Mr.
Coulson seeking and obtaining
an expedited expunction,
meaning that the case was dropped and
his arrest removed from public record.
You would never think something like
this would happen to you, Coulson says.
He believes the San Marcos Police
Department should face accountability,
and that's the reason he's pursuing
a case against the city and several
of his officers and supervisors
involved in the investigation
that led to his wrongful arrest.
It's just totally crazy that
that this happened to me.
I shouldn't have had to prove my innocence,
but in this situation, I definitely did.
The Cave You Defenders also
reached out to the Hays County
Justice of the Peace, Maggie H Moreno.
She's the judge who signed the
arrest warrant for Coulson that
San Marcos police presented to her.
Experts say often the first set
of checks and balances for the
criminal justice system is for
judges to make sure police meet
their burden for an arrest.
Judge Moreno declined to comment.
For the K View Defenders.
I'm Tony Plattsky, K View News.