Travis County District Attorney’s Office Announces Two-Count Indictment Against Former Commander Lyons
Travis County, TX — On Tuesday, May 5, 2026, a Travis County special grand jury of the 167th Judicial District Court returned an indictment charging former Austin Police Department Commander Wade Lyons with the offenses of Sexual Assault, a second-degree felony, and Official Oppression, a Class A misdemeanor.
The charges stem from incidents alleged to have occurred between December 2022 and October 2023, during which Lyons was the commander of the Austin Police Department Training Academy. The indictment alleges that Lyons engaged in a coercive sexual relationship with the victim, who was a civilian employee of the city.
Lyons will make his initial court appearance on June 9, 2026, and documents related to the indictment will be available then.
In October 2025, the Special Investigations Unit of the Austin Police Department referred this matter to our office for review.
Lyons’s casewill be prosecuted by the Office’s Public Integrity Complex Cases Unit and is pending in the 460th Judicial District Court for Travis County.
“We are grateful to the special grand jury, an independent group of members of the Travis County community, who heard the evidence and the law and decided that former APD Commander Lyons’s conduct was unlawful,” said Travis County District Attorney José Garza. “Holding law enforcement accountable when they break the law is critical to maintaining community trust and also to the safety of our community.”
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