Luke Armstrong, the son of ex-professional cyclist Lance Armstrong, has been arrested in Texas for sexual assault on a child, according to an affidavit from Austin police.
The affidavit, obtained by Texan television station KXAN, says that the then 18-year-old sexually assaulted a 16-year-old after a party in Austin in March 2018. The girl reported the incident in November 2020, telling police she had asked Armstrong to pick her up from the party where she had been drinking.
The victim told police that she couldn’t remember traveling with Armstrong in his truck and only remembered waking up on a sofa in Armstrong’s father’s house and being sexually assaulted. The affidavit says that during a December 2020 phone call, Armstrong admitted to having sex with the girl at his father’s house on Windsor Road in Austin.
According to the affidavit, Austin police interviewed several people with ties to the girl, with most of the contacts saying she reported having been sexually assaulted. One person told police that there was mutual consent.
Armstrong’s attorney, Randy Leavitt, denied the charge on behalf of his client, saying that Armstrong and the girl had been in a consensual relationship several months beforehand. He said he and Armstrong’s family are gathering evidence to prove his innocence.
“What happened in high school three years ago was not a crime and not a sexual assault,” Leavitt said, according to KXAN. “It was a consensual relationship then and continued consensually between two young people, with both eventually going their separate ways. This charge should not have been filed and certainly not three years later.
“A full account of the facts will confirm that what is being claimed absolutely did not take place.
In Texas, a person under 17 is not considered mature enough to consent to sex. However, it also has a ‘Romeo and Juliet’ law in its books that allows consensual sex between a teenager aged 14 or older and another who is no more than three years older.
However, Texas also has a law that people 16 or younger cannot legally consent to sex if they are unconscious, asleep, or if they have been given “ mind-altering drugs, ” which can be applied to a person who is too intoxicated to feel it. to be aware. what is happening.
Leavitt added that Armstrong was granted and released on Tuesday on the basis of a personal recognition obligation – meaning he didn’t have to pay bail.
Lance Armstrong, who won the World Road Cycling Championships in 1993 and La Flèche Wallonne in 1996 during a 19-year career, has not commented publicly on the matter.