CRUCIAL CALL Lance Armstrong’s son faces up to 20 years in prison over alleged assault after ‘admitting to sex with accuser in call’
LANCE Armstrong’s son is facing 20 years behind bars in prison for sexual assault after "admitting he had sex with his accuser during a recorded call," court documents say.
On Tuesday, college footballer Luke Armstrong, 21, was arrested and has since been released on bond two years after the alleged attack at the home of his Tour de France drugs cheat father in Texas.
The son of the disgraced cycling legend was charged this week with the alleged sexual assault of a child nearly three years ago in 2018, when he was 18 and she was 16.
In the Lone Star State, a child is defined as anyone under 17 years old.
The second-degree felony is punishable by up to two decades behind bars if he's convicted of assaulting a teenage girl after a party on June 22, 2018 – but Armstrong's lawyer insists it was "a consensual relationship."
Neal Davis Law Firm, a criminal defense attorney's office based in TX, noted that usually the maximum sentence is 20 years while the minimum is two years – but offenses against children receive harsher punishments there.
An affidavit stated that when the girl called Armstrong December 8, 2020 two years after the incident, he admitted to having sex with her at his dad's house and recalled asking her if they were going to have sex.
It wasn't immediately clear whether Armstrong (Jr) admitted the sexual encounter wasn't consensual during this phone call.
The document stated: "He remembered her taking her clothes off and walking to the bed herself."
Elizabeth Boyce, the director of policy and advocacy for the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, told WGN-TV the investigation hinged on evidence like this phone call.
However, Boyce highlighted that a "Romeo and Juliet" defense may be implemented given they were 18 and 16 at the time.
“Even if the Romeo and Juliet law applies — even in cases where the relationship is consensual — that doesn’t mean that a rape did not occur in that relationship,” she said.
On November 17, 2020, she told the Austin Police Department how she first met Armstrong (Jr) on June 20, 2018, when she accompanied a friend to his dad's $7.5million mansion, the documents state.
Two days later, the girl had allegedly gone to a party, got drunk, and couldn't find a ride home so she called Armstrong to pick her up.
He took her back to the Armstrong home in the Old Enfield district of Austin, the unnamed victim claims, where she awoke to find him sexually assaulting her on a couch, the affidavit stated.
One person the girl confided in described how she was inconsolable and having nightmares "about the assault years afterwards," according to these documents obtained by the Austin-American Statesmen.
His accuser said she blacked out during the ride and woke up in Armstrong's home instead, where he allegedly sexually assaulted her before driving her home, the filing stated.
The girl told cops she informed six people that Armstrong had sex with her, all of whom were interviewed.
Court documents stated that only four of them remembered she had said it was "non-consensual;" one of them said the girl told her about the incident a week after it happened and described the nightmares that occurred.
One person who had spoken to the girl on the night of the alleged assault confirmed to cops that she was definitely drunk the night it happened.
A friend of Armstrong's told police his pal had not been drinking on the night in question.
His lawyer Randy Leavitt has insisted the sexual assault allegations aren't true.
"A complete review of the facts will confirm what has been alleged absolutely did not occur and a proper and thorough legal process will exonerate Luke," the attorney said on Wednesday.
"What occurred three years ago in high school was not a crime and not a sexual assault.
"What it was was a consensual relationship then and it continued to be consensual between the two young people with both ultimately going their separate ways. These charges should never have been filed and certainly not three years later."
“It wasn’t a one-time thing,” Leavitt told WGN-TV. “They had something of a relationship going on for a brief period of time.”
He made bond on Tuesday and the family is fully cooperating with the district attorney’s office, Leavitt said.
The 21-year-old son of the disgraced cycling legend was charged with sexual assault of a child, which is a second-degree felony.
The Sun contacted Leavitt and Armstrong (Sr)'s spokesperson Mark Higgins, for comment on Thursday.
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Luke, the eldest of Lance's five children, is a college athlete who played football for Rice University.
He opted out of the 2020 season due to coronavirus, the university said. It confirmed he is still enrolled as a student.
Luke appeared in ESPN's 30 For 30 documentary charting his father's rise and downfall.
