A predator who broke a woman’s leg in four places while chasing after her and masturbating has been let off with probation by an ultra-liberal district attorney in Austin, Texas.
Antonio Rios — who also is facing numerous indecent exposure charges, including exposing himself to a child — is free to roam the streets despite copping to aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury.
His sentence of 10 years of probation is too soft, according to Lynn Isaak, the Austin engineer he attacked while she was jogging in her neighborhood.
During the 2021 ambush, Isaak told The Post, she tried to outrun Rios for seven miles and fight him off, but claimed he fed off her fear, fondling himself as she tried to escape.
The felon was eventually scared off by a neighbor, but the ordeal left her without the ability to walk for four months as her leg was shattered, and she will eventually need to replace her entire knee.
“It just shows how truly vicious the attack was,” Isaak told The Post Wednesday. “He really looked at me like I was his prey.”
Isaak slammed the fact that Rios was not even released with a GPS-monitoring device when sentenced earlier this week. Ten women who claim Rios had exposed himself to them appeared at his sentencing to protest.
The decision not to give Rios prison time was made by Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza, who ran on a platform of criminal justice reform when he was elected in 2021.
“This was a deal that was reached with the district attorney’s office after 16 months of negotiation,” Rios’ attorney Jorge Vela told local station KXAN.
“It took into account my client’s lack of criminal history. There are different purposes in the criminal justice system, and one of those is rehabilitation.”
However, Rios has a growing rap sheet, including incident exposure charges for masturbating in front of a 9-year-old child and his mother — twice — in 2021, according to court documents seen by The Post. That case has yet to come to trial.
The kid’s mother even photographed the pervert standing over a fire hydrant while he aggressively pleasured himself.
Rios, 36, is also facing charges in at least three other cases where he exposed himself to women, Isaak’s attorney told The Post.
“My expectation was that he would have prison time according to the Travis County sentencing guidelines,” Isaak shared.
“We felt confident that with the evidence that exists on these cases, that if taken to a trial, a jury would have found him guilty.”
Garza is a former public defender and immigrant advocate who has ended the use of cash bail for people charged with low-level, nonviolent crimes, increased eligibility for diversion programs and stopped prosecuting low-level drug offenses.
“They need a criminal justice system that lifts up working-class communities of color, not one that locks them up,” Garza told a legal publication about voters who supported him.
But he also promised voters he’d protect women.
“They want a criminal justice system that focuses our resources on violent crime, gun violence, on violence against women, on prosecuting the kinds of offenses that we know will keep our community more safe,” Garza stated.
Isaak’s attorney, former prosecutor Kelsey McKay, explained that Garza has repeatedly made it clear his focus is on rehabilitating criminals.
“In my experience, I haven’t felt a lot of justice coming towards victims,” McKay said of Garza’s office. “His focus seems to be on not making the perpetuator worse.”
The DA’s office didn’t return a request for comment from The Post.
Garza’s election is one of many socially conscious decisions made by Austin voters, who allowed the most liberal city council in the Lone Star State to go to war with the cops.
The city defunded the Austin Police Department in 2020 — slashing its budget by a third — only to refund it again a year later.
Anti-cop sentiment in the state capital has resulted in a public safety crisis, with the department short about 358 officers and most 911 calls diverted to the non-emergency 311 line.
McKay explained that most sexual predators reoffend, often escalating the level of violence they use.
“He doesn’t have a GPS on anymore,” she added. “It’s not a matter of time — it’s a matter of if he gets caught.”
“It’s not like one day, you’re like, ‘I’m going to go masturbate over a fire hydrant and scare a woman.’ You have developed that proclivity, you escalate, you need more.”
