A former U.S. Customs and Border Safety agent accused of kidnapping and repeatedly sexually assaulting a 15-year-old woman in Arizona was caught on police video saying what seems to be a menace in opposition to his accuser.
Aaron Thomas Mitchell, 27, made the incriminating comment after his arrest in April, when native detectives left him alone in an interrogation room with out turning off the video recorder, in accordance with federal court docket paperwork.
“I can not consider this s—,” Mitchell, who labored for CBP for 10 months and who’s the son of two retired Florida cops, might be heard saying, in accordance with federal court docket papers. “F——- little b—-. B—– is claiming rape. That’s so f—— loopy. That’s loopy, man. She higher hope I don’t get out of right here.”
for the District of Arizona
Mitchell’s federal public defenders concede that he “muttered” the assertion however insisted in court docket papers that “there isn’t a proof that this was a real menace.”
“In context, it was clear that he was upset and processing the arrest,” they stated. “Certainly, when launched into Arizona for 2 weeks earlier than returning to Florida, he did nothing to contact the alleged sufferer or her household.”
Mitchell, who had been indicted in April on 18 state expenses, now faces three federal expenses: a civil rights violation for sexually assaulting a minor; kidnapping a minor; and deceptive state investigators, in accordance with a superseding indictment issued by the Division of Justice.
If convicted on the federal expenses, Mitchell faces wherever from 20 years to life in jail, a $250,000 high-quality and might be positioned underneath supervised parole for the remainder of his life, the Division of Justice stated in an announcement on Nov. 30, when the superseding indictment was unsealed.
Mitchell was ordered to stay in custody till his trial. When he was arraigned on the state expenses months earlier, he posted bond and was allowed to stay at his mother and father’ Miami residence underneath digital monitoring. He was taken again into custody in August when he was federally indicted on one rely of kidnapping a minor, after which a federal choose ordered that he stay in detention.
“If Mitchell was daring sufficient to kidnap a woman close to her faculty, wicked sufficient to violently and sexually assault her, crafty sufficient to eliminate incriminating proof, and careless sufficient to threaten her whereas in police custody, then none of Mitchell’s proposed circumstances of launch would fairly guarantee the protection of the neighborhood and the sufferer,” prosecutors argued in court docket papers filed Nov. 10.
Mitchell labored for the CBP at a border put up in Douglas, Arizona, in accordance with the court docket papers. CBP would solely verify that Mitchell is not employed with the division.
In an announcement launched on April 28 to the Tucson Sentinel, CBP stated, “We don’t tolerate corruption or abuse inside our ranks, and we cooperate totally with all legal or administrative investigations of alleged misconduct by any of our personnel, whether or not it happens on or off obligation.”
On the time they referred all inquiries to the Douglas Police Division.
On April 25, Mitchell was carrying a vest emblazoned with the phrase “POLICE” on it when he noticed the alleged sufferer, who lives in Mexico however crossed the border into the U.S. usually to attend highschool in Douglas, prosecutors stated in court docket papers.
Douglas is about two hours southeast of Tucson, Ariz.
Driving up in his private automotive, Mitchell requested {the teenager} to current her papers, took her backpack and “ordered her into the automotive so he might take her to a police station,” in accordance with Mitchell’s October enchantment of the pre-trial detention order.
However after handcuffing her, Mitchell allegedly “requested her age and household’s names, and drove her to his residence an hour away in Sierra Vista, Arizona,” in accordance with the court docket doc.
There, Mitchell “made her keep within the automotive whereas he retrieved a jacket, positioned the jacket over her shoulders to cover {the handcuffs} earlier than he walked her inside,” the court docket papers state.
As soon as inside, in accordance with the papers, Mitchell “advised her to do as instructed if she didn’t need to get harm” and “repeatedly sexually assaulted her.”
A number of hours later, Mitchell drove {the teenager} again to Douglas and falsely recognized himself as a Sierra Vista police officer. He tossed her backpack right into a dumpster, the court docket papers state.
The sufferer reported the alleged assault the subsequent day and Mitchell was taken into custody. Mitchell “gave a recorded post-arrest assertion during which he admitted to taking the woman to his residence to skip faculty however stated they solely watched tv.” He additionally stated he acknowledged the woman “from her prior border crossings,” in accordance with the court docket papers.
Though Mitchell denied assaulting {the teenager}, “DNA recovered from the woman’s genitalia was according to Mitchell’s DNA,” the papers state.
