Retired Federal Judge Accused of Rape
Terry Mitchell, now a 51 year-old woman from Utah, has accused a retired federal judge of raping her over 30 years ago. The federal prosecutor, Richard Roberts, was the former chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, DC.
One of DC’s most powerful judges, the 62-year-old Roberts stepped down from his position in the court the same day Mitchell went public with her accusation. She filed a $25 million lawsuit against him that is currently being held in the U.S. District Court for Utah. Roberts, 27 at the time, was working on the trial of a racist serial killer, Joseph Paul Franklin, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The event in question occurred when Mitchell was just 16 years-old, serving as a witness in the case. She was a close friend of one of the men who was murdered by Franklin and even witnessed the attack.
The alleged assaults began in the early months of 1981. Mitchell shared with the courts that Roberts took her out to dinner after meeting her at the courthouse to review her testimony, where he uncomfortably made her sit in a small booth next to him and touched her multiple times inappropriately. After this, Roberts apparently stopped at his hotel before driving Mitchell home. She alleges that she asked to wait in the car, but he was persistent that she come upstairs. In the hotel room, Roberts sexually abused Mitchell and raped her twice. However, the assault did not end there. The suit states that this abuse continued for several weeks.
The consensual intentions of the young girl at the time are foggy. She claims to have resorted to memory repression from the traumatic experience, but still admitted she had a sexual relationship with the man. A friend of Mitchell’s told investigators that she referred to Roberts as her boyfriend because they were engaging in sexual activity. If this is true, it is unclear why Mitchell would file a sexual assault case against him.
“Roberts acknowledges that the relationship was indeed a bad lapse in judgement. However, the relationship did not occur until after the trial and had no bearing on the outcome of that trial,” Robert’s lawyers said.
They also stated that Roberts denied the allegations because they had a “consensual” relationship. The judicial council working on the case found that judicial misconduct cases only apply to judges once they take the bench.
According to a member of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, Jason Chaffetz, the case will be worked on to “determine the next best steps to ensure justice is served.” If political branches conclude that Robert’s behavior was indeed inappropriate or discover that any perjury took place, there could be further consequences.
