COLUMBUS – Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein has announced that his office will review and dismiss pending cases that involve a Columbus vice officer facing federal charges of forcing women to have sex with him under threat of arrest.
Officer Andrew Mitchell, 55, was named in a seven-count indictment Monday that charges him with depriving victims of their constitutional rights by using his authority as a police officer to hold them, and then demanding sex in exchange for their release. He was also charged with witness tampering and lying to federal agents.
“In light of the FBI’s investigation and subsequent indictment of Columbus Division of Police Officer Andrew Mitchell, the Columbus City Attorney’s office will be reviewing and dismissing open and pending cases that involve only Officer Mitchell and no other law enforcement personnel,” said Klein said in a release from his office Tuesday.
Klein also says his office will review previous convictions involving only Mitchell and cases where defendants pleaded guilty but who have facts about Mitchell that were not known to prosecutors at the time of the conviction.
Klein says his office will review those on a case-by-case basis so defendants should have their attorney contact his office with relevant information.