‘Objective’ prosecutor well-versed in sex cases

PHOENIX • The Arizona prosecutor the Republicans have brought in to question the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault has decades of experience prosecuting sex crimes.

Rachel Mitchell, a Republican, has been described as tough, experienced and objective.

She was expected to question both Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford at Thursday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Ford’s allegation that Kavanaugh drunkenly assaulted her when they were teenagers has raised a political storm and the GOP’S allmale presence on the panel made some want a woman to question Ford.

Allegations from two other women have since emerged, but Republicans have not announced any plans to focus Thursday’s session on those claims. Kavanaugh has denied all the accusations.

Mitchell works in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Phoenix as the chief of the Special Victims Division. She supervises attorneys who handle cases involving child molestation, sexual assault and computer crimes.

Mitchell “has been recognized in the legal community for her experience and objectivity,” committee chair Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, said.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, Mitchell’s boss, praised her experience in an interview with The Arizona Republic, calling her an “objective prosecutor” who has a “caring heart” for victims. He said he was contacted by staff members of the Judiciary Committee over the weekend about Mitchell’s qualifications.

In July 2014, Mitchell prosecuted a former church babysitter and camp counsellor in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale who molested children in his care over a seven-year period. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison with lifetime probation.

“People want to go to a church on a Sunday and feel safe,” Mitchell said at the time, adding that the settings of his actions “should be taken into account.”

In 2015, Mitchell prosecuted a 13-year veteran of the Mesa Police Department who groped two women, one of whom had passed out.

She has been named Arizona’s Outstanding Sexual Assault Prosecutor.