Prosecutor putting clout before justice

Murders in Manhattan (73 in 2023) are much rarer than murders in Phoenix (198 last year), but the borough can still be dangerous for escorts like Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, who, detectives say, was bludgeoned to death with a clothes iron by Raad Almansoori at the SoHo 54 Hotel downtown two weeks ago. Almansoori actually admitted his homicide to Arizona officials when they arrested him Sunday after he was picked up driving a stolen car and charged with stabbing two women there, telling them to “Google ‘SoHo 54 Hotel.’” The rest should be simple — a murder charge in New York, or carjacking and attempted murder out West. It’s called extradition, and the suspect should be sent to face justice for his most serious crime. That means getting him on a flight to New York, with the ticket paid for by the government.

But along comes Rachel Mitchell, the elected prosecutor for Maricopa County (which includes Phoenix and the surrounding areas), who went on TV this week to say that she wouldn’t agree to have the suspect Almansoori delivered back to New York because she doesn’t like the policies of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. We don’t like Bragg’s policies either and did not endorse him in the 2021 Democratic primary for Manhattan DA. Our preferred candidate was Tali Farhadian Weinstein, but Bragg won the primary and coasted to victory in November. His Day 1 memo about what low level crimes he would not pursue was a mistake, but murder wasn’t on the list and Mitchell, a Republican, cannot let politics get in the way of justice.

There was a gruesome murder of a mother here in New York, and it should be prosecuted here in New York. But Mitchell thinks she knows better, saying, “We are going to keep him here. Having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan DA there, Alvin Bragg, it’s safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so he can’t be out doing this to individuals either in our state or county or the United States.”

She is watching too much Fox News, with its intentionally distorted views of crime and punishment in New York. According to cops, Almansoori had only a brief, albeit bloody and violent, visit to New York. He arrived here less than a month ago, from Florida, where he was arrested last year for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a female coworker. Bill Gladson (like Mitchell, a Republican) was elected as the local prosecutor in 2020 for an area covering several counties — including Sumter, where Almansoori was charged.

But despite the severity of that crime, Almansoori made bail in September and found his way to New York to hire an escort, killing her. Did Gladson agree to bail for this mook? Does Gov. Ron DeSantis know? If Almansoori were still being held in Florida, Denisse Oleas-Arancibia would still be alive. Mitchell held her TV press conference in the suburb of Surprise, Arizona, where Almansoori stabbed a woman at a McDonald’s. The name of the community is fitting, because Mitchell surprisingly violated an important principle of cooperation in the name of justice. The McDonald’s victim, Almansoori’s Phoenix carjacking victim and his Florida kidnapping victim all survived their encounters with him. Oleas-Arancibia did not.

And now Mitchell plans to interfere with Almansoori facing justice for killing Oleas-Arancibia.