A former Ohio vice detective who pleaded guilty to federal crimes related to kidnapping sex worker victims under the pretext of arresting them was sentenced Thursday to 11 years in prison.
Andrew Mitchell, 60, of Sunbury, will receive credit for the nearly five years he spent in custody since his arrest in April 2019, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. He pleaded guilty in December to two counts of depriving an individual of his civil rights while acting pursuant to law and one count of obstruction of justice.
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Prosecutors said Mitchell worked for the Columbus Police Department for more than 30 years, the last two years ending in 2019, when he was assigned to the vice division.
A former vice detective in Ohio has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for kidnapping a sex worker under the guise of arrest.
Prosecutors said that in July 2017, while working as a detective, Mitchell drove an unmarked car in plain clothes, handcuffed a sex worker in the car, then drove to a parking lot and identified himself as a police officer. After coming forward, he said he held the woman against her will. . Two months later, while working again as a plainclothes detective, he asked another sex worker about her fees, then told her he was a police officer, kidnapped her and released her after an undisclosed period of time, prosecutors said. announced.
In an unrelated case, Mitchell was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges in April 2023 in the death of a woman he shot while undercover. He is accused of fatally shooting 23-year-old Donna Castleberry as she sat in an unmarked police vehicle in August 2018.
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Mitchell claimed she acted in self-defense after she stabbed him in the hand during a prostitution sting. The jury in that trial reached its verdict after about five hours of deliberation.
