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Mark Mitchell is currently the Mayor of Tempe, Arizona.
Tempe City Councilman Mark Mitchell takes the 5th in rape case!!!! Report: Mark Mitchell declines police queries on decades-old claim by Dianna M. Náñez - May. 15, 2012 09:41 PM The Republic | azcentral.com In an interview with Phoenix police last week, Mark Mitchell declined to answer questions about decades-old sexual-abuse allegations but did give a statement denying them, according to a police report released Tuesday. The report was released the same day voters went to the polls to elect Mitchell or opponent Michael Monti as Tempe's new mayor. Mitchell, a three-term councilman and vice president of a Tempe flooring company, has spent the past week combating the allegations, which he has called false and a "vile" political ploy to destroy his reputation and cost him the election. "I've been clear, I've done nothing wrong. Not now and not 30 years ago when I was a boy," he said in a statement and video to voters posted last weekend on his campaign website. "But I'm sending this because you deserve to know the truth from me personally. Just as Tempe deserves a race for mayor based not on personal attacks, but on the issues." Monti, a longtime downtown Tempe restaurateur, also issued a statement last Thursday lashing out at Mitchell for tying him and his campaign to the allegations. "I did not wish to comment on this, but I am forced to because Mr. Mitchell is actually trying to blame our issues-based campaign for this chain of events," he said. "Neither I nor anyone associated with my campaign had anything to do with the criminal investigation of Mr. Mitchell." Earlier this month, police referred their investigation into the allegations to prosecutors with recommended felony charges, but said they made no arrest due to the length of time that has passed since the alleged offense, and the ages of those involved at the time. Police tried for weeks to schedule an interview with Mitchell. Mitchell's attorneys ultimately scheduled the interview for last Monday after police informed them on April 30 that the case could be referred to prosecutors without his statement. Despite securing a date for the interview, police referred their findings absent Mitchell's statement to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery, who has endorsed Monti, recused himself from the investigation and turned it over to Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk. Yavapai officials said they expect to finish reviewing the investigation by June. Phoenix police have referred Mitchell's interview to Yavapai. The allegations surfaced in February, one month before Tempe's March primary, from a 39-year-old Tempe woman whose name was redacted from the public record. She told police the abuse occurred four times in 1983 when she was 10 and Mitchell was about 16. Mitchell, 42, would have been no older than 14 in 1983. Investigators secretly recorded an April 5 conversation between the alleged victim and Mitchell. According to police reports, Mitchell apologized to her and said that they were young and experimenting and that he never meant to hurt her. |