March 13 Share on Facebook. Former Columbus Police Officer Andrew Mitchell, 55, was arrested and federally indicted on Monday, March 11 according to recently unsealed documents by the Department of Justice.
Mitchell faces three counts of deprivation of rights under color of law, two counts witness tampering, one count witness tampering, and one count of making false statements. He is also alleged to have pressured others to help cover up his crimes and to have lied to authorities.
Federal investigators are still gathering information, and are asking anyone who may have been a victim of Officer Mitchell or any other officers to come forward immediately. If the name Officer Andrew Mitchell sounds familiar, you are right. In September , Mitchell was in the headlines after he killed year-old Donna Dalton during an undercover prostitution sting. According to the Columbus Police Department, Mitchell tried to take Dalton, mother of two young girls and alleged sex worker, into custody.
Mitchell was taken to the hospital to treat wounds on his hand where Dalton had stabbed him with a knife. Since the incident, it has been discovered that Officer Mitchell was the subject of an internal affairs investigation at the time of the shooting.
Mitchell had also made over 80 prostitution-related arrests in , overwhelmingly almost all of them women. They are asking anyone who may have any additional information about Officer Mitchell to come forward at this time. The events are still unsettling nonetheless. Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein has since announced that his office will be dismissing all open and active cases that solely involve Officer Mitchell, and reviewing his past cases on a 1-on-1 basis.
