Judge Refuses to Wipe Out Drug Kingpin’s Indictment

A federal judge in San Francisco refused Thursday to comply with an appellate court order to wipe out criminal charges against slain drug kingpin Felix Mitchell, a man she said “left a trail of devastation” in the Oakland streets over which he presided.

“I cannot in good conscience sign an order that wipes clean the record of this man,” U.S. District Judge Marily Hall Patel said, announcing she would remove herself from the case rather than obey an order from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss Mitchell’s indictment.

Mitchell, stabbed to death by an inmate at Leavenworth federal prison last year, was serving a life sentence without possibility of parole on charges of running an organization known as the “69 Mob,” which authorities said turned thousands of residents into heroin addicts in the housing projects of East Oakland.

Linked to 7 Murders

The gang had been linked to at least seven murders, but it was Mitchell’s own murder that brought national recognition to the “69 Mob.” In an eight-mile procession through the streets of Oakland, as more than 1,000 people looked on and cheered, Mitchell’s ornate bronze casket was pulled by a horse-drawn carriage followed by 14 Cadillacs and Rolls-Royces.

The convictions of Mitchell’s five co-defendants have been upheld on appeal, but the federal appeals court in January ruled that Mitchell’s conviction must be voided because he had died before the appeal could be heard.

The ruling places a stumbling block in the paths of federal prosecutors who have moved to forfeit hundreds of thousands of dollars of Mitchell’s property, including a $500,000 house in Northridge, two luxury cars and $40,000 worth of jewelry and personal property.

According to wire service reports of Thursday’s hearing, Patel said a conflict between conscience and duty prompted her to transfer the case to another judge.

“There may be other judges who can sign such an order,” she said. “I therefore am asking the clerk of the court to reassign these matters to another judge, who can sign the order with less repugnance.”

Joseph Russoniello, U.S. attorney for the northern district of California, said in an interview that he was “very sympathetic” to the judge’s position.

‘Public Enemy No. 1’

“She sat through the trial. She must have been as shocked and appalled by the disclosures as the average person was and just found it morally repugnant that Mitchell is entitled to, in effect, the historical benefit of an innocent, unaccused person,” Russoniello said. “He was, in effect, Public Enemy No. 1 in Oakland for years.”

But Phillip Cherney, the attorney appointed to handle Mitchell’s appeal, said Mitchell had a good chance of reversing his conviction on double jeopardy grounds. Though the argument became moot with Mitchell’s death, Cherney said Mitchell may well have had to serve no more than 10 years in prison because federal prosecutors had charged him twice with the same criminal conspiracy.

“The point I think has been missed in this is that Felix had a very unique, very good case on appeal,” Cherney said.