Local News in Brief : Mitchelson Cleared
A retired judge, sitting as an arbitrator in Superior Court in Santa Monica, has awarded a judgment in favor of Marvin Mitchelson, rejecting a suit in which a former client accused the matrimonial lawyer of raping her.
Retired Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Bernard S. Selber heard testimony from Mitchelson and the former client July 19, said Mitchelson’s attorney, Harold Rhoden, who was notified of the judge’s decision Thursday.
The former client, Patricia French, asserted in her $6.5-million lawsuit filed in 1983 that Mitchelson raped her in his office in 1981.
She did not report her allegations to police until detectives contacted her in 1986, while investigating the complaint of another woman, Kristin Barrett-Whitney, who also said she was raped by Mitchelson.
The district attorney’s office decided there was insufficient evidence to charge Mitchelson with a crime in either case, noting that French had repeatedly “expressed warmth toward Mitchelson” in a months-long correspondence after the alleged rape.
French could appeal the arbitrator’s decision by asking for a jury trial. Repeated calls to her attorney seeking comment were not returned.
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