Ex-Columbus police officer Andrew Mitchell, who is scheduled to be retried in October on charges of murder following a hung jury in April, won’t face a federal court until next year on charges he violated the Constitutional rights of several women while on the job.
Mitchell was scheduled to go on trial Tuesday in the Southern District of the U.S. District Court, but a federal judge this week granted a defense motion to delay that trial until Jan. 9 after he is retried on local murder charges for the 2018 shooting death of Donna Castleberry.
A recording indicates Castleberry thought Mitchell was trying to kidnap her when he trapped her in his car and failed to provide a badge when he said he would arrest her on prostitution charges.
A federal indictment states in 2017, Mitchell deprived women of their rights by using his badge to kidnap them and hold them until they performed sex acts.
Jurors in the local trial were not made aware of Mitchell’s nine federal charges, which share similarities in circumstances to her death.
In federal court, Mitchell is also charged with two counts of witness tampering, two counts of obstruction of justice, destroying evidence and lying to investigators.
