Ohio vice cop, under investigation in woman’s fatal shooting, also accused of forcing women to have sex

Columbus vice squad Officer Andrew Mitchell was accused Monday of forcing women to have sex with him under threat of arrest. (Department of Justice via AP)

An Ohio vice cop -- currently under investigation in the fatal shooting of a woman during an alleged prostitution sting -- has been accused in a separate case of forcing two women to have sex with him to avoid arrest.

Columbus Detective Andrew Mitchell, a 30-year veteran, was charged Monday in a federal indictment with violating the civil rights of the two women. In August, he shot Donna Castleberry, a 23-year-old mother of two girls, after she stabbed him in the hand inside an unmarked police car, police said.

Federal prosecutors announced Mitchell's arrest at a news conference where state prosecutors also said a grand jury will hear evidence in the Castleberry shooting next month.

"We're glad that there has been a step forward towards getting justice for Donna, but there is still a long way to go," Castleberry’s sister, Bobbi McCalla, told FOX28 Columbus Monday. "I certainly hope that no woman has to go through what the victims of Andrew Mitchell have went through and I am afraid that maybe it took my sister losing her life for him to be held accountable."

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Photo of Donna Castleberry, (r.). , Mary Laile, shows her cellphone which holds a photo of Castleberry, her cousin.   (Michelle Dalton via AP/AP Photo/Andrew Welsh-Huggins)

The Columbus vice squad has been under scrutiny since last year's arrest of Stormy Daniels, the porn actress, at a strip club where she was scheduled to perform.

She sued the four vice cops who arrested her, claiming the arrest was politically motivated because of her alleged affair with Donald Trump before he became president. Last week, an internal police investigation concluded the arrest was improper, but not planned or politically motivated, the Associated Press reported Monday.

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The indictment revealed Monday accuses the 55-year-old Mitchell of not arresting the two women after one had sex with him in July 2017 and the other had sex with him in September 2017 and in June 2018. The incidents occurred when he was working the prostitution beat.

Photo shows what is left of a make-shift memorial to Donna Castleberry near the scene of her August shooting death in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Andrew Welsh-Huggins)

Mitchell was also charged with lying to the FBI in September 2018 when he denied ever having sex with a prostitute. Prosecutors alleged Mitchell had sex with numerous prostitutes, including having paid women money for sex.

At a news conference Monday, Columbus U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman accused Mitchell of a “nightmarish breach of trust,” according to the Columbus Dispatch.

Defense attorney Mark Collins told the paper his client denied the charges against him, “absolutely, 100 percent.”