Since his April 26 arrest, Aaron Thomas Mitchell has been held in the Cochise County jail without bond on charges he abducted a teenaged girl in Douglas, then drove her to Sierra Vista where she was reportedly sexually assaulted before being returned to Douglas.
On Wednesday, a Cochise County Superior Court judge conducted a bond review hearing for Mitchell, who is a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer assigned to the Port of Entry in Douglas. During the hearing, Judge Laura Cardinal approved an agreement negotiated between the Cochise County Attorney’s Office and Mitchell’s attorney to modify the conditions of pretrial release.
Those conditions require Mitchell to post a $200,000 secured bond, prohibit him from any direct or indirect contact with the named victim or her family, and mandate he utilize a GPS monitoring device which must be activated before Mitchell leaves jail.
Arizona Daily Independent learned late Wednesday that Mitchell’s bond has been posted but he remained in jail because the GPS process had not been completed. It is expected Mitchell will be released Thursday morning.
During the bail review hearing it was revealed that Mitchell took part in a nearly three hour post-Miranda interview with detectives from the Douglas Police Department. The video along with DNA and other physical evidence is expected to be presented to the jury when Mitchell stands trial next January.
For now, the next hearing in Mitchell’s case is set for May 13. His presence at that hearing has been waived by Judge Cardinal, who also formally arraigned Mitchell on multiple felonies during Wednesday’s hearing.
READ MORE ABOUT MITCHELL’S CHARGES HERE
