A former officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) indicted on federal and state charges after a teenaged Mexican citizen said she was kidnapped and raped in April 2022 has had his federal trial delayed until December due to the complexity of the case.
Aaron Thomas Mitchell was to stand trial at the U.S. District Courthouse in Tucson starting Sept. 6 for allegedly kidnapping a minor, depriving that minor of her rights under color of law, and using intimidation to promote false statements to law enforcement.
But the jury trial was rescheduled earlier this month to begin on Dec. 19. In addition, Mitchell’s deadline to accept a plea deal offered by the U.S. Attorney’s Office was extended to Nov. 17.
Mitchell, 29, remains in pretrial detention in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service on no-bond order.
In the meantime, Mitchell is slated to appear by phone for an Aug. 21 pretrial conference in Cochise County Superior Court in connection with 18 felonies related to the same April 25, 2022, incident which started near the Douglas High School when the girl crossed from Agua Prieta, Sonora to attend classes.
Mitchell, a CBP officer at the time, admits he drove the 15-year-old to his apartment in Sierra Vista. But he denies allegations that he placed the teen in restraints and forced her to engage in several sex acts which make up the majority of the state felony counts.
Court records show Mitchell drove the girl back to Douglas several hours later. He was taken into custody the next day following an investigation by the Douglas Police Department with the assistance of the Sierra Vista Police Department, the FBI, and CBP.
Mitchell, who was wearing his CBP uniform at the time of the arrest, was indicted by a county grand jury days later. He was able to secure his pretrial release from the Cochise County jail within two weeks when his family posted a $200,000 surety bond.
The judge assigned to the Cochise County case allowed Mitchell to live with family in Florida while awaiting trial provided he was outfitted with a GPS monitoring device.
But things changed in July 2022 when Mitchell was also indicted by a federal grand jury. A U.S. District judge in Florida imposed a no-bond order. This led Mitchell to seek review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit of the district judge’s determination that a non-bond pretrial detention order was warranted.
Last December, a three-judge panel upheld the detention order, ruling that the U.S. Attorney’s Office “has met its burden” by clear and convincing evidence that there was “no condition or combination of conditions” which would reasonably ensure community safety if Mitchell was released to await trial.
A decision has not been made on whether the Cochise County Attorney’s Office will seek a trial date on the state charges before December.
Mitchell is represented by the Federal Public Defenders Office on the federal charges and by court-appointed attorney David Wilkison of Tucson on the state charges.
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