A Utah woman accuses retired Chief Judge Richard Roberts of the District of D.C. of sexual assault. The federal court chief judge, who submitted his early resignation on Wednesday due to health issues, faced the sexual assault lawsuit same day.
According to Washington Post, the woman, identified as Terry Mitchell, claims on her federal civil rights lawsuit that she was sexually assaulted by the chief judge when she took on the witness stand to a high profile murder case. At that time, she was 16 years old and the chief judge was the one prosecuting the said case.
Richard Roberts, 63 years old, refused to comment regarding his retirement and the issue. However, his lawyers said the claims are "categorically false" and that the retired chief judge is vigoriously challenging the case in court.
Mitchell, 51, who filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, was a key witness to the trial of a white supremacist serial killer, Joseph Paul Franklin, who fatally shot Larry Flint, a Hustler magazine publisher, NBC News reported. During Franklin's trial in 1981, Roberts, 27 at that time and an unmarried prosecutor, raped her repeatedly, the woman claimed.
She also stated that Roberts told her not to report the alleged assaults, telling her Franklin's trial would lead to mistrial if she does. However, Roberts reportedly, admitted having sex with the woman back in 1981 in a conversation she recorded in 2014, provided by Roberts' lawyer, Salt Lake Tribune reported. The lawyer said Roberts claims it was consensual. "The relationship did not occur until after the trial and had no bearing on the outcome of that trial."
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, issued a statement Wednesday, stating that the Utah attorney general's office had recently informed the committee of the allegations, causing alarm and distress over their serious nature.
