Accusations of Rape Taint Richard Roberts’ Legal Legacy

The prosecution of serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin jump-started Richard Roberts’ legal career, but during the trial Roberts also slept with a 16-year-old witness. When that came to light last year, it shut the door on an Roberts’ otherwise illustrious rise through Washington’s legal ranks. Roberts worked for Covington & Burling and was appointed to the U.S. District Court for D.C. by President Bill Clinton, eventually becoming that court’s chief judge. But the Franklin case, tried in Salt Lake City when Roberts was 27, predated the accolades. Terry Mitchell, then 16 years old and an eyewitness to a murder, took the stand for the prosecution. Roberts has referred to their sexual relationship as “an affair,” and a “bad lapse in judgement.” He has not been tried; the legal age of consent in Utah at the time was 16. But the same day Mitchell filed a complaint, Roberts retired from office, for medical reasons. A Washingtonian article details Roberts’ illustrious career and its eventual demise, as well as Mitchell’s journey to reckoning with the encounters, which she says were largely repressed. Mitchell has filed a new $25 million lawsuit under a new Utah child sexual abuse law. She claims to suffer from PTSD, including insomnia and migraines that last for weeks. She accuses Roberts of assault, battery, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and false imprisonment.