Federal Judge Accused Of Raping Underage Witness

A woman who served as an eyewitness in a 1981 murder trial has filed a lawsuit claiming she was repeatedly raped by the federal prosecutor in the case, Richard Warren Roberts, who is now the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. A months-long investigation by the Utah attorney general’s office confirmed that Roberts had a sexual relationship with the accuser, Terry Elrod Mitchell, who was 16 years old at the time. Roberts admitted to the conduct in a phone call with Mitchell, recorded in 2014. Under current law Roberts could be guilty of a felony, but laws from 1981 only allow the Utah AG to charge Roberts with a class B misdemeanor carrying the threat of up to six months in jail. Roberts filed retirement papers this week. “Roberts acknowledges that the relationship was indeed a bad lapse in judgment,” said attorney Jason Weinstein. “However, the relationship did not occur until after the trial and had no bearing on the outcome of that trial.”