Jury Clears Mitchelson in Rape Case

Celebrity Los Angles divorce lawyer Marvin Mitchelson did not rape a client in his office eight years ago, a Santa Monica Superior Court jury concluded Wednesday.

“Naturally, I’m pleased that the system works,” said Mitchelson after the jury of six men and six women ruled for him in a $6.5-million civil suit filed by Patricia French, 42, a former Christian radio station talk show host who claimed that the attorney attacked her in 1981.

French, who conducted a program on station KGER for several years, retained Mitchelson in August, 1981, to represent her in a palimony suit against TV evangelist William McBirnie. Mitchelson said he determined that it was an extortion attempt and refused to file the action.

French subsequently accused Mitchelson of appearing in his office in his bathrobe, then taking her into the bathroom and raping her. The district attorney’s office declined to prosecute and the state attorney general’s office refused to intervene. French then filed the civil suit, alleging assault and battery, false imprisonment, fraud, emotional distress and breach of contract.

Retired Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Bernard S. Selber, sitting as a non-binding arbiter, ruled in favor of Mitchelson last July. French, however, asked for the jury trial that ended Wednesday before Superior Court Judge Thomas Waddington after eight days.

The principals testified, as did three physicians who backed the 60-year-old Mitchelson’s insistence that he could not possibly have raped the plaintiff three times in 13 minutes.

“There was no consensual sex,” a jubilant Mitchelson said after the verdict. “There was no sex.”

Mitchelson has become nationally prominent representing famous clients, including Michelle Triola, whose suit against the late actor Lee Marvin created the term “palimony.”

Daye Shinn, French’s attorney, said his client had not yet decided whether to appeal.

Still facing Mitchelson is a similar civil suit filed by another former client, Kristin Barrett-Whitney, who alleges that she was raped by him in his office in November, 1985.

Despite the fact that the district attorney and the attorney general said there was not enough evidence to prosecute Mitchelson for rape in either case, the three-member state Board of Control, which determines compensation for crime victims, last January awarded $43,000 to Barrett-Whitney for psychiatric and medical expenses, as well as $10,000 to French for medical expenses.

The action outraged Mitchelson, who called both women extortionists.

Mitchelson is still fighting unrelated State Bar charges that he mishandled clients’ funds, charged “unconscionable” fees and showed a lack of diligence in pursuing cases.