Counselor Gets Over 6 Years in Rape of Inmate : Courts: The former Youth Authority employee contends the 16-year-old made the allegations so she could sue him and the state.

A Ventura County Superior Court judge sentenced a California Youth Authority counselor to six years and eight months in prison Thursday for raping and molesting a 16-year-old ward.

“A message needs to be sent to people in the system that this kind of conduct will result in a significant prison term,” Judge Allan L. Steele said in sentencing John G. Mitchell of Ventura.

Mitchell was convicted Jan. 24 of rape, sexual battery and unlawful intercourse with a female under age 18. The charges stemmed from a series of acts between February and December, 1989, according to court records. The assaults came to light after the victim secretly tape-recorded a meeting with Mitchell.

Mitchell, who did not speak at his sentencing Thursday, has denied having sex with his former ward and said she made the allegations so she could sue him and the state, which she has done.

In arguing for a three-year minimum sentence, Mitchell’s attorney, Edward A. Whipple, said the victim had numerous opportunities to get help if she objected to the counselor’s advances. He said Mitchell, 42, has no prior record and has lived “a model life except for this romantic liaison.”

In response, Deputy Dist. Atty. Trish Kelliher said: “To call a series of criminal sex offenses a relationship is offensive.” She said the victim felt that she would not be believed if she reported the assaults and would only antagonize Mitchell, whose recommendation was crucial in obtaining parole.

“How more vulnerable can you get? This victim didn’t have a chance,” said Kelliher, who sought the maximum term of 13 years and four months. “She was sent to CYA to rehabilitate herself. The person entrusted with helping her violated her.”

A probation officer’s pre-sentencing report to the judge, which summarized the evidence that led to Mitchell’s conviction, gave this account:

The girl was incarcerated at the CYA’s Ventura School in Camarillo in November, 1988, after she was convicted of armed robbery in Fresno, her hometown. Soon afterward, Mitchell snuck up on her one day, pinched her on the side and then kissed her on the lips.

A few days later they talked about the kiss, and the victim said she didn’t like it. Mitchell told her not to tell anyone about it or both would get into trouble.

After fondling her breasts on two subsequent occasions, the 6-foot-2, 260-pound counselor forced the victim into a kitchen closet and had intercourse with her. He told her that if she told anyone, she would not get out of the institution.

Between the assaults, Mitchell bought the girl presents and told her that he loved her, according to Mitchell’s pre-sentencing report. He said he wanted to divorce his wife, marry her and take her to Las Vegas, the report said.

In October, 1989, Mitchell told the victim that he was completing his parole report on her “and would be expecting a favor from her,” according to the pre-sentencing report. The victim, who was attending victim awareness classes at the school, decided to report Mitchell to another counselor.

The second counselor said the victim would need proof, so she brought a hidden tape recorder to her next counseling session with Mitchell. Officials said she may have gotten the idea from Cinnamon Brown, a fellow ward at the school. Brown’s secret taping of a conversation in which her father admitted his role in his wife’s murder was the subject of a recent television miniseries.

During the counseling session, Mitchell asked the victim what she had told the other counselor, and whether she was taping him. The victim denied that she was taping him, but Mitchell quit talking and started writing a note. When the tape recorder stopped with a loud click, the victim grabbed the note and ran to give it to another counselor.

Mitchell chased her, retrieved the note and flushed it down a toilet, but the incident and the tape prompted CYA authorities and the district attorney’s office to investigate.

Other CYA wards told investigators that Mitchell made sexual remarks, asked them about their sexual feelings and said demeaning things about women. But several other wards said they had not seen such conduct.

Mitchell has filed notice of his intent to appeal the conviction on several grounds, notably that the defense was not permitted to tell the jury about the victim’s criminal record. Steele denied a request to let Mitchell remain free on bail pending the appeal, and ordered him placed in custody immediately in the Ventura County Jail.

Mitchell, who was fired by the Youth Authority, has already given up a career of more than 20 years counseling juvenile delinquents, Whipple told the judge. As Mitchell’s wife sat behind the defendant in the front row of the courtroom, Whipple said the case has put a strain on Mitchell’s marriage but said the couple and their adult son have stayed together.

Whipple also said the victim cannot argue that the defendant’s conduct undermined her rehabilitation because she has entered college, married and obtained a full-time job since her release. “She is one of the better success stories of the CYA,” Whipple said.

The victim, however, tearfully told the judge that Mitchell can take no credit for her achievements.

“I served my time. I rehabbed myself,” said the victim, whose parents accompanied her at the sentencing. “I could have used this as an excuse to start screwing up. But I decided not to put myself in the position I was in at the CYA.”