Mitchelson Cleared in Rape Suit

A woman who sued celebrity divorce lawyer Marvin Mitchelson, charging that he raped her in his Century City office, on Wednesday lost her lawsuit against him in Santa Monica Superior Court, Mitchelson’s attorneys said.

Mitchelson, 63, “was very, very pleased with the verdict,” his attorney Joe Kibre said after a jury ruled in Mitchelson’s favor in a suit brought by Kristen Barrett-Whitney in 1986.

Efforts to reach Barrett-Whitney and her attorneys were unsuccessful.

Barrett-Whitney charged that Mitchelson raped her in his office in November, 1985. She had hired Mitchelson to represent her in a “palimony” action against her former live-in lover, Chase Revel, founder of Entrepreneur magazine.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to file charges against Mitchelson after police investigated Barrett-Whitney’s allegations. Prosecutors determined that no crime had been committed. In 1989, however, the state crime victims compensation panel awarded Barrett-Whitney up to $23,000 for psychiatric expenses related to the alleged assault, and up to $23,000 more for related medical expenses.

Los Angeles Police Detective Robert Kestler, who investigated Barrett-Whitney’s report in 1986, told the panel he believed that she was telling the truth when she said Mitchelson sexually assaulted her. But Mitchelson was outraged by the state award, calling Barrett-Whitney a “professional extortionist who has 14 known aliases. She sues people. This is what she does for a living.”