Deputy’s Wife Recants Statements That Her Husband Had Raped Her

In a surprising--and potentially damaging--turnabout for prosecutors Tuesday, the wife of a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy recanted earlier statements in which she accused her husband of rape.

Harris Scott Mintz, 41, faces six charges of felony sexual assault for alleged incidents involving his wife and a Calabasas woman he was accused of raping while on duty in 1995. If convicted, he could spend up to 48 years behind bars.

Tuesday, however, during the second day of a preliminary hearing, the deputy’s wife testified she lied to an internal investigator for the Sheriff’s Department regarding three attacks that allegedly occurred between 1992 and 1995.

She said they were engaging in consensual “rough” sex, which included spanking, hair pulling, pushing and screaming.

“I was not a victim,” she said. “I was always consenting.”

Showing little emotion, she recounted her anger when she learned of the rape charge involving the other woman and of her husband’s dismissal from the department.

“I was jealous, I was angry. I would have done anything to hurt Harris,” the woman said under questioning by Deputy Dist. Atty. Susan Steinfield.

Prosecutors were tight-lipped on how the woman’s testimony would affect their case, or whether the testimony of the other alleged rape victim would be enough to force Mintz to stand trial.

But the defense team--Encino attorneys James E. Blatt and Darren T. Kavinoky--were clearly pleased by developments.

“She testified they had rough sex and consented to it,” Blatt said. “And I believe the people’s case has been damaged, if not destroyed.”

Before he surrendered to authorities in November, Mintz was the target of an 11-month internal Sheriff’s Department investigation.

The county paid $100,000 in a settlement with a Calabasas woman, the other woman Mintz is accused of raping.

But in cross-examining Sheriff’s Sgt. Cathy Renner, the investigator on the case, defense attorneys hammered away at the Calabasas woman’s claims, asserting she had consumed “substantial amounts of alcohol,” failed to report the alleged incident for a month, and did not produce any physical evidence to back up her accusations.

The Calabasas woman was not called as a witness.

The preliminary hearing resumes Thursday morning at 9 a.m before Municipal Judge Stephen Marcus.