BROOKVILLE, Pa. (EYT) – A convicted sex offender has been charged with rape following an investigation into an incident that occurred late last month in Brookville.
Court documents indicate that 54-year-old Kenneth C. Mitchell, of Brookville, was arraigned on the following charges at 10:10 a.m. on Monday, July 16, in Magisterial District Judge Jacqueline J. Mizerock’s office:
- Rape Unconscious Victim, Felony 1
- Aggravated Indecent Assault – Complainant is Unconscious or Unaware that Penetration is Occurring, Felony 2
- Indecent Assault Person Unconscious, Misdemeanor 1
- Invasion of Privacy – view, photograph, etc. person without consent, Misdemeanor 2 (two counts)
Unable to post $25,000.00 cash bail, he was lodged in the Jefferson County Jail.
He is currently awaiting a preliminary hearing.
Mitchell, a registered sex offender, was convicted in 1996 on involuntary deviate sexual intercourse charges.
Interview with Victim
According to a criminal complaint, around 9:15 p.m. on Monday, June 25, Officer Turnbull, of the Brookville Borough Police Department, was asked to respond to a location on Main Street in reference to an incident in which a female was filmed naked without her permission.
Officers Turnbull and Hollobaugh met the victim and a known man at the intersection of Main Street and Barnett Street. The victim was crying, and the known man was walking with his arm around her.
Officer Turnbull asked the victim to sit down and explain what happened.
The victim reported that she confronted Kenneth Mitchell about not paying his share of a shared phone bill, and Mitchell told her he did not know where it (the phone) was. She said she found the phone on the nightstand by Mitchell’s bed and unlocked the phone. She said in doing so, she discovered photos and videos of herself unconscious and partially naked that had been taken by another person, presumably Mitchell, according to the complaint.
The victim gave Officer Turnbull the black LG phone and said the photos and videos were on it.
Officer Turnbull asked the victim if she believed she had been assaulted, and she said she did not know. When questioned about when the photos and video may have been taken, the victim reported it may have happened on Friday, June 22, to Saturday, June 23, when she had been drinking, the complaint states.
The victim was then transported to Penn Highlands Brookville for a sexual assault exam.
Interview with Mitchell
Around 10:01 p.m. Officers Turnbull and Hollobaugh knocked on the door of Mitchell’s residence on Main Street in Brookville, and Mitchell answered and invited them inside.
According to the complaint, Mitchell was visibly shaking and said that “he knew why we were there.” Mitchell told the officers that he is a sex offender and he “wanted that in the open.”
When Officer Turnbull asked Mitchell why he was shaking, the complaint says Mitchell responded that he has a seizure disorder and was nervous. When Officer Turnbull asked why he was nervous, Mitchell said he “had taken some pictures and videos.”
According to the complaint, Mitchell said he had been “hanging out” with the victim and a known man and had taken a single shot, which made him “buzzed” because he “does not handle alcohol well when mixed with his other medications.”
Mitchell admitted to sexual contact with the victim and a physical altercation with the known man, according to the complaint. He said later, as he had intercourse with the victim, the victim “would fall asleep and wake up, freaking out.”
Mitchell also provided Officer Turnbull with a written statement regarding the events in question.
Second Interview with Victim
Around 11:00 p.m. on June 25, Officers Turnbull and Hollobaugh met with the victim again at Penn Highlands Brookville Emergency Room.
According to the complaint, the victim verified that she had been at Mitchell’s residence, and she and the known man were drinking, and Mitchell only had a single shot due to the interaction of alcohol with his medication.
The victim reported that following an argument she had with the known man, who then left, she told Mitchell she wanted to go to bed and had lain down on an air mattress.
The victim said Mitchell tried to speak to her about the known man, but she told him she just wanted to go to sleep. She said Mitchel told her he would stay to “protect her” and lie down next to her.
The victim reported that Michell began to touch her intimately and she told him “not tonight,” but he continued. She said the known man then came in and began to engage in a verbal altercation with Mitchell, which eventually turned physical. She reported that she broke up the altercation by threatening to call the police, and then told the known man she was going to sleep at her own residence.
According to the complaint, the victim said she went to her own residence, had lain down, and told Mitchell, who accompanied her, that she wanted to go to sleep. She said Mitchell began to kiss and touch her again, and she told him “no,” but he continued and told her he was going to get his phone and take pictures and video.
The victim reported that she was mostly asleep when Mitchell began to have intercourse with her and woke up and fell back asleep repeatedly during the act.
According to the complaint, when Officer Turnbull asked the victim why she allowed it to continue, she said she “had told him twice and he did not care, so she was not going to fight,” the complaint states.
The victim also provided Officer Turnbull with a written statement regarding the events.
Photo and Video Evidence
On Tuesday, July 10, Officer Hollobaugh reviewed the videos downloaded from the LG phone after a warrant was issued on the cell phone.
According to the complaint, there was one fifty-second video containing graphic sex acts where the victim appears to be unconscious and one twenty minute and fifty-nine second video containing graphic sex acts where the victim appears to be unconscious during the parts of the video where her face can be seen.
The complaint states that during the video, Mitchell can be heard talking, but only in a whisper.
There is also one three minute and four-second video where both Mitchell and the victim appear to be actively participating in sexual acts.
There were also thirty-three photographs related to the incident where the victim appears to be unconscious when her face is visible in the photos, according to the complaint.
EDITOR’S NOTE 1: Extreme graphic details were not included due to the sexual nature of the alleged crimes.
EDITOR’S NOTE 2: Several details were removed from this article to help protect the identity of the victim.
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