Sentence For Rapist Beyond The Maximum

A man who kidnapped and raped the 15-year-old daughter of a Seattle police captain has been given a 25-year prison sentence - 55 months beyond the maximum under state sentencing guidelines.

King County Superior Court Judge Laura Inveen said Dale Mitchell engaged in “deliberate cruelty” when he broke into the home of Capt. Toni McWashington Sept. 21, forced her daughter into his car and then raped her at a South Seattle motel.

McWashington said her daughter was still afraid of Mitchell and asked Inveen to impose the 300-month sentence recommended by Deputy County Prosecutor Lisa Johnson.

“She is fearful … that he can come back into her home and kidnap her again,” McWashington said.

She hoped the sentence would keep 33-year-old Mitchell in prison so long that by the time he is released, he will not be capable of committing another rape.

McWashington returned home early Sept. 21 after staying at a friend’s house to find her daughter was missing.

Prosecutors say the girl, who did not return until 18 hours later, was locked in the trunk of Mitchell’s car, forced to drink alcohol and raped repeatedly.

But Mitchell contended that he had met the girl several weeks earlier, after seeing her on the street. He said she went with him voluntarily to the motel and that the sex was consensual.

Anita Moceri, Mitchell’s defense attorney, argued that her client’s exceptional sentence was unwarranted since Mitchell had been convicted of first-degree rape and burglary - already serious felonies and that there was nothing extraordinary about the way he committed them.