Cop-killer suspected of raping 12-year-old

[REP]

Source: SF Chronicle

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer

(03-24) 15:57 PDT OAKLAND -- Lovelle Mixon was linked by DNA to the February rape of a 12-year-old girl who was dragged off the street at gunpoint in the East Oakland neighborhood where Mixon's sister lived, police said Tuesday.


Mixon, 26, a fugitive parolee who shot four Oakland police officers to death Saturday before he was killed as he hid inside his sister's apartment, might have committed as many as five other rapes in the same neighborhood in recent months, investigators said.

All the victims of those rapes were attacked in the early-morning hours, as was the girl who was raped Feb. 5, and the assailant's behavior was similar in all the assaults, police said.

Investigators are trying to determine Mixon's motive for opening fire on two motorcycle police officers after they pulled him over for an unspecified traffic violation Saturday afternoon at MacArthur Boulevard and 74th Avenue, the same neighborhood where the rapes occurred. No arrest warrant had been issued in the rape case, but one had been issued after Mixon skipped a meeting with his parole officer in February.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/25/MNPP16M2CH.DTL

[superconnected]

1. Jaxon wrote the article about Lovelle Mixon. Lovelle Mixon raped a 12 yo and possible 4 others..

that's a guy? Then he killed 4 cops before dying.

People, don't name boys things like "Lovelle". It's just bad.

[REP]

4. Possibly *5* other rapes; at least 7 total

Two previous to his prior conviction; five after his release. So much for trying to lead a good life 'cept for those pesky cops trying to bring him down.

[11cents]

8. He was also a "person of interest" in a murder

The victim was another young man from the neighborhood.

[christx30]

41. His mom said

that he wasn't a monster. I'm kind of in the belief that she was wrong.

[caseymoz]

48. I'm certain he had a good side to him; it just takes his mother to see it.

Poor woman! Her suffering right now must be infinite!

[WriteDown]

58. Sure...

The side facing up in the coffin. Seriously now.

[caseymoz]

64. My hypothesis: evil people are just the same as good people--

. . . except they have some-- quirks.

He had a few quirks and moral hick-ups.

[WriteDown]

68. Wearing plaids and stripes together is quirky...

this is just evil.

[caseymoz]

75. That was dark humor.

In the spirit of Gross Point Blank, the movie:






:freak:

[WriteDown]

78. Ah....been a long time since I've seen that

:)

[Lone_Star_Dem]

2. That poor girl

And his other victims as well. If anything good can come from this disastrous event, I hope it's that they can find a small amount of comfort in knowing he won't ever be hurting them again.

[Mz Pip]

3. I'm curious as to what a tox screen

will reveal.

This kind of behavior is pretty extreme even for most criminals.

[REP]

5. Rapists don't fare well in prison

That's motivation enough; judging from his record and being suspected (with DNA evidence) to at 7 rapes, he was violent, worthless motherfucker we;re all better off without.

[Ken Burch]

46. Maybe he figures the cop-killer part will get him a FEW friends on the cellblock.

n/t.

[caseymoz]

47. lol. No, he was going to go down fighting. nt

[iamthebandfanman]

11. i dunno

i wouldnt be quick to blame drugs...
he clearly wasnt doing these things to keep an addiction
but rather to fulfill some sick fantasty in his mind...

id imagine this guy was several mentally disturbed.

unfortunately(or fortunately) we wont get to find whether thats the case or not...
so i guess we'll wait on that tox screen ;)

[Ticonderoga]

6. Raping a Child

No wonder this assclown was afraid to go back to prison.

[Starry Messenger]

7. Ugh.

What a piece of shit. Hopefully this will put the "revenge for Oscar Grant" storyline completely out of the picture.

[CreekDog]

9. Some here at DU were attributing this mass killing as revenge for police brutality

yeah right. :wtf:

[nomorenomore08]

12. I mentioned Oscar Grant, but only in the sense that his death was just as tragic as the four cops'.

I never for a moment thought there was any real connection between that case and this one. The guy here was just a psycho, plain and simple.

[Mike Daniels]

55. There's a fringe on DU that celebrates the death of any cop

even those just doing their job and people like Mixon are treated as heros despite all evidence to the contrary.

Just proof the Republicans don't hold a monopoly on "freaks".

[Ignis]

61. Link to a long-term DUer celebrating cop deaths? (nt)

[Dorian Gray]

81. amazing

isn't it?

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[EFerrari]

17. Can you be more racist or is this the best you can do?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

32. oh thats right...

being critical of the fact that hip-hop culture celebrates the exploits of violent criminals, violence against women and law enforcement is racist.

[caseymoz]

34. I'm surprised.

How can criticizing the themes of gangster rap be considered racist? I'm not totally critical of the form, but some good rap songs have been written about a guy abused by law enforcement killing an officer or prison guard and then going on the lam. Public Enemy's "Going for the Steel" is one example from long ago.

I thought a gangster rapper group might conceivably have in mind to put this story, or some altered version of it, in a song. I mean a guy falsely accused and abused killing 4 cops is (in a manner) impressive, if horrifying. But I thought that inspiration would be spoiled by the addition of 5-7 rapes. I thought gangster rappers would then be reluctant to make this heroic.

That was racist in your mind? If I said that hippies were sloppy in the way they dressed and they used drugs would you think I'm slandering them?

[caseymoz]

65. Oh, my post was meant to be attached to the branch above.

I guess without that context, it might have looked racist.

[EFerrari]

13. I don't like this trying rapes in the press.

No case has been made. And if he didn't do it, those cases won't get the attention they deserve to get and take one or more rapists off the street.

[Enrique]

14. exactly

no warrant was issued when he is alive, but they accuse him after he's dead and can't defend himself?

[EFerrari]

18. If nothing else, those girls deserve better, imo. n/t

[LisaL]

21. Oh please.

[EFerrari]

22. Plrease what? If he didn't do it, the perp is STILL OUT THERE. n/t

[LisaL]

24. He is named a suspect in the rape of 12 years old because of DNA link, according to the article.

Ever heard of DNA?

[EFerrari]

25. Ever looked up the word "suspect"? And what about the other four?

[LisaL]

26. What about the other four?

I am sure police will do DNA tests to see if there is a match.

[EFerrari]

30. Do you not understand that this is about the rape victims, not about him?

Now they can hang anything on him. I hope you don't live in that area because if you do, you have no reason to believe that rapist is off the street.

[Pavulon]

39. Will stand by for a DNA match. Once it hits he is guilty

why are you so concerned about this piece of shit?

[caseymoz]

49. Now wait, I just don't think she knew how accurate DNA is. n/t

[EFerrari]

50. No. The point is, unless the case is brought in a court all you have is

the ALLEGATION of a match.

The OPD are not super heroes. They're just guys doing a job. It's up to the court to verify what they have. That's why we have the process. Without that, we don't know what happened.

[LisaL]

40. What you say doesn't make sense.

The police will do DNA tests to figure out if they got the right suspect. WTF does it do with hanging anything on him?

[EFerrari]

52. The police can't by themselves figure out if they have the right suspect.

If they could or would, we wouldn't need COURTS, would we?

[LisaL]

54. Oh baloney.

Court is to determine whether someone can be found guilty beyond the reasonable doubt, after prosecution determines there is enough evidence pointing to guilt to put someone on trial. If there is no evidence pointing to guilt the person would not be put on trial.

[EFerrari]

57. Exactly. Having the police announce tht they have a DNA match

isn't enough to prove guilt.

[Bacchus39]

60. so you would suggest puting him on trial now that he is dead?? n/t

n/t

[caseymoz]

62. You completely misunderstand the principle of "innocent till proved guilty."

See my post #59. I'll reiterate: it's an assumption binding to the criminal justice system, dictating the procedures it must follow. For the rest of us, it's a courtesy. The main problem with the public not following that courtesy is the influence it has on the jury and the harassment of the defendant. Those are moot here.

You're accusing the police of several gross felonies, federal offenses, without any evidence that a crime was even committed. Where is your courtesy of due process for them?

DNA evidence is conclusive. No courtesy of "innocent till proved guilty" is appropriate here. That's my last word, I'm done with this.

[EFerrari]

63. No, I'm not accusing the police of any such thing.

That's a crock. I'm saying, it's not possible to determine that the rape case has been solved.

[Bacchus39]

67. sure it is, DNA evidence is more conclusive than a jury decision

DNA evidence has used to exonerate numerous wrongly convicted people.

and there would be absolutely no reason to keep looking for suspects if the DNA evidence is conclusive.

a "solved" case need not include a jury decision on guilt or innocence. a judge can throw out a case, the prosecution can drop charges, the defendant or suspect could be dead, the accused can plead guilty. none of those instances would involve a jury trial. and again, wrong convictions can happen too, and of course guilty suspects can be found innocent as well. a jury decision doesn't make it true necessarily.

[caseymoz]

69. Sorry, you're just plain wrong.

I've said before, if they have conclusive DNA evidence from semen, he's guilty. Check the science of it.

Nothing more say here, I've said it many times now. If you don't know, you'll just have to check it yourself.

[EFerrari]

70. No. The evidence hasn't been scrutinized.

What they have is a claim. Just like the FBI's scientific claim that they reproduced the trail from Ivins to the anthrax which on being scrutinized turned out to be wrong.

Seriously, the police mount their best case. It is tested in court. That's how we know how good their case it. We don't have access to that process in this instance. Check yourself.

[caseymoz]

72. Damn, here I'm going again: what happened with the anthrax can't be compared to this.

The federal government has an advantage in hiding information that local police forces don't have: the federal government can stamp things secret. This makes independent scrutiny of evidence on Anthrax case next to impossible, and if a reporter investigates, somebody will have a talk with them, and will stamp records of the talk secret, so he can't tell anyone. The federal government is a total black box to us, and Obama should air it out. He's probably afraid of that "lone gunman" though.

That's not true for local police: records are publicly available, and case files and court cases are all available to the public once the case is closed. People can check it, and believe me, they'll have an episode on some cable television show about this case, where they will look at the case files. This is so high profile. But you yourself could go in, probably fill out a form and probably follow other procedures, and look at the records yourself. I was a reporter, I used to do that. You could go to the courts and do largely the same thing.

Plus, you have it reversed: it's the DNA evidence that tests courts, and has proved the criminal justice system has been extremely wrong with disturbing frequency. It has shaken up the courts a lot.

[The Straight Story]

82. um no

First it could have gotten there other ways (or he could have been set up). They could have had consensual sex (still against the law at her age).

Second, labs do mix things up and make mistakes.
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/183018_crimelabboxesweb22.html

Below are the 23 cases of contamination or errors in major criminal cases the lab system has admitted to, according to State Patrol and court documents:

EXAMPLE NO. 1

# Problem: Cross-contamination

# When and where: July 2002, Spokane lab

# Forensic scientist: Lisa Turpen

# Case: child rape

# What happened: Turpen contaminated one of four vaginal swabs with semen from a positive control sample. Corrected report issued almost two years later in March 2004. ....Yakima prosecutors offered plea deal during the trial, with defendant pleading guilty to two gross misdemeanors. Turpen's mistake was a factor, according to defense.

Third - evidence is not just a simple thing like dna. It is a process where you look at witnesses, time lines, etc and so on.

Lastly - pinning this rape (or others) on him with only dna evidence might be a strong case, but it also closes the case in the mind of some and there may well be another perp out there who got away with it OR had a hand in it.

Do I think he did it? Looks that way based on the words of a few people typed online in news papers - but I don't believe allowing them to convict someone is a good idea (and I still remember the Gary Condit episode).

[caseymoz]

31. If there's a DNA test and it's repliclated and confirmed-- He did it.

No if's ands or buts. DNA is very definitive. It's more solid than anything before, which is why so many people are being found innocent. It's accuracy is somewhere around 99.99 . . . (infinity) percent accurate. Especially when you have 7 matches.

And the fact is, cops want to get a rapist off the streets, too. They aren't going to stack up charges against a dead multiple-cop killer-- to make him look bad. That guy's rap sheet is already shitty enough, nothing is gained by slandering him now, and it's not like they're working overtime so they could convict him . . .

And plus, even without those reasons, they can't afford the scandal if it's found that the rapist is still on the loose. Now, there will never be a trial to prove this, simply because there's no issue of loss of life or liberty for the dead defendant. The family could sue to "clear his name," but that seems moot.

If you want police to waste their time and resources on a crime that's 100 percent solved just to satisfy the ill-informed, then police probably won't have time and resources for unsolved crimes.

[EFerrari]

51. No. All you have is a claim of a match. That's all.

That's why we have those things we call courts. And cops get paid to waste their time with due process. That's their job, too.

[caseymoz]

59. Those DNA results are replicated by an independent lab.

The police themselves want to be sure of the results. You say there can be presumption guilt without due process-- for a dead man even with conclusive DNA evidence?. You completely misunderstand the meaning of "innocent till proved guilty."

Let me explain: "innocent till proved guilty" is a principle the court is required to follow, and its procedures are based on that. For good or bad, the public isn't bound to follow that ethic, isn't bound to follow procedures based on that. Besides, that issue is moot anyway in the face of conclusive evidence, like DNA. An example: if I witness a crime, I'm not going to wait for the court to say he's guilty to consider him guilty. The evidence to me would already be conclusive.

The trial here would be one day. They'll make a slight concession to him to get him to wave his right to a jury trial, because a jury trial might take two days. Then, he would be declared guilty. Period.

The only way I could think of is if the police "fixed" the DNA, putting his DNA into the evidence bags for all the crime scenes. First, since you're talking about due process, where's the due process for them on that accusation? That is a really big thing to say with no evidence. Second, if they did it, the independent lab would notice it, because it's impossible to put blood from a corpse or dead tissue in a collection tube or evidence bags without the lab detecting it. Not to mention that the DNA for rape would be semen-- that is totally distinct from anything they could plant.

I've mentioned that it's impractical and absurd to try a dead man. There's no issue of taking his life, liberty or property away. It's a total waste of court time and resources. Those people who are alive will have to wait in jail longer for their trials. It will interfere with their right to a speedy trial.

[EFerrari]

71. I was an Officer of the Court for many years, thanks.

And somehow you've managed to completely miss the point that without scrutiny, what the police have is the case they would have mounted and that's all they have.

[caseymoz]

74. And you have no evidence that they are mishandling it.

Unless you think they want or don't care if a rapist and possible murderer to gets away-- which is criminal negligence. As I said, you're accusing the police of something criminal. Now, police clearly do criminal things sometimes, I can't detect a motive here, though. Even laziness, or even lack of concern. They have everything to lose and nothing to gain doing as you say. Police don't want to have a scandal this big.

Yes they have the case that they would have mounted-- and with this evidence, the trial would have lasted one day. Guilty as charged. And if he would have been brought before the judge for an arraignment, the bail would have probably been in the high six-digits.

If you think about it, the way the suspect acted, not only killing cops, but fighting to the death, it is very consistent somebody who knew that getting arrested would mean his life wouldn't be worth living. He was armed to the teeth, and he was prepared to go down fighting like a cornered rat, and did. This can't be explained by the warrant against him.

[Bacchus39]

44. then you should be hoping it was him shouldn't you?????

now they have a person to compare the rape evidence to. there is no registry of everyone's DNA code on file to compare evidence. you need an identity of a SUSPECT to take a sample and make a comparison.

hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LanternWaste]

66. Self delete...

Self delete

[LisaL]

20. Hah?

According to the article police named him a suspect of raping a 12 year old because of DNA link. WTF would you want police to do? Keep looking for suspects since he is dead?
:eyes:

[CreekDog]

80. why on earth might they be mad at him?

oh maybe because he shot two motorcycle cops and then when they were down on the street he walked up to them and shot them each in the head point blank, killing them.

oh yes, why shouldn't he be able to defend himself? :eyes: :wtf:

the guy was total garbage, period. this is not debatable.

you kill four people in a hail of gunfire with an ak-47, i don't personally want to hear whatever bullshit defense you give me.

[Pavulon]

15. See if he pops on dna.

goes to motive for being a shitty cop killer. Not wanting to go up as a kid rapist.

[EFerrari]

16. Yeah, right. Maybe you should be writing novels instead of fighting crime.

[Pavulon]

27. WTF is your point? If he is DNA positive he is a rapist piece of shit as well as

a murdering piece of shit. To bad he did not get hit by a bus before he started fucking up peoples lives.

[mackerel]

19. How else would you try him?

He's dead and so are for police officers. DNA links him to the rape of a child. Goes to motive and if he had mental health issues possible paranoia.

In my view so what if he is tried by the press, boo fecking hoo.

[EFerrari]

23. And boo fucking hoo to the women that keep getting raped

if your genius leaps of pretzel logic are WRONG.

[Pavulon]

28. DNA, you going to argue against that too?

[EFerrari]

29. What? If they had a case, the guy would have been in custody.

Give me a f#cking break.

[caseymoz]

33. Now that's not true.

A lot of things might have kept them from putting the cases together. To say that they're just too lazy to go after the real rapist-- there are a lot of things you could say that police are probably guilty of, but that charge is unbelievable. Where's their trial to prove they're doing that?

What question should be asked is why his DNA wasn't on file? After the fact, when they have the corpse, they could check against his DNA all they want.

[LisaL]

37. His DNA was on file. That's how they got the link to the rape of a

12 years old.

[Bacchus39]

43. bingo!!!! they may have had his DNA from a rape, but no body to compare it to

now they have an identity (the body) to compare with the evidence from the rapes. boy, I'm telling you, how can anyone defend this scum. and if he was the rapist, then GOOD!!! he's gone.

[EFerrari]

53. Having a case has nothing to do with being lazy. I didn't say that.

[caseymoz]

79. What other possibilities are there if you believe there is there's reasonable doubt about him?

If you think he could be innocent of the rapes, that there's any possibility that would make a court trial necessary, here are the only ways he could be innocent of them with otherwise conclusive DNA evidence.

1) If the police have lied. They've planted his DNA in all of the evidence kits.

Okay, what's the motive? Are they too lazy to find the rapist? Are they too hostile or racist? Do they not care?

And how would they even get away with the lie if an independent lab is checking the results?


2) Police are criminally negligent. If they muddled gathering the evidence in multiple rape cases.

No, actually this one isn't even possible. It would have to be 1 or nothing.


So, if they're not lazy, which other possibility would explain that why they lied.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

35. They only discovered the day before the shooting that his DNA was a match

From the article: The day before the shootings, police learned that a sample of Mixon's DNA taken after he was sent to prison in 2002 for assault with a deadly weapon matched the evidence recovered after the rape of the 12-year-old girl, police said.

They had just gained enough evidence to bring him in for a second DNA testing, which should still be done as it's routine.

[caseymoz]

38. You talk about a little too late!

But I guess he would have been shooting when they tried to arrest him. They would have been much better prepared, though. It would have made national news, but would have had a better ending.

[christx30]

42. The theory I have is that

he knew he was guilty, and he must have thought the cops had a slam dunk case against him.
You don't kill 4 cops just for something to do one night. That is fear of prosecution.
Once the DNA evidence on the other rapes is in, I think it'd be safe to say it's good that this bastard is dead. Society (or at least his neighborhood) is much better off with him 6 feet under.
Of course the police should do their due diligence on the case. Mixon's victims deserve nothing less. Each case should get the same scrutiny as if it were the only one involved. But the man cheated himself out of his day in court. Fuck him.

[caseymoz]

76. Yes, he really thought that if he was arrested, his life wouldn't be worth living.

You can't expect anyone to do that for just the parole-violation warrant they had against him. Not only that, he was prepared and armed to the teeth with an assault rifle, and my guess is he knew where he was going to take the fight for his last stand, which from choosing his ground, is how he was able to kill two other cops.

I've never in my life heard of four officers being killed.

[cali]

77. what women that are continuing to be raped?

you're making an utter fool of yourself in this thread. Why not just admit thaf if the police can link his dna conclusively to this victim, odds are extremely strong that they've found the perp. To believe otherwise you'd have to believe that either the cops are conspiring to frame this dead man or that someone else framed him.

[Bacchus39]

45. no case??? like the DNA link between the rape of the girl and the cop killer???

maybe read the story before posting.

[slackmaster]

73. That is moot

There won't be a trial, because the suspect was shot dead in self-defense.

[caseymoz]

36. It does explain why he was so "on edge" about getting stopped.

He knew he would never get out of prison, and he'd be treated-- badly while he was in there.

He's probably where he should be, and it's too bad he ran into so many people getting there.

Those poor girls!

[andodempa]

56. Hope

If only our nation's prisons weren't overcrowded with inmates serving mandatory minimum sentences for NON-VIOLENT drug offenses. We could have actually kept a monster like this behind bars.

I can only hope that this tragedy generates change across our nation. A nation that truly cares about reducing crime through friendly community policing and actual harm reduction. When you act like a soldier, you're bound to get hurt. It's time to end the wars against the "lower" class.