The chief attorney for Maricopa County is refusing a request to extradite a murder suspect to New York City and sites Alvin Bragg’s handling of criminals as the reason.
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell is not refusing the extradition because Raad Noan Almansoori is innocent. Rather, she doesn’t want Almansoori going back out on the street to murder someone else, saying “we’re going to keep him here.”
Here’s more from NBC News:
An Arizona prosecutor said Wednesday that her office will not extradite the man accused of killing a woman in a New York City hotel, calling out Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s “treatment of violent criminals.”
Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell told reporters in Arizona that she’s ordered her staff not to cooperate in any efforts to send Raad Noan Almansoori, 26, back to New York where he’s wanted in connection to the slaying of Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, 38.
“This is not aimed the New York Police Department at all. I know they did a hard job, they did a good job, but we will not be agreeing to extradition,” Mitchell said. “I’ve instructed my extradition attorneys not to agree to that. We’re going to keep him here.”
Almansoori is being held without bail in Arizona, where he’s been accused of stabbing two women.
“Having observed the treatment of violent criminals in the New York area by the Manhattan DA there, Alvin Bragg,” Mitchell said, “I think it’s safer to keep him here and keep him in custody so that he cannot be out doing this to individuals either in our state, county or anywhere in the United States.”
Emily Tuttle, a representative for Bragg, said it’s “deeply disturbing that” Mitchell is “playing political games in a murder investigation.”
The Arizona prosecutor’s actions are offensive to the “NYPD and all of our law enforcement partners,” Tuttle added.
I should note that Rachel Mitchell is the same attorney who was hired by Senate Republicans to question Christine Blasey Ford during the Kavanaugh hearings. Turns out she really is badass.