Manhattan DA Bragg blasts Arizona prosecutor, vows slain Queens sex worker will not be used as political pawn

NEW YORK — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Thursday said he would do everything in his power to seek justice for Denisse Oleas-Arancibia, a sex worker bludgeoned to death in a SoHo hotel room — and slammed a grandstanding Arizona prosecutor for using the slain mother as a political pawn.

The NYPD found a lifeless Oleas-Arancibia, 38, in an 11th-floor room at the SoHo 54 Hotel on Feb. 8. Weeks later, on the other side of the country, Raad Almansoori was arrested under suspicion of the nonfatal stabbings of two Arizona women and indicated to cops there that he was also behind Oleas-Arancibia’s killing, telling them to Google the hotel where she’d been murdered.

But in a stunning move, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell has vowed to try to block the extradition of Almansoori to New York, saying she doesn’t trust Bragg with the case. If she succeeds, the slain sex worker would be the last of Almansoori’s alleged victims to get justice.

Bragg furiously fired back at Mitchell — a Republican up for reelection — at a Thursday press conference at his lower Manhattan office, saying he’d never witnessed anything like her stonewalling in his two decades in law enforcement.

He said Mitchell had “cheapened justice” and unjustly taken a murder victim out of the spotlight by politicizing a usually routine extradition procedure that plays out the same in red, blue, and purple states. He said she hadn’t even called him, communicating instead via the media.

“Her reasoning? Not because that’s what the law dictates, not because that’s what advances justice, not because of a concern for victims, not at the request of the NYPD — but rather, plain and simple, old-fashioned grandstanding and politics,” Bragg said.

“It is deeply disturbing to me that a member of my profession, a member of law enforcement, would choose to play political games in a murder case,” he added. “What’s important is that we center (the victim) and not cheapen the most important type of case historically … a murder investigation. We should be talking about the victim, the victim’s family, when a trial date is.”

Mitchell can argue that her case should be heard first. Still, the person with ultimate signoff on Almansoori’s extradition is neither her nor Bragg, but Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, noted New York Law School Prof. Anna Cominsky.

“The idea is the states have agreed among each other that ‘We’ll return to you, you’ll return to us,'” Cominsky said.

“Arizona could say to the New York governor, ‘Hey, we’d like to handle our case first or have him finish his sentence here first, and then we’ll extradite to you.’ But as long as the paperwork is appropriate, as long as it’s statutorily appropriate, there’s no reason that the governor wouldn’t be signing off on extradition. Now, it’s just a matter of, are they gonna negotiate about, you know, he’s gonna stay there for this case first then come to New York, or vice versa?”

Almansoori will also have a chance to fight his extradition in court, possibly prompting a hearing to evaluate his arguments, Cominsky said.

Mitchell’s attacks on Bragg — a Democrat and Manhattan’s first Black DA — are just the latest in a deluge he’s faced from right-wing politicians and police unions since taking office, who call him “soft on crime.”

The DA has prosecuted several police officers since taking office for on-the-job misconduct and will become the first U.S. prosecutor in history to put a former president on trial next month in Donald Trump’s hush money case.

Bragg’s office routinely seeks to hold without bail suspects extradited from other states, even those charged with lesser offenses than murder. He’s faced just as much criticism from progressives and court watchers, who say he defaults to bail and jail as often as his predecessors.

In TV and radio interviews Wednesday and Thursday, Mitchell spouted the false claim that several asylum seekers suspected of involvement in a Times Square melee with the NYPD were arrested on her turf after they “were allowed to walk out of jail” on Bragg’s watch.

In fact, all of the migrants accused in the incident have been in custody since their indictments, and federal authorities told Bragg’s office weeks ago there was no truth to reports any had been arrested out west. Bragg sought to hold three of the seven without bail at their court appearances last week and high bail sums for the rest. That, after he came under criticism when several of the defendants were initially released without bail by a judge.

Bragg said Mitchell had repeated a “baseless and shameless mistruth” to an audience of millions.

“This has demonstrably been proven to be false — now for weeks — so to repeat a baseless falsehood, now on national TV, is beyond the pale,” Bragg said.

“The Department of Homeland Security (and Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has said these were not those four suspects,” he said, referring to migrants mentioned by Mitchell. “Different names, different dates of birth, different fingerprints. Different people. My office has indicted seven people in the despicable and heinous attack on two of New York’s Finest. Those seven people have appeared in New York court and are being held as we speak in pretrial detention. Those are the facts.”

The DA also refuted Mitchell’s claims it’s “safer to keep (Almansoori)” in Arizona “and keep him in custody so he can’t be out doing this to individuals either in our state or county or the United States,” noting homicides are down 24% in Manhattan since he took office, with shootings down 38%.

“Manhattan, my county, which I’m honored to lead, our murder rate is less than half that of Phoenix, Arizona’s,” Bragg said. “In 2023, they had 198 criminal homicides. Here in Manhattan, we had 73.”

In a Thursday statement, Mitchell insisted she only wanted Almansoori to be tried in her state first and was not trying to block his day in court in Manhattan.

“I am protecting victims, not politicizing them or this case,” she said. “Once we have convicted him and have a lengthy sentence in place – he can then return to New York and be tried there.”

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