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Berkeley police revealed Tuesday that they’d arrested 56-year-old Berkeley resident Paul Mitchell four days earlier in connection with the 1997 rape of a 39-year-old Berkeley resident. 

Mitchell was tied to the crime through a match in the state DNA database, said Berkeley police spokesperson Officer Joe Okies. 

Police said Mitchell broke into the apartment in the 1900 block of El Dorado Avenue in the pre-dawn hours of May 18, 1997 and pinned the victim to her bed with a pistol. The woman was sexually assaulted multiple times and raped during the attack, Okies said. 

The state Department of Justice notified police on May 25 that they’d matched Mitchell’s DNA to the crime, and a six-week investigation followed, in which further evidence was developed tying Mitchell culminating to the assault. 

Sex Crimes Sgt. Alyson Hart praised the Justice Department’s database for its instrumental role in breaking the cold case. 

“The use of new technology combined with effective investigative tools has helped to identify Mitchell as the suspect in this brutal attack and hold him accountable for his crime,” she said. 

Prosecutor John Adams of the Alameda County district attorney’s office worked closely with the Sex Crimes Unit in developing the charges filed. 

Mitchell faces counts of rape and burglary as well as multiple counts of sexual assault, Okies said. 

According to a 2004 Daily Planet story about his eviction from a Berkeley duplex, Mitchell has a bachelor’s degree in English from Cornell University and a Master’s in Education Psychology from Santa Clara University. 

He lived on a disability pension stemming from a leg injury and had served at least one sentence in the Santa Rita Jail by the time the story was written. 

He was living in a van at the time the story was written following his eviction and the potential loss of his 70 percent housing subsidy from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. 

As a result of the story, Mitchell was able to obtain a housing voucher and a apartment in Berkeley, which he then rejected in favor of a residence in Oakland. 

He was living in Berkeley again at the time of his arrest.›