Local News in Brief : Mitchelson’s Countersuit

Divorce attorney Marvin Mitchelson, accused in a lawsuit by a former client of raping her in 1985, filed a countersuit Friday, branding the woman a pathological liar who has hurt his law business.

In the Santa Monica Superior Court suit, Mitchelson alleges that Kristen Barrett-Whitney, 37, falsely accused him of rape in an extortion attempt to get him to force another lawyer to return a $10,000 fee.

Barrett-Whitney is “a pathological as well as a criminal liar” who has used 12 aliases in her “profession as an extortionist specializing in false accusations of sexual abuse,” the suit said.

Barrett-Whitney has filed 13 suits, several of which alleged she was a “victim of sexual abuse by a man of wealth,” Mitchelson’s suit said.

Daniel Sklar, Barrett-Whitney’s lawyer, said Mitchelson was “slandering her” to try to hide from her accusations.

“I think it’s just nonsense,” he said of Mitchelson’s suit. “If she’s a professional plaintiff, he’s a professional defendant because at least 20 of his clients have sued him.”