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On June 8, a grand jury in Clackamas County indicted the 19-year-old nanny for the owners of La Mota after a 5-mile car chase that took place in the early morning of Oct. 1, 2022.
In the car that morning with the the young woman, whose name is Arlen Alva, was the owner of the embattled La Mota dispensary chain, Aaron Mitchell.
Now, Alva faces one felony charge and two misdemeanor charges for which she could face jail time. The Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office dropped charges against Mitchell.
According to law enforcement documents obtained by WW, the car chase, which reached speeds of 100 miles per hour, took place along Southeast McLoughlin Boulevard in Milwaukie. It ended only after deputies deployed spike strips and surrounded the La Mota-owned vehicle with their guns drawn.
Alva, who, according to a police report and the indictment, evaded arrest and fled police in a gray 2021 Mercedes-Benz, drove with an intoxicated Mitchell as her passenger.
Mitchell and his longtime partner Rosa Cazares catapulted into the public eye this spring because of the troubles of their sprawling cannabis dispensary chain and their relationship with former Secretary of State Shemia Fagan.
As WW first reported, the couple hired Fagan as a private consultant in February after contributing to her election campaign. In May, Fagan resigned over revelations that she had shaped a state audit of cannabis regulation to suit La Mota’s interests and that La Mota was paying her more than her state salary under the previously undisclosed contract. The U.S. Department of Justice is now investigating the relationship between La Mota and Fagan. Mitchell and Cazares also contributed heavily to other top Democrats, including Gov. Tina Kotek. They gave more than $200,000 to candidates even as they and the 60 businesses they control accrued millions of dollars in state and federal liens for unpaid taxes.
A police report describing the October incident, including notes taken by eight responding officers, paints a picture of the nanny fleeing police as Mitchell sat in the passenger seat, heavily intoxicated.
At approximately 1:40 on the morning of Oct. 1, an officer attempted to stop the Mercedes-Benz for reckless driving on McLoughlin. The officer wrote that the vehicle “aggressively swerved back and forth” and kept crossing into the adjacent traffic lane. The driver continued going after the officer turned on his bubble lights, and so officers farther down the highway laid down spikes to disable the car. During the chase, according to officer notes, the car ran red lights, swerved around other cars, and reached 100 mph. It took multiple spike strips to stop the vehicle. (The car also hit several curbs and a rock barrier, according to the report.)
Addresses provided in the police report show the chase lasted 5 miles and ended in Oregon City near a McDonald’s, a Dollar Tree and a small skatepark.
Because the driver had failed to comply with orders to stop, officers drew their weapons as they surrounded the car. One officer wrote that, as he approached the vehicle: “Both occupants were sitting in the front passenger seat. The female was sitting in the male’s lap. The female then switched to the driver’s seat briefly before getting in the back seat. The male passenger then climbed into the driver’s seat of the car. When the male sat in the driver’s seat, the female put on her seat belt.”
Another officer wrote: “During the stop, both subjects repeatedly looked around inside of the car, concealing their hands from view. We had to continually order both occupants to keep there hands up. Both occupants had difficulties following simple instructions.”
Mitchell’s blood-alcohol content registered 0.18%, more than twice Oregon’s 0.08% limit for intoxication. It’s unclear if Alva was under the influence, too. One officer noted that as Alva exited the car, “Aaron remained inside the SUV and was acting strange. It appeared he understood commands as he would start digging around in the middle console or putting his hands down but immediately put them back up when ordered to do so.”
Officers eventually detained both Mitchell and Alva, who at that point refused to identify herself and asked for an attorney. Some of the officers said Alva was Hispanic or Latina; others identified her as white. Mitchell did identify himself, according to officer reports.
“Mitchell told me the female was not driving the car,” one officer wrote. “Mitchell wouldn’t tell me who the female was, and he acted surprised when I told him there was a female in the car with him.”
Mitchell later vomited in the back of the patrol car as they transported him to jail. “Mitchell had difficulties sitting upright,” one officer wrote. “I asked Mitchell why they ran from the police and he denied running. Mitchell also initially told me he didn’t know the female in the car. Mitchell also denied she was the driver. Mitchell eventually told me the female was his [redacted].”
Mitchell identified Alva as his nanny in an email to the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission the following day, writing that she was an au pair from Mexico whom he had called to pick him up after he had “a few drinks and an edible.” Mitchell wrote that he fell asleep in the car and “woke up in the hospital” to cops “asking me questions about our nanny.” (OLCC regulations require licensees to notify the agency of arrests.)
“I believe I hit my head in the accident. I’m not sure if I was knocked out. I believe I was,” Mitchell wrote Oct. 2. “They told me she tried to run away from them the police while pulling her over. That didn’t make any sense to me. I told them I was asleep the entire ride. So I could not say what happened. But that maybe she didn’t understand she was being pulled over. She told me that one officer got behind her and had his lights on. She asked me what was going on, I didn’t answer. She asked again and I didn’t answer. Then the cop pulled along side her and ran her off the road smashing us into a wall....I was unconscious at this point.”
Mitchell also wrote to the OLCC that the nanny “didn’t want to talk to [cops]. This was because she doesn’t speak good English....I believe that she made an innocent mistake. She is a child from another country. She lives in a tiny town.”
Jail deputies turned Mitchell away that night because he was so drunk. He was taken to a nearby hospital and then transported back to jail later that morning.
Cops arrested Mitchell for hindering prosecution, a Class C felony. The Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute.
“Our office ultimately chose not to go forward with criminal charges in this case because we are not certain we could prove every material element of the alleged offense beyond a reasonable doubt, which is required by law,” wrote a spokesperson for the DA’s Office. “In this case, we would first have to prove that Mr. Mitchell even knew that Defendant Alva’s conduct was a felony, and that he was actively obstructing law enforcement from apprehending her. In this case, the police saw Mr. Mitchell switch places in the driver’s seat of the vehicle with Defendant Alva, so law enforcement was not deceived in any way at any time regarding who and where the felon was located. As a result, despite his efforts, it was not possible for Mr. Mitchell to deceive law enforcement from apprehending Defendant Alva.”
Officers were unable to identify the owner of the car at the scene. But the make, year, model and registered owner address were identical to that of a car registered and owned by La Mota 10 LLC, according to records obtained from Oregon Driver & Motor Vehicle Services. La Mota 10 is one of the 60 registered companies in Oregon controlled by Mitchell and Cazares.
The police report notes that Alva seemed afraid of her boss.
“While she was speaking to jail deputies,” one officer wrote in his report of Alva, “she articulated significant fear in speaking while Mitchell was nearby.”
Just 14 days after the incident, on Oct. 15, Mitchell and Cazares hosted a black-tie gala for then-gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek.
On May 5, Mitchell filed a motion with the Clackamas County Circuit Court to have the arrest expunged from his record.
Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment.
