Mitrice Richardson Is Still Missing: Malibu City Council Adds Its Voice to the Growing Chorus of Concern for Her Well-Being

• Members Establish $15,000 Reward for Information Regarding 24-Year-Old's Disappearance

BY ANNE SOBLE

The Malibu City Council on Monday expressed heartfelt sympathy over the disappearance of a visitor to the community and at its Wednesday quarterly meeting approved the establishment of "a $15,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the disappearance of Mitrice Richardson" who has now been missing for six weeks.
The 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton honors graduate was last seen not long after midnight on Sept. 17 when she was released from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station on her own recognizance after being booked for two misdemeanor counts resulting from her declared inability to pay for an $89.51 dinner tab at Geoffrey’s restaurant and the presence in her vehicle of less than an ounce of marijuana.
Richardson was described by Geoffrey staffers as acting crazily—stating she was from Mars and spouting gibberish—in a call made to the sheriff’s department to pick her up.
However, when the deputies arrived on the scene to take custody of her after a citizen’s arrest by the restaurant manager, it was noted in a report written a week after her arrest that she passed a field sobriety test. After she was brought to Lost Hills, a jailer said Richardson conversed and was lucid.
The Malibu Surfside News obtained a copy of Richardson’s booking report this week, which indicates she was booked at 10:20 p.m. and released at 0025, or 12:25 a.m., which is an hour earlier than first stated by sheriff’s department spokespersons and reported in the media.
The one hour difference could have major ramifications in the timing of misinformation that was given to Richardson’s mother, Latice Sutton, when she placed numerous telephone calls to Lost Hills about her daughter.
The booking report confirms that Richardson had no money in her possession. The only personal property recorded was a brown hat, a pink belt and her California driver license, which she signed for when it was returned.
The report states Richardson told deputies that in case of an emergency her great-grandmother Mildred Harris, with whom she resided in Los Angeles, was the person to be contacted.
The report notes there were four attempts to call Harris, each of which are initialed M.R., but it is not known whether the calls were completed due to the inability of the Lost Hills calls to be verified.
FUNDS REQUEST
Monday night, the city council indicated it would post a missing person flyer for Richardson on the city website and put formal action on a reward on the agenda of its Wednesday meeting after citizen input recommending the city at least match the $10,000 county reward, albeit with the suggestion the money could be used to help defray family expenses, but the speaker wasn’t specific which family members might be involved.
According to some of the volunteers involved in the search effort, the missing woman’s family largely presents a united front, but has two separate wings, one in which the mother and Mitrice Richardson’s mentor during college, psychologist Ronda Hampton, are active. Their site, www.findmitrice.info, was the original ground zero n the search effort. The group’s volunteers conduct active field searches, such as one that took place downtown this past Sunday in which noted social commentator Earl Ofari Hutchinson took part.
Sutton and Hampton spearheaded the concern that Richardson has experienced debilitating stress or psychological illness and should have been placed under observation by medical professionals instead of being booked at, then released alone, on foot and without funds from the desolate Lost Hills station.
The woman’s father, Michael Richardson, has subsequently put together his own website, which is still being built, that does not mention the mother by name. He has opened a PayPal account with buttons for contributions by monetary denomination. It is not indicated whether a non-profit has been formed, or if there is a special bank account for the funds.
MAYOR’S REPORT
Michael Richardson’s website refers to an Oct. 2 exchange with “Malibu Mayor Andy Stark” (Andy Stern), a reference to telephone calls, the tapes of which were played for the Malibu Surfside News last week, in which Richardson appears to tell Stern he will picket his real estate office and tie up his telephone lines with calls because Stern has not done enough to prod the authorities.
Stern reported the calls to the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, where the matter has been assigned to Detective Vic Paladino for further investigation.

Mitrice Richardson Now Has Been Missing for Over a Month

• Number of Volunteer Searchers Grows as Word Spreads about Woman Arrested in Malibu

BY ANNE SOBLE

There’s something about the saga of Mitrice Richardson that elicits concern from everyone who learns that the 24-year-old, arrested for nonpayment of an $89.51 dinner tab and the subsequent finding of less than an ounce of marijuana in her vehicle on Sept. 16, has not been heard from in over five weeks.
“Why aren’t there posters up everywhere? Why isn’t this on the TV news every night? Why aren’t there photos on the sides of buses?” are some of the questions asked by people when they see volunteers distributing flyers about the honors college graduate with doctoral degree aspirations who may be experiencing debilitating psychological stress or full-fledged mental illness.
When the manager at Geoffrey’s restaurant performed a citizen’s arrest after Richardson attempted to leave the premises without paying, her behavior was described as “crazy.” Staff said she was speaking gibberish and stating that she was from Mars.
After her disappearance, family and friends indicated she was sending undecipherable emails and exhibiting other puzzling behavior a few days prior to the restaurant episode.
Apart from a sighting in the backyard of a Cold Canyon residence just before dawn following her 1:25 a.m. release from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station on Sept. 17, Richardson has virtually disappeared.
Although there are frequent reports of sightings, none have produced any leads to her whereabouts. Volunteer searchers spent last Sunday in the Santa Monica and Venice areas, where there were more sightings than in any other area, according to search coordinator Chip Croft.
The growing ranks of volunteers express hope that the missing woman will be found, but concern mounts that the stress of the arrest, the release without funds, alone and on foot, and her current status has pushed her into a crisis state. “She may not know who she is,” Croft said.
“Every lead is being followed up painstakingly,” according to Detective Chuck Knolls from the Los Angeles Police Department, now the lead agency on what is still technically a missing person case because Richardson’s residence is in South Los Angeles. He added that “there is nothing new to report.”
INFORMATION CAMPAIGN
As the searching continues, Richardson’s father Michael, with whom she did not live when growing up, has increased his visibility in an effort to draw public attention to her story.
He has started to appear on programs that are part of the Black Talk Radio Network system of bloggers, Internet radio shows and other independent media, to “take the search for Mitrice national.”
Speaking on a two-hour interview show based in North Carolina last Thursday, the father hammered at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for alleged errors and inconsistencies in their reports.
Richardson was sharply critical of the release of his daughter “who is afraid of the dark” alone, on foot and without funds “into the wilderness” outside the Lost Hills station, while she was in a “troubled state.”
He also came down hard on the mainstream media, which he says did sloppy reporting, even as he dismissed it as not relevant to the black community.
The father noted the discrepancy between the kind of glaring news coverage a missing white student who was vacationing in Aruba received versus that being given to his daughter.
He also said he wants to bring black activist Al Sharpton on board, as he tries to “harness the power of the Internet,” including what is often dubbed the Black Blogosphere.
Richardson added that he tried to enlist the support of Malibu Mayor Andy Stern in his efforts, but he said that Stern only referred him to the sheriff’s department. The Malibu City Council has taken no action concerning the woman’s disappearance.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has posted a $10,000 reward for information leading to Mitrice Richardson’s whereabouts. The supervisors also have asked the LASD to report back on after-hour release policies and procedures for inmates with possible psychological issues.
Information about Richardson can be directed to www.findmitrice.info or Michael Richardson at 310-283-4717, Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Detective Chuck Knolls at 213-485-2531.

Search Widens as Mitrice Richardson’s Whereabouts Are Still a Mystery

• Family Changes Tone at Latest Rally at Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station—But Concerns Remain

BY ANNE SOBLE

The criticism of the release of 24-year-old Mitrice Richardson with no money, cell phone or known means of transportation from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station at 1:25 a.m. on Sept. 17 has not abated, but the latest rally by family and friends on the front steps of the station last Saturday focused on outreach to anyone who might have seen the missing woman, or has information that could lead to where she might now be.
Richardson had been booked on the misdemeanor count of nonpayment of an $89.51 dinner tab at Geoffrey’s restaurant, after its staff performed a citizen’s arrest and described her behavior as “crazy,” adding that she was speaking gibberish and stating that she came from Mars.
A second misdemeanor count of possession of less than an ounce of marijuana was added when her car in the restaurant’s parking lot was searched by deputies before being impounded.
Because of the release of a telephone tape of a 5:30 a.m. sighting that same morning of a woman matching Richardson’s description—African-American, five-foot-five, slight build—on foot in a backyard in the Cold Canyon area, there is a strong supposition that the woman survived the cold night clad in a T-shirt and jeans.
Whether she then, even though without any funds, might have been able to board the MTA 161 bus service that starts up in the area at 6:30 a.m. or hitched a ride is a possibility.
The City of Los Angeles Police Department detectives who are assigned to the case subscribe to this “sighting” theory. The lead LAPD detective on her case, Chuck Knolls said, “We believe she is out there somewhere, and we have a full-time effort to find her.”
Knolls indicated that there are regular briefings on the case and every lead, which has included reported sightings from Northern California to New Mexico, is followed up.
Knolls said that efforts to determine who Richardson contacted when she was given the use of a station telephone have proved unsuccessful. “We cannot determine who she called because of line problems [related to] dropped calls or other issues.”
He said papers and other items in Richardson’s impounded vehicle “did not provide any leads.”
Knolls indicated that there has been no activity on the missing woman’s checking account—which has substantial funds—or her credit cards.
At Saturday’s rally, Richardson’s father Michael also expressed the view that his daughter is alive, but may be unwilling to make her whereabouts known.
Speaking directly to his daughter, he said, “You may be scared, but you did nothing wrong. When you come back, we can fix this situation.”
Addressing people the missing woman “may be confiding in,” the father told them, “You’re doing more harm than good.” He said he knows people want to help her and described his daughter’s charismatic personality with “Mitrice could make the devil turn the heat down in hell.”
But there is still concern that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which took her into custody and is still taking part of the search under the lead of the LAPD because Richardson is a Los Angeles resident, did not move quickly enough when she was reported missing.
Her father said the first week “was detectives in nice suits and reptile shoes talking to a few people.” He said it was 10 days before a major search involving 200 personnel and volunteers combed the rugged terrain of Calabasas and Malibu near Lost Hills.
Michael Richardson said the LASD exhibited “carelessness and irresponsibility” and deputies displayed “cockiness and arrogance.” He called for an outside investigation of the agency, saying the current in-house review requested by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors doesn’t go far enough.
Although the family publicly downplays the issue of whether race might have been a factor in the handling of the case, some of Mitrice Richardson friends privately say they think otherwise.
Reluctant to allow attribution by the press, some of them think that the issues of race, gender and that Mitrice Richardson was openly gay could be relevant to the way she was treated by the LASD. They say that could also explain why she might have been reluctant to stay in a jail cell until morning—an option that was offered by the jailer who processed her release.
Speaking at the rally, LASD spokesperson Steve Whitmore said that it was this jailer, described by him as “a black woman,” with whom “[Richardson engaged in] a lucid conversation about music and other topics.”
Jailers are not sheriff’s deputies, but are officially described as professional or “non-sworn” staff.
Whitmore also used the rally to reiterate the sheriff’s department stance that it did everything according to official rules.
“This is America,” Whitmore said, “When a person asks to be released, they are released....she had been booked...showed no signs of impairment and was a 24-year-old adult.”
“If we had tried to hold her against her will, that would have been overdetention,” he added.
When asked about the slow agency response to the Cold Canyon sighting and questionable conversations between deputies and Richardson’s mother, Latice Sutton, Whitmore did not respond, then said, “The only thing that matters is her safe return.”
Asked a question about the woman having been released on foot in the desolate Lost Hills area, the LASD spokesperson said that if she had asked to be driven to her car “we would have,” but then he noted that “we’ve been disciplined for doing this.”
Sheriff’s department insistence to the contrary, Ronda Hampton, a clinical psychologist, in whose office Richardson did field placement while an honor student at Cal State Fullerton, told the Malibu Surfside News that the young woman was clearly under some form of stress.
Dr. Hampton said, “Mitrice’s appearance changed dramatically in a brief period of time.” She suddenly stopped straightening her hair, wearing an Afro, which some blacks might regard as more ethnic, but people who knew her said they almost didn’t recognize her.
Richardson was sending undecipherable text messages about nature and the universe, according to Hampton, and there were postings on social network sites she wouldn’t explain.
When told that Geoffrey’s staffers said Richardson told them she had no parents, Hampton said the young woman was very close to her mother.
Hampton is emphatic that there was ample information from the restaurant staff that indicated Richardson should have been held for professional psychiatric evaluation. She said the deputies missed that something was wrong with her.
One of the LASD’s critics put it more bluntly, “This was just some black woman from the inner city...nobody [in the sheriff’s department] could care less about her.”

Attorney for Mitrice Richardson's Family Says LASD 'Failed' Her

Board of Supervisors Reviews Sheriff’s Department Release Policies

• Action Spurred by Woman’s Disappearance Following Arrest at Malibu Restaurant and Release from Lost Hills Station

The Board of Supervisors by unanimous vote this week approved a request that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department review its procedures for releasing people arrested or detained after a 24-year-old Los Angeles woman mysteriously disappeared after being release alone, on foot and without funds from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station on Sept. 17 at 1:25 a.m.
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, whose district includes the neighborhood where Mitrice Richardson resided with her great-grandmother, made the motion for the review, which asks the LASD to report back to the board within 30 days.
The supervisor asked that the LASD report expressly address policies related to the release of arrestees or detainees “after normal business hours, who are alone, or without a visible means of transportation, or who may have disabilities or impairments and may pose a risk to themselves.”
Ridley-Thomas led the board action on Sept. 29 that resulted in the posting of a $10,000 reward for information leading to Richardson’s location.

Attorney for Mitrice Richardson’s Family Says LASD ‘Failed’ Her

• Plays Tapes on Air and Urges Public to Call Lost Hills Station and Restaurant to Complain

BY ANNE SOBLE

At a press conference last week on the steps of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Headquarters downtown and a subsequent four-hour radio broadcast, the Los Angeles civil rights attorney hired by the family of missing Mitrice Richardson said the woman and her family were “failed” by the agency charged with protecting her once she was taken into custody
The 24-year-old Richardson, an honors college graduate preparing to begin teaching and advanced studies, disappeared mysteriously after being released alone and on foot with no money from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station about 1:25 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17.
“There’s a reason it’s called Lost Hills,” attorney and radio personality Leo Terrell said, describing the isolated industrial park area that the young woman was escorted out into from the side gate of the station and has not been heard from since.
Richardson had been booked and released from Lost Hills after being placed under citizens arrest by personnel at Geoffrey’s restaurant in Malibu over an unpaid dinner bill of $89.51.
According to the tape of a telephone call made from Geoffrey’s that was obtained by Terrell, a woman tells Lost Hills that “a guest is refusing to pay her [bill], she sounds real crazy..like she’s on drugs....or something... come by and pick her up.”
The attorney and family members confirmed reports that when Richardson was at the restaurant, she was speaking gibberish to staff and patrons. She reportedly told people she was from Mars and was avenging Michael Jackson’s death.
The young woman’s mother, Latice Sutton, speaking at the two events, said, “My daughter was in a crisis state...she was calling out for help...” Sutton said Richardson’s recent change of appearance and peculiar behavior indicate possible mental issues that were allegedly ignored by responding deputies.
Terrell said the “clue in the phone call should have been the word crazy,” and instead of being taken to a jail cell, he said Richardson should have been written up as a “5150,” an involuntary psychiatric hold, and taken to a medical facility for observation.
During the radio broadcast, the attorney ripped into the restaurant‘s handling of the situation, especially Geoffrey’s refusal to allow Richardson’s great-grandmother to pay the tab over the telephone with a credit card, preferring to press a charge of defrauding an innkeeper.
Terrell told the program’s listeners, “Don’t go to Geoffrey’s any more.” He urged people to call the restaurant and voice their disapproval, which a check with the establishment indicated was indeed happening throughout the evening.
A staffer told the Malibu Surfside News that Geoffrey’s received “quite a few calls... many of which were angry...and verbally abusive.”
Terrell saved the brunt of his criticism for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and, to a lesser degree, the City of Los Angeles Police Department, saying, “There’s no question in my mind that there’s a tremendous cover-up going on here.”
He slammed sheriff’s deputies with open-ended charges of indifference, incompetence and misrepresentation, alleging that “records are falsified” to avoid responsibility for the role these “major players” had in the disappearance of Mitrice Richardson.
He hammered away at an LASD supplemental report that he describes as having questionable content that might have been contrived after the fact or to suit changed circumstances.
For its part, the LAPD, Terrell said, isn’t doing enough to find Richardson and still hasn’t traced her last phone calls yet. He chidingly asks, “Are [they] protecting the sheriff’s department?”
The attorney said he—and the media as well—encountered stonewalling in efforts to obtain copies of reports, tape transcripts and other materials from the sheriff’s department.
Terrell said that it wasn’t until Sheriff Leroy Baca intervened that the attorney was able to get copies of reports and copies of tapes of telephone calls related to the case. He said, “We had to fight to get these tapes.”
The attorney played the tapes several times during the four-hour broadcast last Thursday that was devoted to Richardson’s disappearance, repeatedly noting that the deputies were either being “ignorant...misinformed...or just not doing their job.”
Richardson’s mother has acknowledged that she should have headed directly to the Lost Hills Station when she was contacted by the great-grandmother, instead of thinking that she was being kept informed of what was happening with her daughter by making frequent telephone calls to the station.
The tapes of calls made by Sutton to Lost Hills are interpreted by Terrell to show the disconnect between the deputies and an increasingly concerned mother. The deputies, given the relative calm of Lost Hills compared to a bustling city station, appear unaware of what is going on at the facility and seem unwilling to exert themselves to get answers to the mother’s questions.
The first serious miscommunication was when a deputy assured Sutton, “You don’t have to worry about [your daughter’s] safety.” He told her that someone will “call you as soon as she comes in here.” No one ever phoned her.
Sutton then called again and was told that, after booking, Richardson might “be released in the morning,” but she didn’t know that morning might mean sometime after midnight.
Richardson was released on a cold night with no jacket, no money, and no form of transportation, in an area that was dark and desolate.
During the mother’s next call to Lost Hills, she learns that her daughter had been released several hours earlier, and she is worried. She asks about filing a missing person report, and is told it’s too soon to do so, which Terrell called a “classic example of negligence and stupidity” in that the deputy didn’t know the “proper procedures on this...and [he] should be fired.”
The deputy told Sutton that Richardson might have caught a nearby bus even though MTA Bus 161, which serves the surrounding area, does not run between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. Still he intones, “I don’t suspect that anything—ummmm—bad happened.”
Later that morning, around 6:30 a.m., a “prowler-in-a-backyard” call came in from an address in nearby Calabasas and the deputy that took that doesn’t come off much better. He sounds indifferent to a report of a woman matching Richardson’s description wandering about, although one might think that the deputies at the station would have been aware by that time that her whereabouts were unknown because of the mother’s concern. Terrell said no one followed up on this call for several hours.
Despite the barrage of criticism of the authorities, Terrell expressed appreciation to the residents of Malibu. Terrell said, “The people of Malibu, you’ve been outstanding, keep pressure on the [the authorities] to find Mitrice... People who were at Geoffrey’s, step forward and share what your remember.”
Anyone with information can go to www.findmatrice. info, or contact the attorney at 323-655-6909. There is a $10,000 reward for information leading to her location.
Meanwhile, field searches continue regularly on a random basis as concern mounts. The Santa Monica Mountains have swallowed up whole vehicles, and it has been several years before they were found.
Mitrice Richardson was a lone woman on foot at night in an area where she might be vulnerable to two-and four-footed predators.
No one seems to know where she is, and, as each day passes by, many wonder if they ever will.