Malibu Surfside News - News Alert

Malibu Election Central

2010-03-10T15:45:00.000-08:00

Four more Malibu City Council candidate forums will be held in March.

Thursday, March 11
The Point Dume Community Association is sponsoring a candidates forum from 6:30 to 8:45 p.m. at the Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School, 6955 Fernhill Drive. Residents are asked to submit questions for the candidates in advance of the meeting at www.pointdume.org.

Saturday, March 13
The Malibu Township Council is hosting a candidates forum at the Malibu Performing Arts Center on Stuart Ranch Road from 10 a.m. to noon. The candidates will be able to set up booths outside the location so voters can meet with them before and after the forum. The event will be recorded and replayed on local TV. FI: www. malibutownshipcouncil.org

Saturday, March 20
The Paradise Cove Association is sponsoring a candidates forum at 10:30 a.m. in the Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park recreation room.

Sunday, March 28
The Malibu Park Homeowners Association is hosting a candidates forum from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Malibu United Methodist Church, 30128 Morning View Drive.

Residents in Corral Fire Area Organize to Attend Court Date

2010-03-03T17:46:00.000-08:00

• Two Men Expected to Plead Guilty to Starting Malibu Wildfire on March 18

BY ANNE SOBLE

Motions to dismiss by the two men viewed as the most culpable in the starting of the Nov. 24, 2007 Corral Fire—William Thomas Coppock and Brian Alan Anderson—failed, and the pair are now scheduled to return to court on March 18.
The Operation Recovery group that formed after the disastrous Santa Ana wind-driven blaze that claimed 55 homes, is marshalling Corral Canyon residents to attend the hearing.
Operation Recovery coordinator Beverly Taki said the group is pleased with the court’s decision last week to rule against dismissing the two arson counts against the duo.
The third count, that the fire was started under a governor-declared state of emergency was dismissed because the original document lacked a necessary seal to be “official.”
Taki told her neighbors that their participation on March 18 is “imperative.”
She said she has been told the attorneys for the defendants have indicated that when the pair returns to court on March 18, they likely will plead guilty to both counts and be submitted to the court for sentencing.
Taki added, “Subsequent to that, the court will select a date for sentencing, and [at that time] it will finally be [the residents’] turn to address the court.”
Individuals going before the court usually prepare written statements that they then read to the judge.
Only a limited contingent of local residents attended last week’s hearing because OR was told to expect another continuance. Many of the local residents have attended numerous court sessions in Van Nuys that were continued.
According to a resident who went last week, “Judge [Susan] Speer determined Anderson and Coppock’s behavior that night to be reckless, based on the evidence presented at the preliminary hearings.”
As for the other two defendants, Eric Matthew Ullman and Dean Allen Lavorante, who had left upper Corral before the wildfire began, court observers expect them to end up with misdemeanor counts.
If Anderson and Coppock do plead guilty, Judge Speer is expected to send them to prison for 90 days and have them undergo psychiatric evaluation that might result in longer sentences or probation.
A fifth defendant, Brian David Franks, has already been convicted of starting the blaze as part of a plea bargain package that required him to testify against the other defendants.

Mitrice Richardson’s Family Members Hope to Get Some High-Tech Assistance in Search Effort

2010-02-24T15:09:00.000-08:00

• There’s No Letup in Their Effort to Keep the Missing Woman in the Public Eye

BY ANNE SOBLE

Family members of 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton honors graduate, Mitrice Richardson, who now has been missing for almost six months, are excited that new search efforts may be undertaken, but express frustration on other fronts related to the case of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station’s release of the woman who has not been seen since last Sept. 17.
The unusual specifics of Mitrice Richardson’s booking on two field-citable counts, the issue of her mental state, the impounding of her car with her purse and cell phone inside, her pre-dawn release and subsequent disappearance, and her family’s allegations that Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department personnel have evidence—including videotapes—that they are not releasing, are the subject of a series of weekly articles that have appeared in the Malibu Surfside News (www.malibusurfsidenews.com).
The missing woman’s mother, Latice Sutton, and other family members and friends are hopeful that approval soon will be granted for the next LASD—and City of Los Angeles Police Department, the lead agency in what is still a missing person case—search to be assisted by a drone from San Diego State University’s Immersive Visualization Center, the Viz Center. The drone is a small unmanned aircraft that takes high resolution video and photos.
According to Charles Croft, a videographer who has been working with the mother’s family, “the [Viz Center] drone has the capability of going down into canyons and can search better than any helicopter. It is not affected by winds as much and can fly extremely low to obtain very high resolution, close-up images and video.”
Croft said the drone, also known as a “bird.” has already been used in a number of missing person searches, and law enforcement “and the drone people are set to use the aircraft soon.” He added, “The drone has discovered people and [skeletal] remains in about seven different instances when large searches failed.”
FRUSTRATION
Sutton expresses frustration that there has been no effort yet to get a petition with over 5000 signatures to Washington, D.C, to try to involve the FBI and possibly the U.S. Department of Justice.
The missing woman’s mother said she is unable to get any information from Change.org, the Web group that hosted the petition drive. Sutton said, “A lot of people worked really hard to get the signatures, and they are asking why there has been no action in getting the petition to the FBI.”
PROGRAM
The Friends Group of Pasadena (The Pasadena Commission on the Status of Women) plans a public conference on March 17 at the Pasadena Public Library from 6 to 8 p.m. to discuss nighttime custody release policies.
Among the panelists are Ronda Hampton, the psychologist who was Richardson’s college mentor and a family friend; LASD’s chief of field operations for the region that includes Malibu, Neal Tyler; and Deputy Chief Attorney Benjamin Jones of the Office of Independent Review, which has yet to announce the results of its investigation of Lost Hills procedures in the Richardson case that Sheriff Lee Baca has publicly stated was handled “by the book.” For conference specifics, see www.thefriendsgroup.org
INFORMATION
For general information about Richardson and public search updates, see Latice Sutton’s website at www. findmitrice.info; the father Michael Richardson’s website at www.bring mitricehome.org; contact Dr. Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031; or LAPD Homicide Lt. Charles Knolls and LAPD Detective Steven Eguchi at 213-486-6900.

Mitrice Richardson Disappearance Prompts Public Policy Forum

2010-02-17T16:00:00.000-08:00

• Police Nighttime Custody Release Policies to Be Explored

BY ANNE SOBLE

Family members of the 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton honor graduate, Mitrice Richardson, who now has been missing for over five months, continue wrangling with the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department over information related to the Lost Hills Station’s release of the woman who has not been seen since the morning of Sept. 17.
The unusual specifics of Mitrice Richardson’s booking on two field-citable counts, the issue of her mental stability, her subsequent disappearance, and family allegations that LASD personnel know more than they are divulging, are the subject of over a dozen articles in the Malibu Surfside News (www. malibusurfsidenews.com).
Concern that a woman exhibiting signs of mental illness would be released at 12:35 a.m., alone and on foot from Lost Hills, with her purse and cell phone left in her impounded vehicle in Malibu, has begun generating public interest in whether there is a need to reassess current police guidelines for nighttime custodial releases.
A forum on this topic is being hosted by the Friends Group/Friends of the Pasadena Commission on the Status of Women on March 17. See the public notice on page 5 of this week’s issue for time, place and other specifics.
Among the panelists are Ronda Hampton, the psychologist who was Richardson’s college mentor and a family friend; LASD’s chief of field operations for the region that includes Malibu, Neal Tyler (Tyler was present when family members met with Sheriff Lee Baca); and Deputy Chief Attorney Benjamin Jones of the Office of Independent Review (the body with oversight on LASD practices], which has yet to rule on Lost Hills and the Richardson case that Sheriff Baca has publicly stated was handled “by the book.”

Rambla Pacifico Is Closed by Landslide

2010-02-10T16:36:00.000-08:00

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

Rambla Pacifico’s Fire Camp 8 is back in the news. This time it’s because the road to the fire department facility and residences in the area has collapsed due to a landslide.
“Rambla Pacifico is closed but Las Flores is open, and residents can still get through,” LACFD officials at Camp 8 confirmed.
Initial reports blame a broken water main for the collapse, but some residents allege an ambitious grading project on the property above the road might have contributed to the problem.
“The county gave a major grading permit right at the landslide,” one resident told the Malibu Surfside News. “The road is completely gone. I don’t see how [the county is] going to fix it.” The area with the slide is in unincorporated Malibu.
Some of the area’s residents stirred up a media maelstrom recently over a proposal to enlarge Camp 8 to temporarily house 80 inmate firefighters who were displaced when the Mount Gleason facility was destroyed in the Station Fire.
The resident outcry led to the proposal being removed from consideration. The inmate firefighters are slated to go to Camp Holston in Big Tujunga Canyon.
The Rambla Pacifico road collapse is currently under investigation. County engineers will be assessing the cause, the potential for recurrence and whether repairs are feasible.
The area has a long history of geologic instability, with major slides on Las Flores, Rambla Pacifico, Schueren, Tuna Canyon and Topanga Canyon roads in recent years.

Family Members of Mitrice Richardson Say Many Questions Remain Unanswered after Recent Meeting with Sheriff Baca

2010-02-03T15:32:00.000-08:00

• Lost Hills Station Undergoes Change of Command: Connection to the Missing Person Case Is Denied

BY ANNE SOBLE

The mother, aunt and college mentor of Mitrice Richardson, as well as a videographer who has been filming rallies and other events related to the case of the 24-year-old Watts woman who now has been missing for 20 weeks, recently met with Sheriff Lee Baca for an update.
Richardson’s mother, Latice Sutton; her aunt, Lauren Sutton; the psychologist who oversaw her college fieldwork, Ronda Hampton; and Los Angeles filmmaker Charles Croft met in Baca’s office three weeks ago for over an hour. All four said they have been grappling with their ongoing concerns before deciding to make them public.
Mitrice Richardson is the Cal State Fullerton honors graduate who medical experts now think was experiencing a mental breakdown when she began acting bizarrely and said she could not pay a Malibu dinner tab on Sept. 16.
Richardson’s family has been unequivocally critical of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s role and holds it responsible for their daughter’s well-being after she was transported to the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.
Public criticism has also increased of Lost Hills’ release of the young black woman at 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 17 into the isolated industrial area. Richardson was alone, on foot, inadequately attired for cold weather, and without money or her cell phone, which had been placed in her impounded car, according to deputies, at her request.
Richardson was booked on two misdemeanor counts after being placed under citizen’s arrest the evening of Sept. 16 by personnel at Geoffrey’s restaurant for the one count of not paying her $89.51 dinner check.
Family members have said they were told by Lost Hills that the restaurant’s manager insisted that the woman be taken to Lost Hills for booking.
In addition, Captain Tom Martin of Lost Hills previously told the Malibu Surfside News that restaurant staff also requested that Richardson’s car be towed from their lot.
Richardson’s odd speech and behavior were described by people at the restaurant as “crazy,” but at Lost Hills, LASD personnel said that she was lucid and they had no reason to detain her. The News’ requests to interview those who transported or booked her have all been denied.
The second count was for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana found when deputies searched her vehicle, allegedly with Richardson’s permission, before impounding it,.
The four participants in the Jan. 6 meeting, which was also attended by Martin and other LASD officials, including Steve Whitmore, the spokesperson for the department, brought a detailed list of questions with them, which they say were either answered only in part, or not at all.
UNDISCLOSED TAPES
Of major significance at the meeting, the four learned from what they all described as a “red-faced” Captain Martin that he was not forthright about there not being “any videotapes” of the missing woman at Lost Hills, and his previous assertions that there are only live-feed cameras at Lost Hills were inaccurate.
Martin told Baca that he has tapes “in his desk” of Richardson in the “booking cage” and other video/audio, some of which may be from the restaurant.
Croft said they were told that the tapes could not be made available to them until the tapes have been edited “to protect” other people. He said Martin did not clarify whether this is because of the presence of other inmates (which it is believed there were none at the time), or because of the civilian jailer who processed Richardson. The jailer, Sharon Cummings, declined a request by The News to be interviewed or to provide a photograph.
LOST HILLS CHANGE
It was at this point in the meeting that Baca announced that Captain Tom Martin is being promoted to commander and will be replaced by an aide to Undersheriff Larry Waldie, Lt. Joseph H. Stephen Jr., who is being promoted to captain. LASD spokesperson Whitmore told The News this week that the change is “imminent.”
Stephen will be the first black officer to head the Lost Hills operation. When asked if the change was related in any way to the Mitrice Richardson case, Whitmore said, “This is a rotation of promotions [that has been] in the works for some time.”

UPDATE
Latice Sutton indicated that Sheriff Baca told the family “to face the fact your daughter is not with you,” and added, “She has gone to a better place.” The mother and aunt both said they question the appropriateness of the comments, but Whitmore said the sheriff’s words “were an expression of the sheriff’s compassion for the family.”
All four are adamant that during the meeting, Baca said, “She should never have been released with no means.” Whitmore said his recollections are different from those being expressed, but he said he could not elaborate further because family members have filed a legal claim that is expected to lead to a lawsuit. Whitmore said he can no longer comment specifically on aspects of the case that may be litigated.
The four participants also quote Baca as saying, “When you think about it, it’s the jailer’s fault [Richardson] was let go.” However, Whitmore said that isn’t what he recalls being said.
When asked if the arresting officers are going to be investigated, Baca is quoted by the four as saying “so much time has passed,” and it could be “uncomfortable and embarrassing” for them. The mother is also asking for staff time cards, shift change information and other documentation.
The three women said they perceived the session as marked by “insensitivity,” in that the mother and aunt think department officials were confused about who each of them is. Sutton said it was so obvious that she told them, “I get the impression that you don’t know my name.”
The family members said the meeting with Baca confirmed why it is “so critical to convince U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to initiate a federal investigation,” which is what the family has demanded from the beginning.
UPCOMING
Because Richardson, a beauty contest finalist, was planning to compete in the upcoming Miss Fullerton Pageant, she is going to be honored at that event on Feb. 6.
The Friends Group of Pasadena plans a conference on March 17, what will be the six-month anniversary of Richardson’s disappearance if she is not found, to discuss nighttime custody release policies. Hampton will be on the panel. A representative of the LASD may take part.
For more information, see Latice Sutton’s website at www.findmitrice.info, the father Michael Richardson’s site at www.bring mitricehome.org, or contact Dr. Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Homicide Lt. Charles Knolls or Detective Steven Eguchi at 213-486-6900. The LAPD is the lead agency on the missing person case.

Mitrice Richardson’s Family Steps Up Efforts to Involve the FBI

2010-01-27T19:40:00.000-08:00

• Congressmember Maxine Waters Cites Missing Woman’s Case in Call for New Legislation

BY ANNE SOBLE

The family of Mitrice Richardson, the 24-year-old woman who has now been missing for 19 weeks, is stepping up its call for federal involvement in her mysterious disappearance.
Michael Richardson and Latice Sutton are the parents of the Cal State Fullerton honors graduate who medical experts now think was experiencing a mental breakdown when she began acting bizarrely and said she could not pay a Malibu dinner tab on Sept. 16.
The mother and father may have different opinions about the direction and timing of legal action over the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s treatment of the young woman, but they are united in their criticism of the agency that they hold responsible for their daughter’s well-being after she was transported to the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.
The parents and a growing chorus of voices in government and the media question the Lost Hills release of the slight young woman at 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 17. Mitrice Richardson was alone, on foot, poorly clad for the cold temperature, and without money or her cell phone, in a dark and isolated area.
Both parents have repeatedly stated that they think that deputies at the station know more than has been disclosed and station officials are suppressing information and evidence that would shed light on what happened to their daughter.
Michael Richardson stated this week that he is preparing to go to Washington, DC, to personally request that the FBI investigate the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.
He said, “For some reason, people think that we are requesting for the FBI only to get involved in the search [now being directed by the Los Angeles Police Department]. That is not true. There is a cover-up throughout the Lost Hills Station, and I want it unfolded. People [who know things] are scared and don’t want to come forward.”
Richardson stressed, “I’m trying to be patient because we are so close to finding out without [Lost Hills’] tapes and cooperation. With the 5300 signatures we have on a petition, I will go to the steps of the FBI offices and ask for the following if the officers involved do not step forward: the entire station should be dismantled, pending a major federal investigation.”
The missing woman’s father added, “Those who know something are just as guilty. I also will be seeking a new law; Law enforcement [officials] of any kind who break the law should receive double the penalty. I will look at law enforcement personnel abuse cases. I will provide stats on rape and assault cases that have happened in Malibu this year alone.”
Richardson said, “I was trying to wait, but I have to go with what I have because so many people have been turned off by the filing of the negligence claim.”
RICHARDSON PUT ON FBI LIST
On another front, noted Los Angeles civic activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson recently announced that the FBI has officially listed Mitrice Richardson in its National Crime Information Center Missing Persons file. Pending analysis of DNA provided by her mother, Mitrice Richardson is eligible to be listed in its Violent Criminal Apprehension Program and its National Missing Person DNA Database.
Hutchinson has appealed to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to become involved in the case.
WATERS CALLS FOR NEW LAW
In other Washington news, Congressmember Maxine Waters, who represents Watts, Mitrice Richardson’s district, has co-sponsored the Help Find the Missing Act (H.R. 3695), which would assist in identifying missing people and solving cases involving those who are missing. The legislation directs the U.S. Attorney General to share information on missing persons and unidentified human remains in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) Missing and Unidentified Person File database with the NamUs database. It also establishes funding for this effort.
In her statement Tuesday at the hearing that the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security held on the bill, Waters said, “Last September, a young woman from my district named Mitrice Richardson went missing under questionable circumstances...I believe the local authorities could have done more, earlier in the process, to assist [her] family...Only after months of television appearances, mass mailings, and petitions organized by [her] family and friends did [agencies] begin to devote the necessary resources to find her...Our constituents believe local law enforcement should have the necessary training and resources to investigate and find their missing relatives.”
Waters added, “The legislation would require the Department of Justice to issue a report to law enforcement agencies, coroners, and medical examiners concerning best practices for collecting and reporting information about missing and unidentified persons. While the FBI does not typically investigate all cases involving missing adults, it can certainly do more to provide our local and state authorities with vital tools and information so that they can be more helpful and effective in their investigations.”
Meanwhile, Michael Richardson said he has asked “my attorney to withdraw my claim filing against the county. I have enough on my plate now...trying to recruit people to help me find my child.”

Mitrice Richardson’s Father Challenges Attorney’s Negligence Claims Filed against Los Angeles County

2010-01-20T16:49:00.000-08:00

• Charges and Countercharges Could Have Impact on Case of Woman Missing for Over Four Months

BY ANNE SOBLE

What is already acknowledged as a terrible tragedy, in that a young woman was arrested on two otherwise citable misdemeanor counts, transported to the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station on Sept. 16, ostensibly released at 12:30 a.m. the next day, and now has been missing for over four months, has taken on a new dimension as her separated parents and the attorney who seemingly represented them pro bono are engaged in a heated public dispute.
Latice Sutton and Michael Richardson are the parents of 24-year-old Mitrice Richardson, the Cal State Fullerton honors graduate who medical experts think may have been experiencing a bout of severe mental illness when she engaged in what was described as totally unusual behavior for her, which included acting bizarrely and not paying an $89.51 dinner tab at Geoffrey’s restaurant in Malibu.
The parents, who never married, have for the most part presented a united front when claiming that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department acted negligently in allowing the young woman to leave the Lost Hills Station alone, on foot (her vehicle was impounded in Malibu), poorly attired for cold weather and without money or her cell phone, which was kept by the LASD for as yet undisclosed reasons.
This front appeared to have broken down when civil rights attorney Leo Terrell, who has repeatedly appeared with both parents at rallies and press conferences, indicated that he filed separate claim papers for the mother and father on Jan. 6, the first step in a possible lawsuit against Los Angeles County for negligence. The form names nine sheriff’s deputies, as well as “all persons” who had contact with Mitrice Richardson during any stage of her arrest, booking or release process. No sum for damages is indicated in the paperwork.
When the filing became public in the media and was described as a family claim, Michael Richardson sent out emails and put a post on his blog saying that this information is incorrect.
Michael Richardson’s post states that he “has not filed a claim” and adds, “Leo Terrell has not been retained by Michael Richardson, does not represent Michael Richardson and never has represented Michael Richardson.”
In a subsequent email to the Malibu Surfside News, Michael Richardson said, “Add that the father is appalled that an attorney would do something like this in this day and age. I can’t believe that people are still doing [Mitrice Richardson] wrong even with her being missing. This was ugly and tacky, and it has turned a lot of people off from wanting to continue with the search and [following up on] what the sheriff’s [deputies] did to her that night.”
The father said filing the claim encourages those people who “believe I am just another black person they can throw some money at to buy some gold and a Cadillac and I will be happy. This time I want justice and to find my daughter at this time. I still need those who believe as I do, that Mitrice Richardson still can be found.”
Leo Terrell on Tuesday responded that if Richardson does not remove these comments from his blog and “if he doesn’t retract his statements, I will take legal action.” Terrell said he served as the father’s attorney until Jan. 14 and is so described on the man’s website, in numerous broadcast interviews, including Terrell’s own radio program, in communications with the county, and countless other contexts. He noted that after that date, Richardson retained separate counsel, Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris and Hoffman, with whom Terrell is in contact and has told, “I will sue him for slander if he continues this.”
Terrell said he filed the paperwork for separate claims for each parent. He said Michael Richardson has been asking him to file for months. “Even now, when I asked Richardson if he wants his claim withdrawn, he said no.”
Terrell said Michael Richardson was largely out of his daughter’s life for about 10 years until she was 13. The father counters that the pair are now close, he is the one who emphasizes that she is alive and he has overseen the effort to get federal involvement in the search for her. The father said he prefers to act on his own rather than work with other family members. which he added may have ruffled feathers.
Terrell stressed that no one should interpret the filing to be an indication that anyone believes that Mitrice Richardson is dead. He said the timing of the filing was necessary to protect family members’ legal rights to seek redress.
Both the LASD and the Los Angeles Police Department—the lead agency in what is still a missing person case—previously stated that peripheral family issues do not impact the agencies’ determination to find the missing woman.
Terrell expressed concern that the public dispute over the claim filing could impact public interest in the missing woman’s case. If any consensus remains, it is that everyone wants Mitrice Richardson to be found soon, so she can take whatever legal action she wants to take on her own behalf.

Family Is Told FBI Will Not Join Mitrice Richardson Investigation: Major Field Search Yields No Clues to Missing Woman’s Whereabouts

2010-01-13T16:39:00.000-08:00

• Family Expresses Appreciation for Saturday’s Effort But Still Holds LASD’s Feet to the Fire

BY ANNE SOBLE

Over 300 members of highly trained and well-equipped search and rescue crews from Los Angeles County and other Southland communities combed an 18-square-mile area of rugged terrain in Malibu Canyon last Saturday and found no new clues to the whereabouts of 24-year-old Mitrice Richardson, who has been missing since Sept. 17.
The 10-hour search, coordinated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Police Department, included teams on foot, horseback. mountain bikes and all-terrain vehicles. The LASD Rescue 5 helicopter transported crew members into what would otherwise be inaccessible terrain.
Family members gathered at the search command post, including Richardson’s parents, Latice Sutton and Michael Richardson. They thanked the agencies and volunteers for their efforts, even as they continue to hold the LASD responsible for their daughter’s disappearance.
Mitrice Richardson, a Cal State Fullerton honors graduate preparing to begin substitute teaching and start graduate work in clinical psychology, mysteriously vanished after reportedly walking out of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station at 12:25 a.m. on Sept. 17, 40 miles from her home. She was alone, inadequately attired for cold weather, and without money, cell phone or means of transportation.
Richardson had been booked at Lost Hills on two misdemeanor counts after being placed under citizen’s arrest the evening of Sept. 16 by personnel at Geoffrey’s restaurant for one of the counts—not paying an $89.51 dinner tab.
Richardson’s father says he “was told by Lost Hills that the restaurant’s manager insisted that she be taken in for booking.”
The young woman’s speech and behavior were described by people at the restaurant as “crazy,” but at Lost Hills, LASD personnel said she was lucid and they had no cause to detain her.
The second count was for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana that was reportedly found when deputies searched the woman’s car, which was then impounded, even though both of the charged allegations are usually field citations.
Journal entries found in that vehicle during a subsequent search have been interpreted by mental health professionals to show Richardson may have experienced days of sleep deprivation and was exhibiting signs of mental illness, possibly bipolar disorder.
Michael Richardson is also asserting that he has since determined that his daughter’s vehicle was experiencing mechanical problems, which might explain her being in Malibu when she was.
He told the Malibu Surfside News that the mechanical issue “makes those sheriff’s deputies and the Geoffrey’s manager liars.” He indicated that he will soon make “more information about the car and what it might mean public.”
FBI DENIES REQUEST
Richardson’s father also told The News this week that Sheriff Lee Baca informed him on Tuesday that the FBI has denied a request to become involved in the investigation.
Family members have been adamant that the FBI must be brought into the investigation—currently under the direction of the LAPD because Richardson is a Los Angeles resident—as it has not addressed numerous inconsistencies in official statements.
Michael Richardson said, “The FBI is the only agency that can investigate all 20 of the inconsistencies and suspicions “[connected with LASD spokesperson] Steve Whitmore, [Lost Hills Sheriff’s] Captain Tom Martin and the officers on duty the night of Mitrice’s disappearance.”
Congressmember Maxine Waters, in whose district the woman resides, had asked the FBI to look into the circumstances of her arrest, as well as the handling of her booking and release from LASD custody.
The father said he now wants “a federal grand jury, where individuals can go to jail for perjury and possibly lose their pensions and careers. Only then, will people start talking.”
LASD CRITICISM
Michael Richardson paraphrased the LASD stance as one of, “Just keep your mouth shut, they don’t have anything. The father is just shooting off at the mouth. We can fix this as long as no one breaks under pressure.”
The missing woman’s father maintains, “People are just hoping I go away, but Sheriff Baca is not going to save these people. They’re going to jail. It’s taking longer because Sheriff Baca would rather put on the show he did Saturday, than have it hit the air waves that his precious deputies did something wrong to Mitrice Richardson.”
The missing woman’s official LAPD description is “African-American with brown hair and hazel eyes. Five-feet-five to five-feet-six inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds.” She was last seen wearing a Bob Marley dark T-shirt and blue jeans.
For more information, see Latice Sutton’s website at www.findmitrice.info, Michael Richardson’s site at www. bringmitricehome.org, or contact Dr. Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Homicide Lieut. Charles Knolls or Detective Steven Eguchi at 213-486-6900.

LAPD and LASD Plan Major Field Search This Saturday for Mitrice Richardson

2010-01-06T16:26:00.000-08:00

• Joint Forces to Comb Large Expanse in Area Where Woman Went MIssing

BY ANNE SOBLE

The County of Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and the City of Los Angeles Police Department will join forces for a major field search of the greater Lost Hills/Malibu Canyon area on the morning of Saturday, Jan. 9, for the Watts woman who disappeared after being released from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station on Sept. 17.
LAPD Detective Steven Eguchi told the Malibu Surfside News on Tuesday that representatives of the two agencies met last week to set the date and specifics for the search, which will include county search and rescue crews who took part in the massive effort undertaken two weeks after Mitrice Richardson went missing.
Richardson, who was preparing to begin substitute teaching and doctoral work in clinical psychology, mysteriously vanished after reportedly walking out of the Lost Hills station at 12:25 a.m. on Sept. 17, 40 miles from her home. She was alone, inadequately attired for cold weather, and without money, cell phone or means of transportation.
The 24-year-old had been booked on two misdemeanor counts after being placed under citizen’s arrest the evening of Sept. 16 by personnel at Geoffrey’s restaurant for not paying an $89.51 dinner tab. Her speech and behavior were described as “crazy” by people in the restaurant, but when she was taken to Lost Hills, sheriff’s personnel said she was lucid and they had no cause to detain her.
In November, writings found in the woman’s car, which was impounded at the time of her arrest, were interpreted by health professionals as documentation of up to a week of sleep deprivation and possible signs of serious mental illness.
Representative Maxine Waters, who is the Congress member for Richardson’s district, has asked the FBI to initiate an investigation into her disappearance and the circumstances of her arrest and subsequent handlingof her booking and release from LASD custody.
FBI Director Robert Mueller has not yet replied to Water’s request, so bureau personnel are currently not expected to take part in the upcoming search.
An online justice activist group—Change.org located at www.change.org—has collected 4439 signatures toward a goal of 5000 signatures on a petition urging federal investigation of Richardson’s disappearance.
Richardson is described on the LAPD blog as an “African-American with brown hair and hazel eyes. Five-feet-five to five-feet-six inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds. She was last seen wearing a dark shirt and blue jeans.”
For more information, see www.findmitrice.info or contact Dr. Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Detectives Charles Knolls or Steven Eguchi at 213-486-6900.

Week 15: No Response Yet on Request that FBI Get Involved in Search for Mitrice Richardson Who Disappeared in Mid-September

2009-12-30T15:52:00.000-08:00

• Petition to Have Federal Government Join Current Missing Person Investigation Team Nears 5000 Signatures

BY ANNE SOBLE

It’s not overstatement to describe Washington, DC as a ghost town between late December and the first week of the new year, so it is not too surprising that there is no formal reply yet to the request by Representative Maxine Waters that the FBI become involved in the case of the 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton honors graduate who reportedly departed from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station before dawn on Sept. 17 and has been missing for 15 weeks.
Representative Waters has asked the FBI to initiate an investigation into the disappearance of the young black woman, Mitrice Richardson, and the circumstances of her Malibu arrest and subsequent booking and release from Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department custody.
In a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller two weeks ago, Waters said, “Based on reports I have read, there are questions as to whether the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station acted properly in releasing this young woman during the predawn hours without money or transportation, all while she was suffering from what the Los Angeles Police Department’s doctors have concluded to be bipolar disorder.” The LAPD is the lead agency in the search because Richardson is a Los Angeles resident.
Waters, a Democrat, represents the 35th Congressional District, which includes the South Los Angeles area where Richardson lives with her great-grandmother. Richardson, who was preparing to begin substitute teaching and planned to work on a doctorate in clinical psychology, mysteriously vanished after walking out of the Lost Hills Station, located 40 miles from her home, alone, inadequately attired for cold weather, and without money, cell phone or means of transportation at 12:25 a.m. on Sept. 17.
Richardson had been booked on two misdemeanor counts after being placed under citizen’s arrest several hours earlier by personnel at Geoffrey’s restaurant for not paying an $89.51 dinner tab. Her speech and behavior were described as strange by people in the restaurant, but when she was taken to Lost Hills, sheriff’s personnel there determined that she was lucid and there were no grounds to detain her.
However, last month, journal entries found in the woman’s car, which was impounded at time of her arrest—a questionable procedure in its own right—were interpreted by professionals as indicative of extreme fatigue (up to a week of possible sleep deprivation) and other signs of mental stress.
Waters, a member of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, which is responsible for oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, added extra clout to her message when she said she is “concerned about the failure of the FBI Los Angeles Regional Office to investigate the circumstances surrounding Mitrice’s disappearance.”
Waters added that “the FBI has the responsibility to pursue cases implicating federal criminal or civil rights statutes [and] I believe the circumstances and facts of this case warrant bureau involvement.”
She reiterates the request “that the FBI open an investigation into Mitrice’s disappearance and the circumstances surrounding her arrest, detention and release from the custody of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.”
FEDERAL PETITION
Bolstering Waters’ request for FBI intervention are the efforts of an online activist group whose concerns include social, economic and criminal justice. Change.org has collected 4277 signatures toward a goal of 5000 signatures on a petition urging state and federal elected and appointed officials to initiate a federal investigation of the Richardson case.
In addition to the effort to “help find Richardson,” the group wants “to ensure that this does not happen to additional persons.” The petition is at the group’s website: www.change.org
JANUARY SEARCH
LAPD Detective Charles Knolls indicated that law enforcement agencies are “planning a search for additional clues in January” in the Malibu/Lost Hills area. He said, “We’re coordinating the search with the Lost Hills Search and Rescue teams and their volunteer resources. The exact date has not been set.”
Richardson is described on the LAPD blog as an “African-American with brown hair and hazel eyes. The 24-year-old is five-feet-five to five-feet-six inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds. She was last seen wearing a dark shirt and blue jeans.”
For more information about the case and search activities, check the website at www.findmitrice.info or contact Dr. Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Detectives Charles Knolls or Steven Eguchi at their new office telephone number 213-486-6900.

Member of Congress Asks FBI Director for Help in Search for Mitrice Richardson Who Disappeared after Release from Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station in Sept

2009-12-23T16:25:00.000-08:00

• Representative Maxine Waters Questions LASD Procedures Regarding 24-Year-Old College Honors Graduate

BY ANNE SOBLE

Responding to what she describes as an inundation of constituent communications asking for her support, Congressmember Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) has asked the FBI to look into the disappearance of Mitrice Richardson and the circumstances of her Malibu arrest and subsequent booking and release from Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.
Waters represents the South Los Angeles area where Richardson lives with her great-grandmother, Mildred Hughes, 92, the matriarch of a strong, close-knit family that has been devastated by not having heard from the 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton honors graduate for the last 14 weeks.
Richardson, who was preparing to begin substitute teaching and planned to work on a doctorate in clinical psychology, mysteriously vanished after reportedly walking out of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, located 40 miles from her home, alone, without a jacket, money, her cell phone or a means of transportation at 12:25 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17.
Richardson had been booked on two misdemeanor counts after being placed under citizen’s arrest by staffers at Geoffrey’s restaurant for not paying her $89.51 dinner tab several hours earlier. Her speech and behavior were described as strange by people in the restaurant who expressed concern for her safety, but when she was taken to Lost Hills, sheriff’s personnel pronounced her lucid and competent to be released.
Journals and other writings found in the woman’s vehicle, which was impounded at time of her arrest, indicate troubling mental issues.
In a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller last week, Representative Waters said, “Based on reports I have read, there are questions as to whether the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station acted properly in releasing this young woman during the predawn hours without money or transportation, all while she was suffering from what the Los Angeles Police Department’s doctors have concluded to be bipolar disorder.”
Waters represents the 35th Congressional District, and serves on the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, which is responsible for oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Adding in that context, “I am also concerned about the failure of the FBI Los Angeles Regional Office to investigate the circumstances surrounding Mitrice’s disappearance.”
Waters noted that “the FBI has the responsibility to pursue cases implicating federal criminal or civil rights statutes [and] I believe the circumstances and facts of this case warrant bureau involvement.
“Therefore, it is with great urgency that I respectfully request that the FBI open an investigation into Mitrice’s disappearance and the circumstances surrounding her arrest, detention and release from the custody of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.”
JANUARY SEARCH
When Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca upgraded the Richardson investigation to a homicide case to increase resources last week, it raised concerns—even among her family—that it could mean that the woman is now believed to be dead.
LASD protestations that there is no evidence to indicate this have not allayed concerns. That the Los Angeles Police Department is planning another major search in the Malibu/Lost Hills area is also fueling somber thoughts.
Some family members ask whether the LAPD, the lead agency on the case because Richardson is a Los Angeles resident, is conducting—in emergency parlance—a recovery exercise versus a rescue one.
However, LAPD Detective Charles Knolls said, “We’re planning a search for additional clues in January.” He said, “We’re coordinating the search with the Lost Hills Search and Rescue teams and their volunteer resources. The exact date has not been set.”
Richardson is described on the LAPD blog as an “African-American with brown hair and hazel eyes. The 24-year-old is five-feet-five to five-feet-six inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds. She was last seen wearing a dark shirt and blue jeans.”
For more information about the case and search activities, check the website at www.findmitrice.info or contact Dr. Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Detectives Charles Knolls or Steven Eguchi at their new office telephone number 213-486-6900.

Sheriff Upgrades Mitrice Richardson Case to Homicide Investigation as Agency Spokesperson Stresses that the Move Doesn’t Mean Missing Woman Is Dead

2009-12-16T15:05:00.000-08:00

• Mother Criticizes Not Being Told of Sheriff’s Action in Advance and Interprets It to Mean that Her Daughter Is No Longer Alive

BY ANNE SOBLE

On Monday, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca ordered the sheriff’s department to upgrade its efforts in the investigation into the disappearance of Mitrice Richardson to a homicide case, at the same time that department spokespersons stress that they do not believe that the young woman who has been missing for 13 weeks is dead.
Steve Whitmore, the chief media representative for the LASD, told the Malibu Surfside News that “it cannot be emphasized enough that this move is all about expanding resources, not any supposition that Richardson is dead.”
He said Baca’s action authorizes a three-member sheriff’s homicide team to concurrently work with the Los Angeles Police Department’s own homicide division team in the search for the 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton honors graduate who mysteriously vanished after reportedly walking out of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, located 40 miles from her home, without a jacket, money, cell phone or means of transportation at 12:25 a.m. on Sept. 17.
Richardson had been booked on two field citable misdemeanor counts after being placed under citizen’s arrest by staffers at Geoffrey’s restaurant for allegedly not paying her $89.51 dinner tab. Sheriff’s deputies who searched her car added a second allegation of possession of less than an ounce of marijuana. Bizarre speech and behavior was attributed to her by people in the restaurant, but in subsequent contact with LASD personnel, Richardson was described as lucid and personable.
Whitmore said Baca took the action on Monday after having met last week with the woman’s father Michael Richardson. Mitrice Richardson’s mother, Latice Sutton, who raised her daughter and with whose grandmother the missing woman resided while working full-time and preparing to go to graduate school, was not invited to the meeting. The missing woman’s parents, who were not married and who separated when she was a child, have been directing parallel search efforts, with the mother focusing more intently on field searches.
In a prepared statement received by the Malibu Surfside News just before press time Tuesday night, Sutton said, “I find it most unfortunate that I had to learn that the sheriff’s department was opening up a homicide investigation from a newspaper report.”
Sutton asked that her written comments be used in entirety because she says she is “deeply perplexed about the handling of my daughter’s investigation, with the most perplexing issue being that all of the investigators involved are now turning their attention to the fact that there was a mental crisis. I told them that from day one.”
It was the mother and the woman’s college academic mentor, psychologist Ronda Hampton, who stressed the possibility of sudden mental illness from the beginning, even as other family members downplayed it and the sheriff department’s assessment of her coherence when she was being booked at Lost Hills was accepted as prima facie evidence of lack of mental distress.
Mitrice Richardson’s journals and other writings that were subsequently found in her impounded vehicle have since been examined by mental health professionals, and officials now think it is possible that she might have been living in her car for up to a week before the Geoffrey’s incident and lapsing in and out of bipolar illness.
Learning of the change in official attitude about Richardson’s mental state, Sutton said, “I can’t help but question the fact that if the authorities were not so dismissive of my pleas to do a foot search to find her because she’s in a mental crisis, that would have made the difference between life and death.
“Further, I am absolutely appalled that neither the LASD, nor the LAPD, would not contact me to tell me the new scope of their investigation, especially considering the fact that I filed the missing person case, not to mention that’s my baby. One would think ‘I’ would be privy to such information before releasing it to anyone, let alone the general public. In addition, how insulting to me, and the public that Sheriff Lee Baca and the LASD serve, to make such a flip statement that ‘he has declared it a homicide investigation, but that does not mean the sheriff believes Ms. Richardson is dead.’ Of course they believe she’s dead. Surely the LASD does not have such excess funds to spend on an investigation that has no merit or evidence just for the ‘heck-of-it?’”
Sutton noted that she met with the lead Los Angeles Police Department detectives on the case last Monday and they did not mention any pending LASD action.
At that time, Sutton said she provided a DNA sample for possible identification use as requested by the LAPD. The father has also been asked to provide a DNA sample. His only public comment on the request is located on his separate website where he has written, “Haven’t we learned anything from Mark Fuhrman?”
Meanwhile, Sutton continues to ask why “the FBI hasn’t been invited to assist in the search for my baby, like in the case of the Virginia woman who went missing after a concert?”
Sutton said, “I cannot express how devastated I am, and the magnitude of the loss I feel. As I reflect upon all the love, joy, and brightness my baby exuded, the milestones my baby reached, and what she was on track to accomplish, to know that because of the absence of ‘prudence, and safety,’ I am left to grieve for my baby in the most unimaginable, unsettling way. I am left with a hole in my heart, spirit, and soul that cannot be repaired, or healed.”
When asked why the mother was not included in the meeting with Sheriff Baca, Whitmore said the father was the person who had asked for the meeting and no other family members took part. He said the new LASD investigators will be contacting Sutton.
For more information about the case and ongoing field searches, contact the family website at www.findmitrice.info, Dr. Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Detectives Steven Eguchi or Chuck Knolls at their new office telephone number 213-486-6900.

Week 12: Mitrice Richardson’s Family Turns to Member of Congress for Assistance

2009-12-09T15:42:00.001-08:00

• LAPD Reports No Progress in Its Search for Missing 24-Year-Old Woman

BY ANNE SOBLE

According to this week’s update from the Los Angeles Police Department detectives in charge of the missing person investigation of the young woman arrested in Malibu on Sept. 16 who has not been seen or heard from for 12 weeks, “She is still missing and her whereabouts are still unknown.”
Detective Steven Eguchi told the Malibu Surfside News, the increasingly high profile case “is still actively being investigated where we follow up on every clue or sighting we receive.”
Among current actions by the LAPD are requests that both parents of Mitrice Richardson provide DNA sampling to the Department of Justice. Eguchi said, “This is standard operating procedure. It is not out of the ordinary” in cases involving missing progeny.
The LAPD still indicates it does not think the Richardson case specifics warrant bringing in the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist with the search.
Because the $10,000 reward posted by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will expire on Dec. 28, Eguchi said, “I just requested that the reward be renewed and continue until there is a final outcome on this case.”
He asked The News to “please keep this in print as much as possible, in hopes of generating information that could assist us in locating Mitrice Richardson.”
The LAPD’s Robbery and Homicide Division is the lead investigative agency on the case because the employed Cal State Fullerton honors graduate lived in Los Angeles with her 92-year-old great-grandmother.
Meanwhile, the missing woman’s family is focusing its attention on Richardson’s Congressional representative, Congressmember Maxine Waters, and asking that Waters help initiate federal involvement in the case.
Emails sent to Waters’ communications director are still pending, but office staff indicate that the representative has received requests for assistance with the case that began with Richardson’s arrest in Malibu and her pre-dawn release from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station on foot, without money or a cell phone, 40 miles from her home.
The family continues to try to keep Richardson’s name before the public, telling the now familiar story of her booking on two misdemeanor charges by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and its questionable release procedures on cable TV shows and in magazines and newspapers.
Richardson is described on the LAPD blog as “African-American with brown hair and hazel eyes. The 24-year-old is five-feet-five to five-feet-six inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds. She was last seen wearing a dark shirt and blue jeans.”
Information related to the case can be communicated to the family website at www.findmitrice. info, Dr. Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Detectives Steven Eguchi or Chuck Knolls at 213-485-2531.

Week 11: Still No Word on Whereabouts of Mitrice Richardson

2009-12-02T16:07:00.000-08:00

• Family Seeks Federal Investigation into 24-Year-Old’s Disappearance

BY ANNE SOBLE

The days are solemnly noted by her family as another page on the calendar has turned since Mitrice Richardson disappeared following her pre-dawn release from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station on Sept. 17, the day after the 24-year-old was booked on two misdemeanor counts—an unpaid dinner tab of $89.51 and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.
Richardson was not dressed for cold nighttime temperatures. She had no money; the sheriff’s department kept her cell phone; and her car had been impounded. She reportedly was traveling on foot in the dark and desolate industrial area bordering on wilderness parklands.
That an honors college graduate from a close-knit family has not been heard from in 77 days, has not accessed her substantial bank account funds or used her credit cards, does not presume foul play, according to both the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Police Department, the lead agency in the search because Richardson resided in Los Angeles with her great-grandmother.
The family wants the FBI called in, but the LAPD says there is insufficient cause for federal involvement. The online activist group—www. change.org—is gathering signatures on a petition urging state and federal officials to initiate a federal investigation.
The mounting cost of the family conducting its own field searches and private information dissemination campaign has prompted the setup of the Mitrice L. Richardson fund at the family’s original website (www.findmitrice.info).
The website says “contributions will be used to cover various costs such as printing and production of materials, search initiatives and advertisements associated in the search for Mitrice.”
Donations can be made to the Mitrice L. Richardson Fund (253455337191) at any U.S. bank, or checks sent to: Mitrice L. Richardson Fund; 23441 Golden Springs Dr. #115; Diamond Bar, Ca 917666. Credit card instructions are on the website.
Information related to the case should be relayed to www.findmitrice.info, Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Detectives Steve Eguchi or Chuck Knolls at 213-485-2531.

Thanksgiving Greetings

2009-11-25T16:14:00.000-08:00

A Safe and Happy Thanksgiving Holiday to All from the
Malibu Surfside News

Questions Continue: Little Is Known about the Last Hour Spent in Custody by Mitrice Richardson

2009-11-18T16:21:00.000-08:00

• Lost Hills Jailer Who May Have Been Her Final Contact Declines Local Press Interview

BY ANNE SOBLE

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s chief spokesperson and other LASD officials ask, “What does the family’s criticism [of us] do to help find Mitrice Richardson?” But the drumbeat of criticism grows louder and more specific as there has been no word from the 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton honors graduate in nine weeks.
Given a powerful push by Richardson’s photo appearing on the cover of People magazine and an intensive drive in the politically active gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, the saga of the young woman who was “acting crazy” in Geoffrey’s restaurant on Sept. 16 and allegedly unable to pay a dinner bill of $89.51 at the establishment despite having several thousand dollars in a bank account is achieving national status.
The GLBT community has expressed concern that the young African-American woman preparing to become a teacher and begin doctoral studies in psychology may have encountered not only race and gender bias, but also sexual identity issues because she is a lesbian.
Geoffrey’s manager performed a citizen’s arrest and signed paperwork requiring the remanding of Richardson to custody for transport to the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station where she was booked on two misdemeanor counts—defrauding an innkeeper and possession in her vehicle of less than an ounce of marijuana (normally a field citation).
Richardson was then ostensibly released alone after midnight on Sept. 17 without money, her cell phone (reportedly still being kept by the authorities) and without transportation (her car was towed from Geoffrey’s lot and impounded).
Family members criticize how Richardson was handled by the arresting deputies—they name two of them on a family blog, Armando Loureiro and Frank Brower—and contend that anyone described as saying she was from Mars and speaking gibberish should have been placed on a 72-hour hold under professional medical care, instead of being let out the side entrance of an isolated building in a dark industrial area she did not know.
Excluding the possibility that Richardson’s behavior at the restaurant was a carefully rehearsed act that she then dropped with sheriff’s deputies, family members say the woman was demonstrating a state of mental crisis that might be related to bipolarity or schizophrenia.
In the supplemental report—written by Brower a week after the initial arrest report—describing the field sobriety test, which the woman passed, he notes that Richardson was “cooperative and polite” and “seemed a little embarrassed about the entire incident.”
To complete the booking process, Richardson was handed over to a jailer, or custody assistant, named Sharon Cummings. Jailers are not sworn deputies but are classified as professional staff. As they are not peace officers, they are not armed. It is their job to run the jails in the Los Angeles County system.
According to the operations lieutenant at Lost Hills, Steve Smith, “[Cummings] started county service in May of 1997, working a county jail facility. She arrived at Malibu/Lost Hills in April of 1998.”
Smith said, “She is identified as our administrative jailer, which means she trains other jailers and is responsible for administrative paperwork that is required.”
The sheriff’s department’s chief spokesperson, Steve Whitmore, speaking at a rally in October outside the Lost Hills Station, told the gathering of placard carriers that the “African American jailer [Cummings] said she engaged [Richardson] in ‘lucid’ conversation...at great length.” Whitmore indicated that the jailer said they “talked about music... jazz [which Richardson] liked. [and] gospel [which] she didn’t.”
Whitmore said the jailer offered to let Richardson stay overnight in a cell with a bed. He indicated that the cell would not be locked, but Captain Tom Martin, the commander at Lost Hills, had earlier told the Malibu Surfside News that station policy requires all occupied cells be kept locked, but Richardson “could have asked to be let out at any time.”
Cummings now declines to be interviewed by the media or allow a personnel file photo or other photograph of her to be made public by the sheriff’s department.
Responding to an email inquiry from The News, Lieut. Smith said: “As I am sure you can imagine, an employee who infrequently interacts with members of the press can feel a high level of stress speaking to the press.”
Smith added, “Specifically, an employee is always fearful that they could be misquoted, sound/say something ‘stupid,’ answer a question incorrectly, and probably most common, when they read what was written, feel that the written words were not what they meant to say to the reporter.”
Smith noted that Cummings did one brief off-camera interview with a broadcast outlet a week after Richardson disappeared that the jailer considered stressful. Smith said, “I believe Ms. Cummings feels that..she did not need the added stress of another interview.” He added that “Ms. Cummings is a very professional and gentle woman, who takes great pride in her duties and responsibilities to those who she is entrusted to care for when they are in her custody.”
The only quote attributed to Cummings in the off-camera interview was similar to paraphrasing offered by Whitmore at the Lost Hills rally. Cummings said, “When I found out [Richardson] didn’t have a ride, I asked her why don’t you stay. It’s kind of dark and a bit cool, you don’t have a jacket. I knew she lived out in L.A. and didn’t know the area. But she said she didn’t want to spend the night in jail, and she was hooking up with some friends.”
Cummings then reportedly walked Richardson to a side exit door and up to the walk-through gate at the entrance to the side of the sheriff’s station. She may have been the last person to converse with the young woman before she disappeared.
Among conjectures voiced by family members is that Richardson encountered foul play at Lost Hills. The woman’s father, Michael Richardson, adamantly states, “I believe that someone at [Lost Hills] had something to do with my daughter’s disappearance.” Family members point to changes in versions of arrest circumstances given to them by Lost Hills and redacted reports as proof of a “cover-up.”
Some family members also ask whether Richardson might have been given a ride from the station and then, for some reason, either got out of the vehicle or was let out seven miles from Lost Hills, where she appears to have been sighted by a Cold Canyon area resident at about 6 a.m. Family members doubt that she could have walked that far in the dark alone. The report of this possible sighting was allegedly not responded to by deputies for several hours.
The family continues to request a meeting with Sheriff Lee Baca and has responded negatively to a report he presented to the county board of supervisors last week, outlining the department’s stance that Mitrice Richardson’s release was handled in accord with all applicable laws and practices.
The family is also keeping track of the Los Angeles Office of Independent Review’s oversight of the department’s review of Malibu Station personnel’s interactions with Richardson.
The OIR is a civilian oversight panel that monitors the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and investigates allegations of officer misconduct.
LASD RESPONSE
Sheriff’s department spokesperson Steve Whitmore says family members’ ongoing criticism of the LASD, especially espousal of conspiracy or wrongdoing theories, “doesn’t achieve the goal of finding the missing woman.”
Whitmore said he “can’t stress enough that there is no cover-up [because] there is no wrong-doing...there is no conspiracy.”
However, most observers say there can’t be anyone in the department who doesn’t expect a day of reckoning, no matter how the case turns out, which is why LASD officials hope the woman is found soon. They know that if she has befallen an ill fate, fingers will point at them.
PETITION DRIVE
An online activist group—change.org—has collected 2569 signatures toward its goal of 5000 signatures on a petition urging state and federal officials to initiate a federal investigation into the Mitrice Richardson case. The text of the petition can be found at the website: www.change.org
Although the tight-knit circle around the missing woman maintains an upbeat attitude and speaks out to her daily, as evident at a recent prayer service attended by her mother and other family and friends, signs of the ongoing stress show on many of their faces.
Anyone with information related to the Richardson case can go to www.findmitrice.info or contact Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, Michael Richardson at 310-283-4717, or LAPD Detective Chuck Knolls (Homicide-Robbery) at 213-485-2531.

Sheriff Baca Says Department Handled Mitrice Richardson by the Book

2009-11-11T17:57:00.000-08:00

• 24-Year-Old Who Has Been Missing for Almost Nine Weeks Has a Nov. 16 Court Date

BY ANNE SOBLE

Sheriff Lee Baca reported to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Monday that although the Mitrice Richardson missing person’s case is in his words “unusual and unfortunate...the [sheriff’s] department’s release policy and procedures are consistent with state law, and our investigation revealed all applicable laws, policies and procedures were followed.”
Richardson mysteriously disappeared after release from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station on Sept. 17 and has not been heard from for close to nine weeks, despite extensive field searches and a concerted effort by her family to keep the missing 24-year-old’s story in the public eye.
Baca’s four-page report was requested by the board last month when the supervisors announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to Richardson’s whereabouts. He concludes that “the department did not identify any areas requiring modification.”
The head of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the LASD processes approximately 180,000 prisoners each year for release and “over-detention [carries] tremendous liability, as well as risk to the public’s safety and a deprivation of civil rights.”
His report includes a cursory outline of the department’s assessment of the circumstances under which the Cal State Fullerton honors graduate was placed under citizen’s arrest by the manager of Geoffrey’s restaurant for allegedly being unable to pay an $89.51 dinner tab and possessing less than an ounce of marijuana in her vehicle, then transported by deputies to Lost Hills for booking on two misdemeanor counts related to the allegations.
As Baca describes it, after Richardson’s 92-year-old great grandmother, the matriarch on her mother’s side, was unable to drive to the restaurant to pay the bill, her mother Latice Sutton spoke to the manager and she “opted not to assist her daughter with the payment.”
Although Geoffrey’s staffers had described the young woman’s behavior as “crazy,” she reportedly passed a field sobriety test and Baca said “her interaction with the deputies was coherent and rational” and “deputies described her as cooperative and polite.”
He said Richardson signed an Arrestee Medical Screening Form stating she has no medical issues or psychological problems.
Richardson, who was garbed in a T-shirt and jeans, and whose only possessions reportedly were a hat, a belt and her California driver license, left the station through a side entrance at 12:25 a.m. with no money, cell phone, or means of transportation; and ostensibly without making her plans known to anyone. Telephone calls to the great-grandmother are listed on the booking report, but no further information about them has been made available.
Regarding the timing of Richardson’s release, Baca said, “It is the policy of the department to release misdemeanor prisoners as soon as such persons may be reasonably and safely released.”
Baca said this policy “is no different than any other time of day,” adding that the procedures emphasize “prompt and safe release once there is no justification to deprive the arrestee of their freedom.” He said “it is not practical or legal for the department to hold people until someone is available to pick them up” and “altering this procedure would subject the department to potential litigation.”
The sheriff reiterated that Richardson was offered the option of being placed in a cell and being “free to leave at any time.” Baca stressed that there was “no legal basis to hold Ms. Richardson and she was released on her written promise to appear in Malibu Court on Nov. 16. Following her release from the station’s jail area, her movements were no longer monitored.”
PARENTS’ REACTION
Richardson’s mother Latice Sutton said she is “very upset by the report” and told the Malibu Surfside News: “It is unfortunate that the LASD deemed releasing anyone from their facility knowing that they had no transportation, form of communication or money as ‘prudent, reasonable and safe,’ particularly someone who they knew was behaving in a manner that warranted an evaluation by a qualified professional. Further the amount of time and manpower that it took to generate their erroneous report takes away valuable time in the search for my daughter.”
Richardson’s father, who maintains his own website concerning his missing daughter, as does the mother, (the couple separated when their daughter was very young), posted a similar comment to the mother’s statement on that site, adding:
“This is ridiculous and my daughter is still missing and really it’s the sheriff's who were the last verified people to see her. If I follow the sheriff’s department’s own logic, it’s clear they acted inappropriately. The initial call regarding my daughter from Geoffrey’s to the sheriff’s was that she was “acting crazy.” Crazy. Crazy as in mental problems, as in you don’t release her on her own in the middle of the night without money, her cell phone, or transportation. You call her parents and or hold her overnight.”
Michael Richardson added, “Now I'm no rocket scientist, but if a woman says she’s from Mars and is here to avenge Michael Jackson's death...chances are she’s in need of some help. My question is, who did they call or who was on duty that night that had the training and background to make the assessment on whether Mitrice Richardson was stable or not?
“If the sheriff’s handling my daughter would have used a little common sense or even put themselves in our shoes as parents and thought twice before just letting Mitrice out into the middle of the night, my daughter would not be missing. But because they didn’t, she is and they refuse to accept responsibility or even act as though they played a role in her disappearance or that they even care.”
The father concludes, “We are tired [of] being lied to and misled by the sheriff's department. I believe that someone at the Malibu-Lost Hills sheriff’s department had something to do with my daughter’s disappearance and this report only confirms it for me.”
Richardson’s last statement is being echoed on dozens of blog posts related to the missing woman on websites across Southern California, as well as blogs in other parts of the country.
OIR REVIEW
Lost Hills personnel’s position that the matter has already been reviewed notwithstanding, the Los Angeles Office of Independent Review indicates that it is still looking at the Richardson matter.
Deputy Chief Attorney Benjamin Jones told The News on Monday, “The Office of Independent Review has not completed its monitoring of the department’s review of the Malibu Station personnel’s conduct in their interactions with Ms. Richardson.” This stance was subsequently reiterated by OIR Chief Attorney Michael Gennaco.
The OIR is a civilian oversight group that was created by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 2001 to “monitor the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and provide legal advice to ensure that allegations of officer misconduct involving the LASD are investigated in thorough, fair, and effective ways.”
OIR consists of six attorneys with backgrounds in criminal law and civil rights issues who “work with LASD, but not for LASD.” OIR contends that it “has the freedom to arrive at its own conclusions and, if necessary, to challenge the department with regard to specific practices or incidents.”
LAPD STATUS
Repeated efforts to obtain updates from the Los Angeles Police Department detectives assigned to the Richardson case have been unsuccessful.
The LAPD is the lead agency because the missing woman resided in Los Angeles with her great-grandmother. There have no formal briefings on whether there have been any recent sightings or exactly what is now being done by the LAPD to try to locate Richardson. Family members have expressed interest in trying to take up the case with new LAPD Chief Charlie Beck.
FEDS PETITION
An online activist group whose concerns include criminal justice—change.org—has collected 2022 signatures toward its goal of 5000 signatures on a petition urging state and federal elected and appointed officials to initiate a federal investigation of the Mitrice Richardson case.
In addition to an effort to “help find Richardson,” the group wants “to ensure that this does not happen to additional persons.” The petition is at the group’s website: www.change.org
PRAYER SERVICE
Family and friends gathered last Saturday for a prayer service to “pray for the safe return of Mitrice Richardson” at the New Testament Church in Los Angeles, a church where the missing woman has worshiped in the past.

Mitrice Richardson’s Family Continues to Ask for Videotapes that Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station Captain Says Do Not Exist

2009-11-04T16:32:00.000-08:00

• City Approves $15,000 Reward for Arrest and Conviction of Those Responsible for 24-Year-Old’s Disappearance

BY ANNE SOBLE

Tensions are rapidly mounting in what has become volleys of charges and accusations by family and friends of Mitrice Richardson, the 24-year-old woman who disappeared after being released without money, cell phone or means of transportation from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station at 12.25 a.m. on Sept. 17.
Richardson was placed under citizen’s arrest by the manager of Geoffrey’s restaurant after not paying an $89.51 dinner tab. When Lost Hills deputies arrived to transport her to the station for booking, they asked if they could search her car and found less than an ounce of marijuana.
She was then booked at Lost Hills on the misdemeanor counts of defrauding an innkeeper and “possession” and was released on her own recognizance. Because staff at the restaurant described Richardson’s actions as “crazy,” the family says the deputies were remiss in not ordering that she be placed on a “5150,” or medical hold, and taken to a hospital for psychological evaluation.
The intensity of family criticism has crescendoed in recent weeks with the woman’s father, Michael Richardson, blasting the sheriff’s department; the Los Angeles Police Department, the lead investigative agency; the City of Malibu; and Malibu elected officials, with a laundry list of alleged shortcomings.
This criticism, even when made to non-mainstream media, becomes instant online fodder and reverberates around the Web. Some other family members are concerned that the attacks could impede rather than help the investigation.
Simultaneously, scenarios running the gamut from “Richardson never left the sheriff’s station at all (or alive)” to the theory that her “disappearance is a carefully crafted hoax that was planned weeks in advance” whirl indiscriminately in a cacophony bordering on the frenetic. The only universal thread in the rumor mill is disbelief that someone could disappear completely.
All wings of the family of the Cal State Fullerton honors grad who planned on completing a doctorate in psychology are vocal in their determination to keep the public spotlight on the missing woman.
Gatherings in South Los Angeles and Malibu on Sunday included family members, friends and total strangers who say they have been touched by the media coverage.
In Malibu, Richardson’s mother Latice Sutton, her aunt Lauren Sutton and her college mentor clinical psychologist Ronda Hampton reiterated the family’s ongoing call for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to get involved in the case.
Latice Sutton asked why when a white student disappeared in Virginia last week under comparable circumstances, the FBI was called right in. As the lead agency in the investigation, it is up to the Los Angeles Police Department to issue a request for FBI involvement. According to Detective Chuck Knolls, who is heading up the LAPD efforts, the FBI has not been asked to become involved because “there is no evidence of criminality.”
Richardson’s mother replies that “if a young woman who may be in a troubled mental state and has been missing for seven weeks is not criminality, it’s difficult to understand what is.”
VIDEOTAPES
Latice Sutton reiterated the allegation being made extensively in print and broadcast media that the sheriff’s department is withholding videotapes they have of Mitrice Richardson from the family.
But Capt. Tom Martin, the commander at Lost Hills, told the Malibu Surfside News this week:
“First, I can’t imagine how videotapes from the station, if they existed, would help find the missing person. The family asked for perimeter videotapes of the station that would show Mitrice leaving after being released from jail. We have no such tapes. We have cameras mounted at strategic points around the station which feed to monitors at the desk; however, they are live feed and don’t videotape.”
Martin is aware that Lost Hills is being slammed repeatedly by family members, especially Richardson’s father, and this is being picked up on blogs, talk radio and, increasingly, mainstream media.
The Lost Hills commander said, “We have reviewed our policy and procedures to ensure that we followed them appropriately in the release of Mitrice Richardson. The Office of Independent Review (OIR) has reviewed the arrest and release of Mitrice Richardson to ensure we followed policy.”
Martin added that “sheriff’s department executives have reviewed the case to ensure we followed appropriate procedures. The Board of Supervisors will be reviewing the release of Mitrice Richardson to ensure we acted appropriately.”
That review was requested by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last month, when it posted a $10,000 reward for “information leading to [Mitrice Richardson’s] whereabouts”—broader wording than allowed under City of Malibu law related to rewards.
Capt. Martin added, “My focus is and has always been finding Mitrice Richardson and bringing her home safely, in addition to ensuring that my personnel completed their jobs appropriately,” and he voiced criticism of news coverage that he said appeared to “smear” the sheriff’s department.
FEDERAL INVESTIGATION
But the drumbeat of criticism is not expected to let up. An online activist group whose concerns include criminal justice—change.org—has posted a petition urging California officials, including the governor, the state attorney general, a cross-section of legislators, as well as the U.S. attorney general and dozens of other officials to initiate a federal investigation of the Richardson case.
At press time, there were 1649 signatures toward a goal of 5000 to urge the Feds to “help find Richardson” and “to ensure that this does not happen to additional persons.” The petition is at the group’s website: www.change.org
GLBT OUTREACH
Yet another push of family members and friends includes increased outreach to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in Los Angeles.
Richardson is openly gay and concern has been voiced that this, in addition to race and gender, are possible components in her alleged negligent treatment and the perceived tenor of the law enforcement investigation.
Richardson’s partner of two years, Tessa Moon, also a CSF graduate, is now embarked on a major media blitz, issuing appeals for assistance from GLBT organizations and the population at large to help find the missing woman.
Information about Richardson can be directed to www.findmitrice.info or to: Michael Richardson at 310-283-4717, Dr. Ronda Hampton at 951-660-8031, or LAPD Detective Chuck Knolls at 213-485-2531.

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

2009-10-28T16:19:00.001-07:00

• 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

2009-10-21T15:29:00.000-07:00

• 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

2009-10-14T16:38:00.000-07:00

• 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

2009-10-07T16:00:00.000-07:00

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.

Mitrice Richardson Update: Woman Released after Malibu Dinner Tab Arrest Is Still Missing

2009-09-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

• County Board of Supervisors Offer $10,000 Reward for Information Leading to the 24-Year Old's Whereabouts

BY ANNE SOBLE

Law enforcement agencies and family members say they are still no closer to knowing the whereabouts of a 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton honor graduate last seen leaving the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lost Hills Station before dawn on Thursday, Sept. 17.
This week, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors—on a motion by Second District Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas—approved the offering of a $10,000 reward for information leading to the location of Mitrice Richardson of Los Angeles.
Richardson was released from the Lost Hills facility on Agoura Road two weeks ago at approximately 1:25 a.m., about five hours after she was arrested in Malibu on suspicion of defrauding an innkeeper—failing to pay for dinner—and suspicion of possessing less than an ounce of marijuana in her vehicle, according to official reports.
LASD officials said Richardson was alone at Geoffrey’s restaurant the evening of Sept. 16, ordered a steak dinner and a single alcoholic beverage, then was unable to pay the $89 bill.
The restaurant manager called sheriff’s deputies to the location and made a citizen’s arrest at about 8:30 p.m., and the woman was taken into custody.
Richardson’s 1990 Honda Civic, parked in the restaurant lot, was searched. Deputies found the marijuana and added that allegation.
Restaurant staff and sheriff’s department personnel offer markedly different descriptions of Richardson’s condition when she was taken into custody.
Geoffrey’s staffers said the woman appeared either substance-impaired or psychologically stressed, while Lost Hills reports indicate that she passed a field sobriety test and appeared lucid after being booked.
When it was determined there were no warrants against Richardson, she was told she would be released on the two counts.
According to Lost Hills Capt. Tom Martin and Lost Hills Operations Lieut. Steve Smith, the jailer on duty—Sharon Cummings—let Richardson use a station phone because the pay phone in the lobby wasn’t working.
Both men said the jailer heard Richardson speaking on the phone, but didn’t know whom she had called. When The News asked Smith whether there have been efforts to trace the numbers called, he said he wasn’t sure it has been done yet and that might be up to the Los Angeles Police Department, as the LAPD is the lead agency in the missing person investigation.
Late last week, the LAPD transferred the case from its Missing Persons Unit to the Robbery Homicide Division “because it is a larger division with more personnel and resources,” according to Detective Steve Eguchi, who with Detective Chuck Knolls, is now overseeing the investigation.
Eguchi said, “This is an ongoing investigation. We are working on this case on a daily basis...we have followed up on a number of sightings and continue to do so.”
The LAPD detective said despite the intensity of the search and rescue operation last Saturday that drew personnel and volunteers from law enforcement jurisdictions throughout the Southland (see page 13), “Any potential leads from that effort have since been eliminated.”
Eguchi said it’s hoped that widespread announcement of the county reward will provide additional impetus for someone to step forward with information that will help to find the missing woman.
Richardson is described on the LAPD blog as “African-American with brown hair and hazel eyes. The 24-year-old is five-feet-five to five-feet-six inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds.” She was last seen wearing a brown Bob Marley T-shirt and blue jeans.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detectives Knolls or Eguchi at 213-485-2531 (Robbery Homicide Division), or 213-485-5381 (Missing Persons Unit).
Richardson’s family also made a plea for information on its Web site at www.findmitrice.info, which states that the woman “suffers from mental health issues [and] deserves better treatment than the Malibu sheriff’s gave.” The family has also discussed preparing its own reward package for information about the woman from whom there has been no word for two weeks.

Young Woman Is Reported Missing after Unpaid Malibu Meal Leads to Her Being Booked at Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station

2009-09-23T15:44:00.000-07:00

• Released at 1:25 a.m. Ostensibly Alone and on Foot in Desolate Area

BY ANNE SOBLE

Law enforcement agencies and family members seek information that could lead to the location of a 24-year-old Cal State Fullerton graduate who was last seen leaving the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Lost Hills Station early last Thursday morning.
Mitrice Richardson of Los Angeles was released from the Lost Hills facility on Agoura Road at about 1:25 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 17, about five hours after she was arrested in Malibu on suspicion of defrauding an innkeeper (failing to pay for dinner) and possessing less than one ounce of marijuana in her vehicle, said Lost Hills Captain Thomas Martin.
According to Martin, Richardson was alone at Geoffrey’s restaurant on Wednesday, ordered dinner and a beverage, then indicated that she was not able to pay the $89 bill.
Martin said the restaurant manager called sheriff’s deputies to the location and made a citizen’s arrest at 8:30 p.m., after which the woman was taken into custody.
Richardson’s vehicle, a 1990 Honda Civic, which deputies searched in the restaurant parking lot, remained there until Geoffrey’s had it removed from the premises by Malibu Towing, according to Martin.
The Lost Hills captain said the woman was transported to the station and booked. He said the jailer (an unidentified female officer) gave her a telephone that she reportedly could use to call whomever she wanted.
Martin said the jailer heard Richardson speaking on the phone, but didn’t know whom she had called.
“Because the jailer was concerned”—the woman was clad in a knit shirt and jeans and nighttime temperatures can drop—Martin said Richardson was informed that she had the option “of remaining at the station and spending the night in a locked cell.”
When asked why the cell would be locked since the woman was being released on her own recognizance, Martin said. “This is a sheriff’s station…a jail…it’s not a hotel. We have prisoners here.”
Martin challenges assertions being made by family members that Richardson was in no condition to be sent out on foot into an industrial park area with open fields, minimal lighting and no public transportation. He said the jailer who processed the missing woman indicated that “she was not intoxicated...she was lucid.”
The captain also noted that Richardson could have remained in the “well lit and safe lobby” until daybreak, or she could have contacted someone to provide transportation. Family members dispute the nature of communication exchanges with station personnel regarding this.
Martin emphasized, “We are dealing with an adult here...24 years old. We can only do so much.” He reiterated, “We’re not a hotel, we don’t have [public] accommodations.”
When it was noted that there are precedents for deputies driving persons back to their vehicles or homes—the Mel Gibson incident among them—Martin said, “If she’d asked [us], we probably would have done it.”
However, Jeff Peterson, the owner of Geoffrey’s, while being careful not to directly challenge the jailer’s assessment that Richardson was “lucid” when she was released, emphasized that the reason the sheriff’s deputies were called “was less about the $89 unpaid dinner tab than it was due to concern about the woman’s mental state and public safety.”
Peterson, who was not at the restaurant when the incident occurred and did not want to name the manager who made the citizen’s arrest, said, “This was an issue of safety first. Our biggest concern was her getting into her car and driving away and...endangering others. We felt she needed professional help.”
The restaurant owner said that everyone who encountered Richardson described her as “a sweet person.” He said she was in the restaurant alone and spent time chatting with people at other tables. He noted that she ordered a steak and had one alcoholic beverage, then told the waiter that people at another table were covering her check.
There is some dispute over whether the restaurant was willing to accept a telephone payment from a relative for the tab, about which Peterson again stated that “this was not about the money.”
When the missing person’s report was filed, Martin said sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement personnel conducted a major search of the area around the station and adjacent communities on Saturday but came up empty. Martin said, “This is really unfortunate…the whole thing is puzzling to me.”
Martin also said he is “disappointed that [family members] are making statements that are not fair [and] are misinformation.” He bristles at the notion that anyone might think that Richardson would have been treated differently if she were white, dressed differently, a local resident or someone who was well known.
The City of Los Angeles Police Department is now the lead agency on the missing person’s report because Richardson’s address is in the city.
Richardson is described on the LAPD blog as “African-American with brown hair and hazel eyes. The 24-year-old is five-feet-five to five-feet-six inches tall and weighs about 135 pounds. She was last seen wearing a dark shirt and blue jeans.”
Richardson graduated from Cal State Fullerton in 2008 with a degree in psychology. She was a resident assistant at that campus until 2007 and then moved to South Central Los Angeles to live with her great-grandmother, with whom she may have spoken by telephone during the incident.
LAPD announcements ask anyone with information about Richardson’s whereabouts, or anyone who was at Geoffrey’s during the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 16, to call the LAPD Missing Persons Unit, Detective Kristin Merrill, at 213-485-5381. After-hours or on weekends, calls can be directed to a 24-hour, toll-free number at 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (527-3247).
Merrill and other members of the Missing Persons Unit were at Lost Hills and in the surrounding area most of Tuesday looking for anything that might provide a clue to Richardson’s whereabouts.
Merrill told the Malibu Surfside News late Tuesday, “We are working hard on this. We received the information from the sheriff’s department Friday night and ran with it. We are following up on every lead.”
“Anyone who might have been in the area could have seen something important.” she said.
In addition to using the above telephone numbers, persons with information can text “crimes” with a cell phone, or log on to www.lapdonline.org and click on web tips. When using a cell phone, all messages should begin with “LAPD.” Tipsters may remain anonymous.

MUG SHOT—Questions are being raised about the condition Mitrice Richardson was in when she was released without transportation in the relatively isolated area around the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station last week. This is the LASD photo from her booking on Sept. 16.
FLYER PHOTO—This more composed and adult looking photo of Richardson is the one used on an LAPD missing person’s flyer. She is described as being very close to her extended family and not the type of person to not make contact for as long a period of time as a week.