County Supervisors Renew $10,000 Reward in Mitrice Richardson Case

• Malibu City Council Has Not Taken Any Action for FY 2010-2011

BY ANNE SOBLE

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday re-established the offer of a $10,000 reward for information leading to the whereabouts of Mitrice Richardson, who disappeared after being released from the county Sheriff’s Department’s Lost Hills Station last Sept. 17, at 12:38 a.m. and for successful resolution of criminal charges associated with the case.

The motion was made by Second District Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas who represents the area of Los Angeles where the missing 24-year-old honors college graduate resided with her great-grandmother.

The reward was first posted last Sept. 29 by the Board of Supervisors and extended twice until it expired at the end of June.

Because of Richardson’s residency, the Los Angeles (City) Police Department was designated as the original lead agency in the investigation.

Richardson, a five-foot, five-inch, African-American woman, was wearing jeans and a dark T-shirt  when she was released after being booked at Lost Hills, following a citizens arrest by Geoffrey’s restaurant personnel in Malibu for alleged inability to pay an $89 dinner tab, although Richardson had credit cards and several thousand dollars in a bank account.

No reasons have yet surfaced to explain why Richardson went to Geoffrey’s, where staff said she was acting bizarrely, speaking gibberish and appeared to be substance impaired.

However, she passed a field sobriety test, and medical experts reviewing documents and diary entries found in her car have since indicated that the woman may have been experiencing the onset of bipolar disorder and should have been afforded special legal protection under LASD protocol.

Richardson’s mother, Latice Sutton, has viewed an LASD videotape of her daughter in the Lost Hills booking cage that has not been made public. She says it shows the young woman acting regressively and extremely agitated.

Richardson was released from the Lost Hills Station without her purse, cell phone and other possessions that were all left for an as yet unexplained reason in her car, which was directed to be towed to a Malibu impound lot by the restaurant.

Apart from a possible sighting in a backyard some distance from the station, to which she might have been driven, Richardson has not been seen, not contacted her family, not accessed her bank account  or used her credit cards.

Her disappearance remains a mystery despite a number of ground and air searches by the LASD, the LAPD, REACT and countless volunteers, including one of the largest search efforts in county history.

CITY REWARD

Last Nov. 2, the Malibu City Council approved a reward of $15,000 for “the arrest and conviction of those responsible for [Mitrice Richardson’s] disappearance.”

Reva Feldman, the City of Malibu administrative services director and—this week—the acting city manager, told the Malibu Surfside News on Tuesday  that this reward offer expired June 30.

Feldman said, “Every fiscal year, these types of matters need to be renewed.”

There has been no public indication yet whether the newly configured council intends to revisit the matter.

CURRENT STATUS

Meanwhile, both the LAPD and the LASD indicate that leads are being followed up that have run the gamut from bone finds to possible sightings.

Currently, family members have said that they have been communicating more with the LASD than the LAPD, originally designated the lead agency.

Homicide detective Lt. Mike Rosson told The News that the investigation is “ongoing,” but there is “nothing that [he] can comment on” at this time.

However, now that Sutton has filed a lawsuit against the county and the LASD, there is increased impetus for the department to find answers to the missing woman’s fate.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages. Sutton and her pro bono counsel, civil rights attorney and activist Leo Terrell, said filing is necessary to gain access to official documents and LASD personnel testimony.

LASD personnel named in the suit include Deputy Frank Brower, Sgt. Mike Holland, Sgt. Eric Lasko,  Deputy Jim Mulay, Deputy Armando Louriero, a Deputy Hill, a Deputy McKay, Sgt. Derrick Alfred, Deputy Ken Baumgartner and former Lost Hills commander Tom Martin.

Unnamed, but included in the lawsuit, are all personnel who booked and released Richardson, such as jailer Sharon Cummings, the last person who is believed to have had contact with Richardson.

Sutton says the LASD failed her daughter by not listening to the witnesses who reported her bizarre behavior in the restaurant and saw her actions in the booking cage and having her 5150’d—held for a medical and psychiatric evaluation.

In addition to using discovery for reports and documents, Terrell has said the ability to depose “people who actually had contact [with Richardson] before she disappeared is imperative,” because of perceived LASD inaccuracies and misrepresentations.”

The missing woman’s father, Michael Richardson, has until Aug. 2 to file a separate lawsuit in his own name.

The parents did not marry, separated when their daughter was young, and faced custody and child support issues.

Sutton and Richardson have conducted separate and sometimes mutually critical campaigns to keep their daughter’s name in the public spotlight.

When the county supervisors renewed the reward for information, they listed the contacts for the case as: Det. Chuck Knolls or Det. Steven Eguchi with LAPD at 213-486-6900; and Det. Dan McElderry or Det. Ken Perry with LASD at 323-890-5500.