Mitrice Richardson Arrested, Released, then Disappeared: Are the Cops to Blame?

By: Edecio Martinez
Topics: Daily Blotter

(Personal Photo)

Photo: Mitrice Richardson.

Story Contributed by CBS 2 / KCAL

MALIBU, Calif. (CBS) A woman who was arrested at a Malibu, Calif. restaurant went missing after she was released hours later from a sheriff's station, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Mitrice Richardson, 24, was reportedly intoxicated and unable to pay her $89 bill at Geoffrey's restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu about 10 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, the newspaper reported.

Deputies arrested Richardson at the Malibu-Lost Hills station, where they booked her on suspicion of not paying for the meal and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore told the Los Angeles Times.

She was released about 1:25 a.m. the next day, he said.

"She exhibited no signs of mental illness or intoxication," said Whitmore, explaining why she was released. "She was fine. She's an adult."

According to her mother, Latice Sutton, a manager she spoke to at Geoffrey's said Richardson appeared to be in "no condition to drive."

Sutton told the newspaper that she called the Malibu-Lost Hills station to ask about posting bail and picking up her daughter, but deputies told her they had released her because they did not have room to keep her in jail.

The sheriff's station is unfamiliar to the woman, her family said. It is not served by buses at night, and family members said they have not seen or heard from Richardson since Wednesday.

"They allowed her to walk out of that facility and down that road in the pitch black night," Richardson's father, Michael, told the Times. "That's not right. Now, I just want to find my child."

The woman's mother said deputies told her nearby residents had called to say a woman was sleeping on porches, indicating to her that Richardson was stumbling around a nearby residential neighborhood early Friday, the Times reported.

Responding to criticism from Richardson's family, the Sheriff's Department defended her release in a statement made by Whitmore. He said the department has a series of checks that are done before anybody is released and that those checks were done, again noting she was neither intoxicated nor mentally impaired.

Whitmore also said Richardson was made an offer to stay in the jail but she refused.

Richardson is a graduate of Cal State Fullerton and recently moved to Los Angeles to live with her grandmother near the area where she planned on teaching.

She last made contact with her family at her home in the Southeast area of Los Angeles on Wednesday, police said.

Richardson is African-American, 5-foot-5-inches and approximately 135 pounds. She has brown, curly hair and hazel eyes, and was last seen wearing a dark shirt and blue jeans, police said. According to a flyer made by her family, Richardson has tattoos on her lower abdomen and behind her neck.

Police asked anyone with information on her whereabouts to call the LAPD's Missing Persons Unit at (213) 485-5381, or 1-877-LAPD-24-7 after business hours or on weekends.

Story Contributed by CBS 2 / KCAL

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by lrwood01 August 13, 2010 1:44 PM EDT: Oh and FYI I dont know where you people live but people male and female are released from jail all day everyday WITHOUT RESOURCES!!!!!!!!; Reply to this comment


by lrwood01 August 13, 2010 1:41 PM EDT: I do believe someone is hiding something. On behalf of the police, it is not there responsibility to follow a person out of jail and make sure they are OK! I know that when someone is released from jail here where I live they are release when ever they are processed and with what ever personal belongings they came with. Police dont follow them to make sure they get home or they have money or a car. No matter what time it is.She should have called her grandma to pick her up or someone else. Something is fishy about the whole story. I just dont think the police are supposed to babysit someone after they are released from custody !!; Reply to this comment


by Researcher45 August 12, 2010 11:12 AM EDT: Bones determined to be female have been found within two miles of her last sighing. There were jeans that match what she was known to be wearing but no confirmed identification has been made.

VisionAndPsychosis.Net maintains extensive files about missing students where there is evidence of bizarre behavior consistent with Subliminal Distraction exposure.; Reply to this comment


by Researcher45 August 12, 2010 11:08 AM EDT: Bones have been found within two miles of the last sighting. There were clothes found nearby that match what she was known to be wearing but there is no confirmed identity.

VisionAndPsychosis.Net maintains extensive files about missing students where there is evidence of bizarre behavior consistent with Subliminal Distraction exposure.; Reply to this comment


by mscharlieB May 26, 2010 8:18 PM EDT: FOR LINDUGH, YOU SAY MITRICE IS HIDING OUT, WELL SHE HAS BEEN HIDING FOR OVER A YEAR NOW, THATS CRAZY. THE POLICE ARE INDEED HIDING SOMETHING. THERE ALWAYS COVERING UP THINGS, SOME POLICE OFFICER FOLLOWED HER OUT OF THE DEPARTMENT 2 MINUTES AFTER SHE LEFT. I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF THEY RAPED AND KILLED HER. BEFORE YOU GO TO THINKING SHE IS HIDING AT A FRIENDS. JUST THINK OF ALL THE POLICE THAT WHERE CAUGHT UP IN THERE OWN ****.; Reply to this comment


by anon368 October 22, 2009 8:58 PM EDT: I think this is totally suspicious looking for the police. She was obviously intoxicated. You can tell in the mugshot. How on earth could they leave a young intoxicated woman out in the world with no phone or anything? In Lost Hills? What if she had been their daughter? Do you think they would think that was ok? I can't even believe this. I wish I could go back in time and pay her Geoffrey's bill. I HATE the pretentious, white trash, overpriced and overhyped Geoffrey's more than I did before (which was a lot). I will NEVER patronize their restaurant again. How dare they!!! I hope it was worth it for them.

My prayers go out to the family and I hope she is found soon and well. I will be watching this story.; Reply to this comment

by dbrown2604 October 14, 2009 10:19 PM EDT

I agree that it seems very suspicious. How could they possibly have thought that it was OK to let a lone woman out on the street that hour of the night. It is only common human decency to be concerned and I think cops should be even more concerned about ensuring her safety. (I presume some of them have children too). After all they are paid to ensure law and order and to keep citizens safe. I am disgusted that they would release anybody whether black, white, gray, orange or purple out on the street that hour of the morning especially in what sounds like an industrial area. I think there needs to be much more and persistent investigation into the matter. As to her myspace page: She is 24 years old for god's sake!!! What were you doing at 24? I don't think it is right to cast aspersions on her because of her dress or her choice of sexuality. That kind of thinking is retrograde and neanderthal. I have never smoked marijuana a day in my life but just because someone does I don't believe it makes them less of a human being or less worthy of concern.I am constantly sickened by the world we live in and by some of the people who inhabit it.
I will keep her and her family in my prayers.

Reply to this comment


by anon368 October 22, 2009 9:38 PM EDT: There's alot we don't know about her so I'm not blaming the police. I think the parents are hiding alot from the news and trying to make the police look bad.
*********
Seriously? The facts do not add up for the police. If she was so normal acting, why did Geoffrey's call them and why did they impound her car?

by lindugh October 11, 2009 1:56 AM EDT

Mitrice is the only one to blame.. not the police nor the restaurant. She could have called someone to come and get her when she was released but CHOSE not to. I believe she was found sleeping on someones porch and is hiding out somewhere. I also believe the reason she was living at the great grandmothers was to be away from her parents and near the LA area live her life as she wanted. The parents are pushy and obnoxious so I can totally see why she is hiding. The parents called in a big-mouthed civil rights lawyer to accuse everyone else for their daughters poor decisions. I may show some sympathy for the parents as long as they disclose their daughters lifestyle prior to this incidence like did she have a pattern of going to nice restaurants, ordering expensive food, then, without an invitation, including herself at other patrons tables in hopes they would pick up her tab? Did she walk into this nice restaurant looking like she did in the mugshot. What was she up to on the days prior to the incident. There's alot we don't know about her so I'm not blaming the police. I think the parents are hiding alot from the news and trying to make the police look bad.

Reply to this comment


by lishmac4 October 19, 2009 8:09 PM EDT: LINDUGH
How dare you call Mitrice's parents pushy and obnoxious, do you know them? They are reacting out of pure terror and frustration that their daughter has yet to be found. I am sure you would have the same reaction! And I quote "The parents are pushy and obnoxious so I can totally see why she is hiding"....You have no clue, you honestly disgust me with your smart a** comments. This is a girls life we are talking about here. Regardless of what Mitrices lifestyle is, we should be searching for her. Do you think we should just write her off because of what she looked like in her mug shot??? Her parents have told the media numerous times that her behavior the night she was arrested was not characteristic of Mitrice. Your probably just another one of those snoody agoura hills women upset over making your police dept. look bad.
By the way, I know Mitrice's parents and family. They are the most poised, good hearted and non-judmental people you could ever know...They just want to bring Mitrice home.
So please keep your ignorant comments to yourself!! AND....I really think her family could care less if you show them sympathy. Their not looking for sympathy, their looking for MITRICE!


by bardock34 October 5, 2009 1:46 AM EDT: Ok people let me explain the sad truth about our boys in blue, 1st off most local police officers if not academy trained are former us military service men. However what should be a sign of hope is anything but that, you see us soldiers that commit sexual violence and rape are almost never charged by the military justice system.
Military rape has been a silent sin since the closing of WW2 in Japan,and Germany, in peace time operations in the Philippines, Japan, and now war time in Afganistan, and Iraq. The soldiers nolonger rape just foreign civilians, but military service women and us civilian contractors working overseas, it doesnt take much research to know this silent atrocity is true. And to date has resaulted in the murders of several us military service women to conceal that secret, which by then to late to save the service woman's life. Now because local law enforcement also recruit former us military personel there is no telling if our boys in blue are actually sexual predators trained by the us military.
In fact sex offenders with former military status outnumber civilian sex offenders in state prisons 2 to 1,
in concealing sex offenders in military uniforn the United States Armed Forces exposes the American populace to well trained rapist and murderers.
Said sex offenders can there after become our local boys in blue because thier sexual offenses are sealed by the military justice system, so truthfully once you research this matter can we really trust the boys in blue to the care of our mothers, wives, sisters, or daughters.
You already know the answer to that, because in the case of Matrice Richardson the LA Police are manufacturing the truth.
It only takes one live to damage our trust forever and I pray what I believe isn't true, that Matrice was made a victem by the LA Police department for thier associate or themselves.; Reply to this comment


by jjack1965 September 29, 2009 9:15 AM EDT: i believe in my heart that the sheriff department did give her a ride and they rape her and probably killed her. I praying that i'm wrong. But who can trust the boys in blue? They know more than what they are telling. I hope the family ask to see the surevanice camera at the sheriff office they should have one inside and out. well by now they probably have erase it. May GOD bless her where ever she is; Reply to this comment