I just read this article about a 24-year-old woman, Mitrice Richardson, who’s been missing from Los Angeles County, California for over two months. She was arrested on minor charges, booked and released. It was the middle of the night by then, and she had no transportation, no money and no way to contact anyone. The police offered to let her spend the night at the jail, but she said she wanted to leave. She didn’t appear to be a danger to herself or others, or mentally incompetent, so they let her go. And she vanished.
The author of this editorial blames the police for Mitrice’s disappearance, claiming they lacked “compassion” and shouldn’t have released the woman when they knew she had no way to go home. (Other sources claim she was “acting crazy” on the night of her disappearance and claimed she was from Mars, suggesting she was having some kind of episode. There have also been accusations of racism; Mitrice is black.) From what I have read about this thus far, I don’t see it that way. The police offered to help her by letting her spend the night in an empty cell. She turned them down. What were they supposed to do then, force her to stay? If they had kept her against her will, they could have faced a lawsuit for false imprisonment. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Of course, Mitrice’s disappearance is tragic. All disappearances are. But I don’t think the cops could have reasonably done more than they did. Thoughts, anyone?
More info on Mitrice:
Her family’s website for her
Los Angeles Sentinel article (which also blames the cops and claims Mitrice was drunk when she released)
KTLA
The Charley Project Blog 
I live near Los Angeles and got a lot of the story on the local news. THe police called the family and they didn’t come and get her either! She left a restaurant without paying a bill and her family thought it would “teach her a lesson” by not getting her.
You’re right, it is sad…but not the police’s fault.
This kind of reminds me of something I read about a year ago about a woman who drank herself to death on the night of her 21st birthday. She had two prior convictions for DUI so she was hardly a virgin to liquor. Well, her parents sued her friends that were with her that night for wrongful death. I guess the woman’s friends held a gun to her head and forced her to down 17 shots and a pitcher of beer, or something. It seemed to me when I read about this that the parents were anxious to lay the blame on anyone other than their daughter for her actions, when her death was no one’s fault but her own.
parents are good at denial when it comes to their own children…..what was the outcome of the lawsuit? I hope the parents did not win, although it’s sad the 21 year old died.
There was a similar case here in the UK a while ago. A 17 year old celebrating the end of his exams went on holiday to a seaside resort with his friends. While he was there he got very very drunk and fell into the sea and drowned. His parents were devastated and also furious that he had been served alcohol even though he was underage (bear in mind the legal age to drink here in the UK is 18 not 21, likewise the legal adult age is 18).
Although it was obviously terribly sad that he had died, I couldn’t help thinking that they were very unwilling to accept any responsibility for his death at all. He was 17 and on holiday with friends- no adults supervising. He went to a well known “party” resort which is renowned for its drinking and wild nights. Infact just a few weeks before another young person had died there under similar circumstances.
I don’t know what the outcome of the suit was. Given the slowness of our courts, it may still be pending. I’m really hoping it got thrown out.
It is not the fault of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. She was lucid and in control of her facilities. If she was not acting like she was a danger to herself or to other’s in the presence of the deputies, then they could not put her on involuntary psychiatric hold. She was not intoxicated, so they couldn’t put her in the drunk tank. The officers offered to let her stay for the night when she couldn’t get transportation, which was something they didn’t have to do, and she refused. If they had tried to keep her involuntarily with no legal cause, they would be sued and I have no doubt that her family would be among those yelling the loudest about her civil rights being violated.
This isn’t a racial issue. I don’t think the issue would be brought up if the officers responsible for her leaving the Malibu Jail were black and the woman was white. But people of all races apparently have a need to blame somebody when things go wrong. People always do.
I´m not sure it´s racial, I don´t think so an I hope that´s not what it is, I honestly think the cops should have given her a ride back home, if she did not have money for her food she probably did not have money for the ride back home.
police policy says they can’t drive the person home….
Who says she didnt have $$$ for food? She probly just skipped out with paying b/c she felt like it. The cops are not a taxi service it isnt there job to drive ppl back and forth.
Mirtice was in the People magazine with all the other missing ppl on the cover. Shes suposed to be a real smart person who finished college and was going for a phd. But that doesnt mean she didnt act dumb. Shes lucky the cops ofered to let her stay, they dont do that for every one they pick up.
It sounded like she might have had a psychotic break. All the education and intelligence in the world is no guarentee that will not happen. I just wish it had been more apparent at the time so the cops could have put her on involuntary psychiatric hold.
If she is still alive, I doubt she is having fun.
Wooow, you sound angry, I don´t give a dam if they are taxi drivers or not, they should have given her a ride back home, and what do you know about her $$$$? And why are you never polite?
What has this to do with being dumb Brianna? Nothing at all, you don´t know her issues and why she didn´t pay for her meal.
Medical problems and money problems and what ever problems in this world has nothing to do with this this, the cops should have given her a ride back home, that is much cheaper for your taxes than to have a missing person.
And why are you never smart???
Did you ever think cops have JOBS to do? Why shold it be there job to baby sit and drive some dumb ass around town when they have acidents to go to and burglers to catch? If you have a problem and need the police to come help you do you want to have to wait b/c they are giving rides to idiots? jo
you’re right…the report said she left w/out paying…didn’t say if she had money or not. She was intelligent, again, according to reports. Hopefully she is fine somewhere like a homeless shelter or something where, if she has a mental illness, would be like some of the homeless people. At least that is one theory of where she is, hopefully not dead.
Police are usually in a situation they can’t win when a story like this is reported.
What I find interesting is that the police were told that the young woman was acting strange when they arrested her. Patrons at the restaurant said it and employees at the restaurant said it. So my question is–why didn’t the cops respond to this aspect and let a doctor check her out?
Does anyone really think a middle class, college educated woman would be in her right mind to leave a police station at 1:30 am without her cell phone, car keys or a ride when all public transportation had stopped. In Malibu? The station is in near a deserted (at night) industrial park.
And by the way all of you who are so ready to unquestioningly take the cops side of this–that’s the only side we have. They SAY they offered to let her stay. But they also SAY they have no video of her leaving (their outside camera supposedly had no film in it) or records of the calls she made from their phones. Odd.
Ask yourself-if this was YOUR daughter what would you think? Where do we draw the line? Don’t the police always look at the last people who saw a person before they disappeared? Well, they were the last people who saw Mitrice Richardson. And as far as the racial aspect of this—let’s just say I believe this young woman would have gotten a whole lot more television play from someone like Nancy Grace if she was blond and blue eyed and a lot more sympathy from those who want to make this her fault even after her family said she had psychological issues.
This young woman was obviously having a breakdown. Her mother stated that she had thousands of dollars in her bank account—yet she didn’t have money on her to pay a $89 bill. If she was a thief, she would have ducked out of the restaurant.
I see what you’re saying…again, the family members were called and told the police they would not pick her up thinking she would learn a “lesson” by this.
If she has a history of mental issues, the family would know more about it than the police.
The police deal with dead people, drunk, abusive, etc… so on their radar, she was probably not a danger to herself–in comparison to what they see every night.
Sometimes terrible things happen to good people and it’s really no one party’s fault…
Just because you have a mental illness, even a serious one, doesn’t make you a danger to yourself or anyone else. Say, some schizophrenic person thinks the CIA is coming into their house at night and rearranging their furniture. Obviously they’re crazy, but they’re not dangerous.
Great point, what if this was your daughter, there is something odd with this case, something that does not fit in the whole story,I don´t think she is in any homeless shelter, either she was murdered or she´s hold against her will, she´s pretty and slender like so many missing young women around the world, there is a possibility yes that she was killed inside the police station and the cops are hiding something or she was abducted when she was out by somebody else.
Maybe she was kidnapped and trafficked and is now a sex slave or she met with a murderer.
How were the cops supposed to know that she’d disappear or that she was in any sort of danger? I don’t know the neighborhood, but if she wanted to leave and the police were willing to let her go, then there’s no blame here for anyone. If she was abducted, blame the person who abducted her, not some cops who had nothing to do with it.
Well, it was in the middle of the night and she had no car, no ride back home and no money, I don´t know how things work in the states but if that was in my country they would have given her a ride back home, it´s simply dangerous for her to go on her own, if people don´t see that well than I´m not surprised that people just vanish into the air.
Well it didnt happen in your country where ever that may be. I guess in yoruu country cops have nothing better to do than run there suspects back and forth. THey OFFERED to let her stay, she told them no, shes an adun adult, if they kept her against her will she would sue or her family would have. Deal with it.
Ofcorse it´s the person who kidnapped her who should be blamed for it but it´s just a question what can be do to make places safer, if that was a child who vanished because mom would led it out and play alone people would point a finger to the mom, how could she do it, why did she do it and so on. because in the USA you can´t let small children out to play alone, and in the USA it´s very dangerous also for a young woman to walk alone outside at nights.
Brianna you are the dumb one. 🙂
And you dont even speak English. What do you do work in some call center in India giving people the run around when they call to get help with taxes?
HAHAHAHA
You do know the rule that says you shouldn’t criticize someone’s grammar when you make numerous mistakes of your own, right?
Well, I’m glad it wasn’t me that said it, though I was tempted, but I am also trying not to inflame things even more on this board. I’ve been holding back for a bit on some of the recent posts. There are times I just don’t even know what to say. There is stuff that is so, so rude.
I´m just tired of her, she´s very rude to people, not only to me but to many others.
It´s a lots of arrogance in her statements and honestly I don´t understand what a person on that is doing on a missing person blog, she always speaks in such bad respect of missing persons.
I like to discuss things even thou my English is broken but I happen to be very interested in missing persons cases.
Brianna treats people like a bully unfortunately, it does not bother me personally but some people get hurts about her words and that seam to be entertaining to her.
And even thou someone comes from a different country it does not mean that someone lives in a hole and is uneducated and knows nothing.
Brigitta: The Brianna character is a troll. A real person of her disposition would not be on this blog at all, she is obviously just someone who enjoys causing trouble for Meaghan and everyone else around here. I wouldn’t let anything she says get to you, just take it for what it is, the roleplaying of someone with too much time on their hands.
The familys of people like this don’t give the whole story when something like this happens. What if she has a history of vanishing or having a mental breakdown? They aren’t telling the whole story b/c of the shame that is associated with mental illness.
Mental problems are like diabetes or something like that when there is nothing to be a shamed of and when treated, the person is fine and healthy.
I’m glad Meaghan brought this story up so we can have discussions on situations like this when it’s no one’s fault but still a mystery.
That´s an good point, it could very well be, maybe they don´t accept her problems or don´t wanna know about it, mental illnesses are so often hard to deal with and sometimes people don´t know how to act or what to do.
Very true. I just looked on this ladys website and they say she has a history of mental illness. Its true that people get embarrassed when it comes to mental illness. If she had a broken leg the police may have acted differently.
I guess we have to hope that there is a big chance that she may just have run off somewhere.
your english was fine to me!!! Thanks for all your input Birgitta!
They may not have known. Some mental illnesses, if that is the case, are later onset than others. I read about this when it first happened and without assigning blame it seems like a whole bunch of things conspired to cause this poor girls vanishing. I hope she is ok but the odds are not great. Holiday season is approaching so let’s all hope for peace for this family as well as all the others missing loved ones. And to all on the board, Happy Turkey Day or just Happy Holidays for the friends overseas (or non celebrating).
I absolutely agree that they were not obliged to give her a lift home. Who knows if they even asked how she was going to get home? Not their job I 100% agree. But as one human to another I would like to think that someone in that station would have been worried about her. Just to be nice, just to be kind. A young woman on her own at night who is having some kind of episode. Whatever caused it.
I cannot see any evidence whatsoever that this has anything to do with race though.
In my opinion there is a difference between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. It would have been nice if someone would have helped her. But they didn’t. They can’t be legally blamed for that. But if it was me I would probably feel bad about it.
The jail personal asked her if she wanted to spent the night at the jail when she couldn’t get anyone to come and get her. They didn’t have to do that. She refused and insisted on leaving. They could have just kicked her out and left her to her own devices.
It sounds like she refused help. You cannot help people who do that.
I know and I agree with you.
I am pretty sure I would still feel guilty though.
I agree 100% with you.
…and her family did not come to get her eventhough they were called. I hope she’s in a homeless shelter gettting her basic needs met. Hopefully we will hear about what happens to her in the future…dead or alive…just to make sure we know how to prevent something like this from happening again.
Not all families act the same way, they where probably not thinking about her vanishing in to the air, it´s just a very sad case, her case is getting quite some attention thankfully and hopefully she´ll be found sooner than later.
I can’t figure out this reply thing, but it’s for Brigitta. Good on ya, girl. For ESL, you do fine. If you don’t mind me asking, where are you from? I love your name, so I tend to get all stereotypical and say, ooooooooooh, Scandinavia.
Oy! Birgitta! My son got my keyboard! I know what your name is!
I´m from Iceland and don´t worry about spelling my name wrong. 🙂
Iceland? Wow, I have never “met” an Icelander before. I read a book set in Iceland not too long ago. 101 Reykjavik.
Hey, I got the general area :). I’ve actually wanted to visit there in my fantasy travels ( my husband was in the Navy, so off he went to other places, so now that he’s retired, we’re trying to think of other lands to go to). Though I hear you no longer have McDonalds. Before anyone rips my a** off, this is a joke! Just in case.
LOL no because of bad economy they had to give up on McDonalds but we have something similar that is called Metro. 🙂
You speak English a lot better than I or I’m willing to bet anyone else on this blog speaks Icelandic – that is, not at all!!!! I have always been impressed with people that can flip between languages like that.
No I don´t speak english that well but I´m getting better, about the Icelandic I´m pretty sure I can beet you on that one hehh 🙂
I am sure!!
Regarding the no film in the camera thing and there being no footage of Matrice leaving the police station- the official line is that there are video cameras outside the police station. However these are streamed for immediate surveillance only and do not, and have not ever, recorded anything onto any kind of tape that can be watched back. I’ve no idea if this is typical or not.
Mitrice, sorry.
In regard, no one really seems to know what was going on with her, and I guess there is a little CYA right now. HOPEFULLY they will get times straight soon. With regard to cameras, it does indeed depend on where you are. State to state here as far as I know.
Maybe we should release some of the officers daughters into the streets, in the middle of the night, lacking any kind of path information. Maybe then they would stop looking to the people’s race color, the same people wich they’re pay to protect. fREAKIN BULLOCKS!
This young woman had family, and I hope friends. I can’t speak for anyone else—but no matter how furious or fed-up I was with a sibling, child, friend or even neighbor who called me in this situation: I would have gone to get her. Pissed off, sure. Yelled at her, whatever, but I’d have gone to get her. Family does that. Friends do that.
She had family! How many of the unidentified or missing have no-one who misses them? No-one to mourn them? Policemen are not parents or friends: if someone says they don’t want what they have to offer, what can they do? They are not keepers! Could one of them have offered her a lift? Who knows? She is one citizen among the many they have to watch over. They had, and have, an obligation to all of them. If she didn’t want what they could offer, how can they be blamed for not seeing into the future?
Sometimes bad things happen, whether we deserve it or not. We make a bad marriage choice, we storm out of a bar, think we are teaching someone a lesson, or drive drunk—name it. We take a walk in the park, and talk to an apparently nice stranger: whatever it might be. Most of the time nothing happens. The cascade of decisions, running a red light, of alcohol or drugs, even mental illness, anything: usually doesn’t end in our paying for it. But sometimes it does.
I hope this young woman is OK. Maybe she is on the streets somewhere after a psychotic break. There is hope she may be found, restored to her family, and to health, and to the promising life she left behind.
Sometimes it is not any one person’s fault.
Well, it is easy to say what we would have done but the real fact is that this is not happening to us, it´s happening to them and that was their reaction, as you state, we do this and that and usually nothing at all happens, I have a daughter around Mitrice´s age and if a police would call me telling that she had gone to a restaurant and not paid for her meal, I don´t think I would have gone out and get her, but then I live in a very safe country so I don´t have the same visions as Americans have, I just would have wanted her to face what she had done, you can´t just do things and it being accepted.
The news tells that she had a special girlfriend, I find it maybe more odd that she did not go and get her, but maybe she wasn´t called, and why is that? Didn´t they live to gether or didn´t Mitrice asked her to be called?
As an adult I don´t think I would have asked someone to call my parents, I would have asked them to call my husband/boyfriend or if I was lesbian I would have asked them to call my girlfriend.
Yeah, the cops could not have known this would happen, but on the other hand don’t they have a duty to hold someone 24 hours for a mental evaluation? Because by all accounts the lady was acting weird. It was a tough call all the way around.
She wasn’t drunk, she was acting lucid in the presence of the cops and gave no indication that she was a danger to herself or others. The jail personal asked if she wanted to stay the night in the jail since there was no transportation available and she refused. The cops couldn’t keep her.
If they did try to keep her against her will after she had been released, they could be sued. If she wasn’t acting crazy, they couldn’t put her on involuntary psychiatric hold. All they had was someone else saying that she was acting crazy. The cops just can’t put someone in a mental hospital just on someones say so. Otherwise, YOU could get slapped in a mental hospital by someone who didn’t like you, even if you were not mentally disturbed. She was evaluated. Everyone seems to forget that. She answered questions and it was determined she was not suicidal or a danger to others. Her family wouldn’t come and get her. There wasn’t anything else the cops could do.
Wasn’t anything else cops could do? Well I know that state is broke, but I would think they still have a few police cars left, so would a ride home been to far fetched?
It’s a no-win situation all around. If the cops had forced her to stay the night, they’d have been sued. Had they driven her home and had an accident, they’d have been sued. Had they driven her home and not some other person, they’d have probably been sued. God forbid there was a serious issue that night requiring police involvement and they were taking her home, again, sued.
I’m usually the first one to say the cops made a mistake, but in this case, I just don’t see it. If she presented with no apparent mental health issues at the time of her arrest, there isn’t anything they could do.
I hate to speak ill of her parents in a time like this, but they refused to come and get her and now it’s the fault of the police for not driving her home? I know, tough love and all that, but it doesn’t really sound like tough love if you expect somebody else to do it for you. That’s what gets me. I’m trying not to judge them too harshly, but if they were so worried about how she would get home, they should have picked her up.
If the police had offered her a ride home, imagine the legal possibilities: to avoid a claim of molestation, 2 officers have to be with her (I don’t know if that’s the law in CA, but it makes sense). That’s one or two officers tied up for the time it takes to chauffeur one citizen home. That’s what taxis are for! That’s two officers who cannot respond to your auto accident, your prowler call, or your malfunctioning alarm. We don’t know what else the department was dealing with that night.
Police are trying to make the best use of a limited resource, manpower. Unless she was raving and slashing herself they could not be expected to see into the future. Why are we expecting them to be omniscient? We are not expecting that of her parents or friends, are we? In retrospect, perhaps everyone might have made a different decision; but they didn’t. To use the exhausted cliche: hindsight is 20/20. The police are guardians of the public, they are not caretakers of troubled individuals who reject their offers of help.
And what is “acting weird” in California? Tabloids are full of pictures and stories of unusual behavior. Shaving half your head? Talking to yourself? Hanging your child over a balcony? Stumbling drunk out of a nightclub? Bad manners?
I’m guessing police everywhere, every freaking day, see behavior that most people might think “unusual”, but as long as the person is not hurting themselves or threatening others with bodily harm, they can’t do much about it. Wouldn’t it be nice if they were Sisters of Mercy, or even Boy Scouts?
It’s pleasant to think so.
Not to forget that a woman is missing, and we all hope that she will be found and restored to her life.
Hahah. The Sisters of Mercy, I think (in addition to being the religious order of nuns), is a group of gay men who dress up like nuns and appear in San Francisco’s gay pride parade.
I think those are the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.
You are correct. My bad.
It’s also the name of a band.
That’s what Taxis are for? Are you kidding me ? I’ll bet that is the same attitude the cops took and that is why this beautiful young lady is missing. Also, Legal possibilities! 2 cops in the car! molestation! WOW!! Is the police force in that state that depraved that this is the kind of behavior that is the norm? Whatever happened to the good old days of officer friendly who actually cared about citzens?
I can’t believe the selfishness of people, someone actually thinks that a malfunctioning alarm would be more important than seeing this woman home at 2:am in the middle of nowhere.
did the police know it was a malfunctioning alarm? no
The lady’s family was called to bring her home. The family said no….let her learn her lesson by staying a night in jail.
She refused to stay when offered by the police.
No one knew the alarm was not working properly.
Can’t blame the police for all of this. Where was her own family?
Steve: the police are no more omniscient than any other person. And if you’re interested in seeing this, or any other young woman home, offer your name to the local precinct. I’m sure they’ll appreciate your selflessness. Especially at 2 a.m.
So, driving a woman home is more important than investigating a burglar alarm going off at 1:30 in the morning? If the cops didn’t check that out first and a family was murdered by a burglar because they were transporting some person who said they didn’t want to spend the rest of the night in a jail until morning when transportation was available, THEN what would you be saying?
This wasn’t some small county jail where there are about a dozen people locked up. It was the Malibu Jail in Los Angeles where it was so full that they released her because of overcrowding. And even then, they still offered her to let her stay overnight. She refused. You don’t know if she would have even accepted a ride from the cops if they offered.
And as far as the possibility of the woman accusing the cops of molestation, ANYONE can accuse the ANYBODY of ANYTHING. It doesn’t have to be true. Even if they had video surveillance in the patrol car, it would still take time to analyze it and the cops would be put on paid administrative leave while they did that. That would mean even less cops to do that job. If I accused you of child molestation, the cops would have to check it out. That’s their job. No matter how unfounded that accusation was, if word got out, people would treat you like a leper and even your close friends who believed you were innocent wouldn’t want to leave their kids alone with you on general principals.
In the “Good Old Days”, officer friendly administered street justice and knocked the crap out of you with his nightstick if you gave him any crap. In the “Good Old Days”, Los Angeles didn’t have gangbangers with sociopathic souls killing people at the slightest provocation, which accounted for almost half of the 1,000+ murders annually in Los Angeles County.
Wake up and smell reality. The cops did what they could.
I agree with you totally and couldn’t have said it better myself!
Meaghan?
Ditto Danielle.
Once, at work, I became ill and had to be taken to the hospital. They asked one of the customer service managers to drive me there. I was friends with one of them, Cody, and wanted him to take me, but they explained it was against the rules for a man to drive a woman to the hospital because I could accuse him of rape or something. They made a female CSM drive me instead. I remember thinking “this is absurd” and then “this is really sad.”
Thank you, Justin. The police are not always right, but they’re not always in the wrong, either.
My father a 70+ year old gentleman, would not allow his grandsons to bring any of their friends over, male or female, when he was sitting for them. When I asked him why, he explained that he didn’t need a lawsuit. It’s a strange world indeed when honest well-meaning people have to fear being seen as sickos, while predators roam without fear.
Would anyone be as incensed over the same case, with the substitution of “middle-aged divorcee, without prospects, 5’3″, 230 lbs”? Just asking.