Missing Woman's Family Files Multimillion Dollar Claim

The Family of Mitrice Richardson has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Los Angeles County, claiming that the Sheriff’s Department personnel were responsible for her disappearance from the time she was released from Malibu/Lost Hills sheriff’s station.

This was at 12.30 a.m. on September 17, when she was left alone without her car, cell phone or purse. Richardson, 24, was arrested for not paying her $89 bill at Geoffrey’s, a restaurant at Malibu, released after midnight and was spotted once early the next morning in Monte Nido, but not since.

This lawsuit includes the officers who interacted with her since the time of her arrest until her release. The claim filed last week alleges negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and wrongful death.

The restaurant staff reported that she was not speaking sense and was behaving bizarrely. She was reported to be “acting crazy” by the staffer who called the Sheriff’s Department.

Leo Terrell, who filed the claim on behalf of Richardson’s parents, Latice Sutton and Micheal Richardson, says that the Department was duty-bound to keep her there if they felt she had a deviated mental condition. He maintains they should have called for a mental evaluation and held her longer. However, the Department has consistently maintained that no such signs were seen and her behavior seemed absolutely normal after she reached the station.

Homicide investigators from Los Angeles Police Department have found the entries in her dairies and text messages which suggest that she was suffering from a severe bipolar disorder.

LAPD Homicide Det. Chuck Knolls had been investigating the disappearance of Richardson seemed surprised that the case of wrongful death was filed for a person who is missing.

Terrell admits that there is a possibility that she could turn up alive, and the wrongful death part and the Richardson estate part could be removed from the case.