Nine months after the disappearance of Mitrice Richardson her mother is suing Los Angeles County and officials from the sheriff's department for California wrongful death and negligence. The 24-year-old woman went missing after she was released from a Los Angeles County sheriff's station.
Latice Sutton says that police should have given her daughter a psychiatric or medical evaluation instead of releasing her daughter into the Calabasas area at around 1am without her car, purse, or cellphone. Sutton is seeking unspecified damages from the defendants.
Richardson was arrested after she didn't pay her bill at Geoffrey's, a Malibu restaurant. Staff there said that she was behaving in a "crazy" manner. While the Sheriff's department claims that Richardson seemed normal and lucid during the several hours she was in custody, Sutton contends that video footage shows her daughter outside the Los Angeles County Courthouse swaying, clinging to the screen of the holding pen, and grabbing her hair.
Sutton says that the main reason she is filing her complaint is that she wants to know more details about what happened the night her daughter was arrested. In her Los Angeles County wrongful death lawsuit, she is alleging that her daughter was unlawfully arrested over the unpaid bill. She says that Richardson's great-grandmother was willing to pay for the restaurant bill and attempted to do so over the phone.
The Sheriff's deputies that came to the restaurant on the night of September 16 reportedly impounded Richardson's vehicle because they found marijuana in it. She was then booked for not paying her bill. After Richardson passed a sobriety test, she was allowed to walk away from the station.
Several massive searches have been conducted since Richardson's disappearance, but she has yet to be found. investigators have determined that Richardson was probably suffering from a severe type of bipolar disorder.
In California, family members and the deceased's estate have two years from the date of death to file their Los Angeles wrongful death complaint.
Missing woman's mother sues Los Angeles County and Sheriff's Department, Los Angeles Times, June 30, 2010
Woman whose daughter disappeared sues county, Contra Costa Times, June 29, 2010
Related Web Resources:
Los Angeles Sheriff's Department
