Michael Richardson thanks community for help in getting FBI involved in daughter’s death investigation

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Michael Richardson thanks community for help in getting FBI involved in daughter’s death investigation
January 10, 2011 9:37 pm


By Staff Report

Michael Richardson and family friend Jasmyne Cannick arrive for a press conference with Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca where Baca declared that the remains found in Malibu Canyon belong to Mitrice Richardson. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has announced that he supports the further examination of the remains of Mitrice Richardson, the 25-year-old Cal State Fullerton graduate who disappeared in September 2009 after being released from the Lost Hills/Malibu sheriff’s station and was found dead nearly a year later.

Richardson will be exhumed for further examination by the FBI, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca. In addition, clothing found near her skeletal remains and a hair discovered nearby will be examined.

This is welcome news to Michael Richardson, her father, who has been calling for FBI involvement in his daughter’s disappearance since a December 2009 meeting with Baca.

“It’s because of the community that we are finally getting the FBI involved,” Richardson says. “The community, Black newspapers, and KJLH family are responsible for keeping my daughter’s story alive and demanding justice and we are very grateful for their support. Every letter of support and bone sent to Baca during our ‘Bone to Pick’ campaign made a difference.”

“I am responding to the family’s wishes,” Baca said in a phone interview. “But I also think it doesn’t hurt having the FBI say, ‘We’ve examined this and find the following.’ I think the needs of the family should be my first priority.”

Baca said he called Steven Martinez, head of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office, in late December to request the agency’s involvement.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Laura Eimiller, spokeswoman for the FBI in Los Angeles, confirmed that Baca had had discussions with Martinez and had submitted a written request for the agency’s assistance.

The L.A. County coroner has agreed to the exhumation, according to Ed Winter, assistant chief of the coroner’s office, Baca said. The coroner’s report on Richardson’s remains left the cause of death as undetermined.

No date has been set for the exhumation. “We have to coordinate with the FBI about when this is going to happen,” Winter said.

The Sheriff’s Department has been dogged by criticism ever since Richardson disappeared after walking out of the Lost Hills station in Calabasas shortly after midnight Sept. 17, 2009. She had been arrested for not paying a dinner bill at Geoffrey’s restaurant in Malibu. Her car was impounded and in it were her cellphone and purse.

The department, which faces two negligence lawsuits in the matter, was found to have correctly followed policy that early morning.

There will be a fundraiser for the Mitrice Richardson Foundation on Friday, January 14 at 8:30 p.m. at Lucy Florence Coffeehouse hosted by comedian Derrick Ellis (BET’s Comic View, Def Comedy Jam). For more information, please call (323) 867-3347 or log onto bringmitricejustice.org.

The Community Forum With Sheriff Lee Baca

http://www.bringmitricehome.org/

on 12/6/2010, you missed a rare opportunity to have your issues of concerns with Law Enforcement heard. Note, I did not say resolved, I said heard!

Steve Whitmore graced us with his presence and began to sink down in his seat and cover his face as I spoke about what a fine job he does as a spokesperson for the Sheriff's Department. As you know, Mr. Whitmore does an outstanding job at placing a spin and twist on all actions and activities conducted by Sheriff's personnel, especially when they are "called on the carpet" for any wrong doing and/or for reporting falsified information to the public. Even more appropriately, Michael Gennaco, who was also present, should change their name from Office of Independent Review to Office of Dependent Review.

Sheriff Lee Baca did not refute any of the facts I outlined regarding the way Mitrice was unjustedly mistreated on the night of September 17, 2009 and how I, the father of Mitrice, continue to be unjustedly treated in my efforts to seek answers and justice for my daughter.

~ Michael L. Richardson, father ~

http://www.bringmitricehome.org

Sheriff Lee Baca Confirmed to Attend Town Hall Meeting on Mitrice Richardson

http://www.jasmynecannick.com/blog/?p=9776


Sheriff Lee Baca Confirmed to Attend Town Hall Meeting on Mitrice Richardson
Sheriff Lee Baca Confirmed to Attend Town Hall Meeting on Mitrice Richardson
December 2, 2010

Yes–you read right. Sheriff Lee Baca is confirmed to attend the National Association for Justice and Equality in America’s town hall meeting regarding Mitrice Richardson this Monday.

This might not ever happen again so if you’re in the Los Angeles area, you don’t want to miss it.

Here are the details… and please click the RSVP link if you’re planning on attending. There’s an effort to get Radio Free 102.3 KJLH to broadcast the meeting live and it all depends on how many people are planning to turn out for it.
The Details

Nat’l Assoc. for Justice and Equality in America
Mitrice Richardson Town Hall Meeting
Monday, December 6, 2010
7 p.m.
600 North Alameda Blvd.
Compton, CA 90220

Coroner Rules Cause of Death for Mitrice Richardson Cannot Be Determined
• Sheriff's Department Says Its Investigation Continues • By Anne Soble
http://malibusurfsidenews.com/stories/201010/201010290001.html

The family of Mitrice Richardson was notified by the Los Angeles County of Coroner that it has closed its investigation in the case of the 24-year-old Los Angeles woman, who went missing after her booking at the Lost Hills Sheriff's Station in September 2009 and was found dead 11 months later, and ruled that a cause of death is undeterminable.

DOC Assistant Chief Ed Winter contacted Richardson's mother, Latice Sutton, by telephone Thursday afternoon, and she remains in seclusion after learning the ruling, which also has been communicated to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department.

Neither the family, nor the LASD, said it has received a copy of the official written report of the DOC's conclusions, which currently is not expected to be available until Friday. The report cannot be released to the public until the family and the LASD have obtained copies of it.

LASD spokesperson Steve Whitmore told the Malibu Surfside News late Thursday, "The case is not closed for the sheriff's department. We still have an ongoing investigation into how her remains ended up where they did. That is ongoing and will continue. "

The Crenshaw Car Wash Teams Up with Michael Richardson, Father of Mitrice Richardson for Fundraiser

WHEN: Saturday, September 11, 2010
TIME: 8:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
COST: Cars $8.99 & vans, trucks, SUVs, limos, and jeeps are $11.99
WHERE: Crenshaw Car Wash (4220 Crenshaw @ Stocker Blvd.)


The famed Crenshaw Car Wash is teaming up with the family of Mitrice Richardson for a car wash to raise money for the fund founded in her name. The body of Mitrice Richardson was found in August in a Malibu Canyon ravine after she disappeared 11 months earlier from the Malibu-Lost Hills Sheriff’s Department. On Saturday, September 11 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., partial proceeds raised will go towards the Mitrice Richardson fund to aid in the inquiry regarding the 25-year-olds mysterious disappearance and death.

“I am a part of this community,” explains Nuriel “Uri” Zeituni, owner of the Crenshaw Car Wash since 1985. “I was so moved by the story of Mitrice Richardson that I wanted to try and do something to help the family. I felt like this was one way I could help give back to the community while offering my condolences.”

“We’re grateful for Uri’s support,” commented Michael Richardson, father of Mitrice Richardson. “It just goes to show you that my daughter’s murder touched everyone—Blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians, men, and women. Through Mitrice, we are all coming together for a bigger cause, justice.”

The cost of each car wash is $8.99, vans, trucks, SUVs, limos, and jeeps are $11.99.

The fundraiser will take place on Saturday, September 11 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Crenshaw Car Wash located at 4220 Crenshaw Blvd. in Leimert Park, Los Angeles.

Mitrice Richardson Vigil ~ Monday · 6:00pm - 8:00pm

It is with great sadness that we must report to the public that the body of Mitrice Richardson, who has been missing since September 17, 2009, was found Monday, August 9, 2010 in a rugged ravine in the city of Malibu, California.

Please join the Richardson family in celebrating the life of Mitrice Richardson with a Candle Light Vigil on Monday, August 16, 2010 at Leimert Park in Los Angeles at 6:00pm. All are welcomed.

We hope that you will join us and if you are not of the area, we would still appreciate your prayers and continued support.

We would sincerely like to thank you for all for your generous amounts of time, positivity, prayers and efforts and would also like you to know that the family and friends of Mitrice Richardson will continue to work to provide Mitrice with the Justice she deserved the night she was released into the darkness of Malibu who no cell phone, identification, money or ride.

Justice for Mitrice Richardson NOW.

www.BringMitriceHome.org


Please Sign Petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/leebaca1/petition.html

Malibu remains identified as Mitrice Richardson, source says - L.A.NOW

VIDEO
http://www.ktla.com/videobeta/?watchId=37ae427f-4954-47ff-8557-74ba4a90f63e

The skeletal remains found in Malibu Canyon on Monday afternoon have been identified by authorities as those of Mitrice Richardson, the young woman who vanished nearly a year ago after being released from the Lost Hills/Malibu Sheriff's Station, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

The identification of the remains, found deep in a ravine by park rangers checking for marijuana plants, apparently brings to a grim close the much-publicized mystery over the whereabouts of the Cal State Fullerton graduate who would have celebrated her 25th birthday this past April.

An official announcement is scheduled at the Sheriff's Department headquarters at 9:15 a.m.

Her arrest for being unable to pay an $89 dinner tab at a Malibu restaurant and her subsequent release in the dark hours of the early morning last Sept. 17 without a car, cellphone or purse sparked widespread criticism of Sheriff's Department personnel and triggered two lawsuits accusing the department of negligence.

Beyond that, her disappearance provoked debate over the L.A. County Sheriff's Department's procedures for releasing people at night as well as whether she should have been held for a mental health evaluation after she acted bizarrely at the restaurant.

And at a time when law enforcement agencies and the media have been accused of devoting less attention to minorities who go missing than to pretty white women who disappear, Richardson — a black woman who was a strikingly attractive former beauty pageant contestant — got extraordinary attention, becoming a high-profile enough case to make the cover of People magazine last fall along with several other missing people.

Over several months, law enforcement carried out four searches — the last being the most extensive ever undertaken by the county -- covering a total of 40 square miles of Malibu Canyon while investigators from the L.A. Police Department spent months tracking clues and were eventually joined by L.A. Sheriff's Department detectives. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas got the county to offer a reward for information leading to her whereabouts. Friends and family followed up on sightings and arranged a fifth search of the canyon by unmanned drones. "If you knew how many buses I've chased down," Ronda Hampton, a psychologist who was friends with Richardson, said recently.

Earlier this summer, Los Angeles investigators scoured Las Vegas for the missing woman after a friend of Richardson's from her teen years said he saw her at a bar in a Las Vegas hotel in June and approached her, calling her by name. The woman looked at him and wordlessly walked away. But investigators called it their best lead to date and held a news conference in Las Vegas pleading with Richardson to come forward and let them know if she was alright.

The bones that were found in the ravine on Monday were about a mile out of the range of the county's last big search for her.

-- Carla Hall and Andrew Blankstein