Cops, Last to See Missing Woman, Sued by Family for Negligence

Mitirice Richardson's family say cops should not have released unstable woman.

ByABC News
June 30, 2010, 6:13 PM

July 1, 2010— -- The last people to see Mitrice Richardson before she mysteriously disappeared almost a year ago were police deputies, who in the small hours of a September morning released the 24-year-old mentally ill woman with no car, no phone, no identification and no cash.

Now Richardson's mother is suing Los Angeles County and nine sheriff's deputies for wrongful death, claiming it was negligent to release Richardson alone from an Angoura Hills, California, police station just after midnight on Sept. 17, 2009.

"The LA County Sheriff's Department was grossly negligent, and the officers on that shift, grossly negligent in allowing her to leave and walk out without any form of communication with her family or friends," said attorney Leo J. Terrell, who is representing Richardson's mother, Latice Sutton.

Richardson was arrested on Sept. 16 at a Malibu restaurant where she was acting erratically and refused to pay her tab.

Police booked her at the Lost Hills police station, where according to court documents, she continued to act strangely.

According to the suit, Richardson passed a field sobriety test but "acted strangely." Police contacted her mother, who said her daughter's behavior was out of character and asked that she not be released alone, late at night, in an area she was unfamiliar with, the suit said.

Some of that strange behavior was captured on video tape.

According to the lawsuit, surveillance video from inside the police station captured Richardson "clutching the screen of the holding pen and rocking from side to side."

"Another image is Ms. Richardson attempting without success to place phone calls from the station without assistance. Another image of Mitrice Richardson pulling at her hair and trying to get into the fetal position face down on a concrete bench is also seen," according to the family's suit.

The family was given access to the video tapes.

According to their suit, "these actions by Mitrice were blatantly evident to the deputies and employees of the Lost Hills Malibu Sheriff Station, yet no one attempted to call for a medical or psychiatric evaluation or attempted to hold Ms. Richardson for an extended period of time until it was evident she had a safe place to go upon release."