Father Issues Desperate Plea for Help Regarding Lack of Response from Sheriff’s Department and Congressional Representative
On the 81st day into the disappearance of Mitrice Richardson, her family has issued a call to action for help in contacting the Los Angeles County Office of Independent Review.
Described as a civilian oversight group that monitors the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (“LASD”) and provides legal advice to ensure that allegations of officer misconduct involving LASD are investigated in thorough, fair, and effective ways, The Office of Independent Review (“OIR”) to date has refused to return the numerous calls and emails sent to Chief Attorney Michael Gennaco and Deputy Chief Attorney Benjamin Jones from family members of Mitrice Richardson.
This call comes on the heels of last week’s announcement of a campaign focused on Congressional Member Maxine Waters, who has also failed to meet with the family or respond to their request for her help in spearheading a Federal investigation.
“I don’t understand why it has to come down to this,” explains Mitrice Richardson’s father Michael Richardson. “It’s like I play by the rules, I work two jobs, pay my taxes, and vote in every election and I can’t even get my own Congressional representative to return my call. To make matters worse, the very organization that I believe is responsible for my daughter’s disappearance, well their alleged oversight group won’t even return our phone calls or emails. It’s like what is really going on here. Are we all alone? I mean it’s been 81 days. 81 days! I know my daughter isn’t Natalee Holloway, but she is somebody, she’s somebody to me and my family. She’s my only daughter, my only child and she’s just vanished and none of the people my tax dollars and votes put into office are doing anything to help us. Why? What did we do that was so wrong? It’s bad enough we got tossed to the side by the country’s number one feminist attorney Gloria Allred for Tiger Woods’ mistress, but to be ignored by my own elected officials is something that I cannot continue to allow. If it takes reaching out to Congressional representatives who are not Black to get something done about my daughter’s disappearance then so be it. It’s been 81 days and we still have no answers.”
A resident of Watts, California, Mitrice Richardson, mysteriously disappeared following her September 17 predawn release from a sheriff’s substation near Malibu where she was booked for allegedly failing to pay a restaurant bill and possession of personal use marijuana. A $25,000 reward is being offered for information leading to Mitrice Richardson’s whereabouts.
The family is requesting members of the public phone, fax, and email Congresswoman Maxine Waters and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s Office of Internal Review attorney’s Michael Gennaco and Benjamin Johnson.
Michael J. Gennaco, Chief Attorney
Phone: (323) 890-5360
Fax (323) 415-7549
email: mjgennac@laoir.com
Benjamin Jones, Deputy Chief Attorney
Phone: (323) 890-5362
Fax (323) 415-7788
email: bjones@laoir.com
Congresswoman Maxine Waters
10124 S. Broadway, Suite 1
Los Angeles, CA 90003
Phone: (323) 757-8900
Fax: (323) 757-9506
Washington, DC
Congresswoman Maxine Waters
2344 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2201
Fax: (202) 225-7854
For more information, please visit www.bringmitricehome.org.
