A Few Choice Words for Sheriff Lee Baca, His Department, and Steve Whitmore
Here’s the audio from the end of the conference as we were leaving
and the media was asking questions. Towards the end of the audio you
hear Steve Whitmore, spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Department
come up to Michael and offer his condolences. After which Michael says
something to the tune of no one can tap dance around this now.
I followed that up with, but if anyone can, Steve Whitmore can.
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I am not one for criticizing law enforcement, UNLESS, they do something that warrants it.
So with that said, it
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department killed Mitrice Richardson.
Now whether it was one of their deputies that buried her way down there in that canyon in Malibu remains to be seen, but isn’t being ruled out. Either way, when they arrested Mitrice they set off a chain of actions that ultimately led up to her death.
From the beginning, the Sheriff’s Department has never been forthright and honest about their handling of Mitrice Richardson. You will probably never read about it in the newspaper or see it in the television reports, but I lived it, every day for the past 11 months with her family.
I saw the paperwork that was altered. I met with Sheriff Lee Baca and his henchman in Monterey Park when they finally agreed to meet with her father Michael Richardson.
And yes—I was there today when they announced that the remains found in Malibu on Monday were in fact Mitrice.
You’re going to see a lot in the media today about this—well, you might. That all depends. Proposition 8 and gay marriage might be more important that the murder of Mitrice Richardson, even though as ironic as it is, she was a lesbian and supported the equal rights of gays.
What I want to get off my chest right now is what you probably won’t see in news reports.
I was at Starbucks this morning killing time after leaving KJLH. We knew something was going down this morning and I wanted to make sure that I was already up and out and ready to hit it. Just as I am leaving Starbucks and getting in my car, KFI announces a 9:30 a.m. press conference at their headquarters in Monterey Park to discuss Mitrice Richardson. It was a little after 8 a.m. when I heard this. I confirmed it on the City News Services wire from my laptop in the car.
I called Michael Richardson. He had no idea. No one had told him. By now he was at work. So I headed over to Hollywood to pick him up and then we braved the 101 South and the 10 East and made it to Monterey Park at 9:30 a.m. on the dot.
Still, no call from the Sheriff’s Department or the L.A. County Coroner’s office. Lots of calls from the media, family, and friends, but not the authorities.
We get out of the car and go into the press conference where the media immediately starts hammering Michael with questions.
Oh—I forgot to mention that I seriously doubt that the Sheriff’s expected the family to be there, nor do I believe that they wanted the family there. As evident by the fact that they hadn’t spoken to Michael, who is Mitrice’s legal next of kin and were going to go ahead with the press conference as scheduled anyway at 9:30 a.m. knowing good and damn well that traffic was congested and it would take a miracle for Mitrice’s family to get there in time.
Well I am not a religious person, but God is good.
We made it there and on time.
Michael and I completely switched today. Usually, I am the one that’s calm and keeping him calm. Today it was the other way around, I was pissed. Sad but pissed.
So of course Sheriff Baca comes in and does his pomp and circumstance routine. And the longer I kept sitting there listening to him skirt around the media’s questions and essentially lie to the public the angrier I got.
The man actually told the media that when Michael Richardson gets home, he should check his answering machine and he’ll see there is a message there regarding Mitrice.
Now let me ask you this. How many times have you watched a news report that said that the police were waiting to make any further announcements until the next of kin could be notified? Exactly.
You don’t notify someone that there daughter is dead via answering machine. You hold off on the press conference until you reach them first.
And in typical fashion, Baca defended his deputies actions and placed the blame on Geoffrey’s for making a citizen’s arrest of Mitrice.
Yes, Geoffrey’s is to blame, but ultimately, the blame belongs to the Sheriff’s Department.
And no, you do not blame the victim. You do not blame the victim. Mental issues or not, you do not blame the victim.
Sheriff Lee Baca and his Department need to be under investigation by someone other than themselves for the following:
One, for arresting Mitrice in the first place.
Two, for letting her go at that time of the night/morning.
Three, for their incompetence throughout this entire investigation.
Four, for not ever producing proof that they let Mitrice go in the first place. If they are innocent and she truly walked out of there, where’s the video? Where are the photos?
Five, for not having the respect enough for Mitrice’s life and her family to make contact with them prior to holding a news conference.
Six, because one or more of their deputies in all likelihood probably murdered her and knew exactly where to hide the body because we all know that she’ didn’t get down there by herself.
