Questions still unresolved in handling of Mitrice Richardson’s remains

A yearlong probe has failed to determine if Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies moved, without permission from the coroner, the skeletal remains of a woman who went missing after being released from the department’s custody.

Mitrice Richardson, 24, drew national media attention in 2009 when she disappeared after being released from the sheriff’s Lost Hills/Malibu station around midnight, without her car, purse or cellphone. Nearly 11 months after her disappearance, her remains were spotted in a remote Malibu Canyon ravine.

In 2010, a high-ranking Los Angeles County coroner’s official told The Times that sheriff’s deputies may have violated the law at the time by removing Richardson’s remains without his permission, potentially undermining the thoroughness of the coroner’s investigation.

After Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter’s comments, the sheriff’s official watchdog agency launched a probe into the dispute.

The watchdog agency was set to issue a report finding Winter’s criticism to be at least partly true, but after a draft of the report was circulated, a sheriff’s detective came forward with new information that contradicted his department’s long-standing narrative and put the dispute in question again.

The Office of Independent Review’s report confirms the Sheriff’s Department’s account of the first phase of the removal: that initially sheriff’s officials believed that only a skull and possibly a couple of other bones were there, and were granted permission by the coroner to move the partial remains.

However, the agency’s review could not determine whether or not sheriff’s officials asked for further permission once the bones were lifted up and it was discovered that Richardson’s entire skeleton was there.

After the dispute was made public in 2010, both the sheriff’s spokesman and the department’s homicide captain acknowledged that sheriff’s deputies did not ask for further permission once more bones were discovered, saying they had to move quickly because of nightfall and the treacherous terrain.

Michael Gennaco, who heads the Office of Independent Review, said he was prepared to criticize the Sheriff’s Department for “a significant lapse” in not asking for that permission.

But then the sheriff’s detective who had been on scene said he did, in fact, tell a coroner’s captain that more remains were found after the bones were moved onto a plastic sheet. He said he was told “whatever you’ve got on plastic, just bring it out.”

A coroner’s captain denied that the detective made such a phone call.

“Because of this conflict in the evidence, we will never know for certain whether such a request was made,” the watchdog’s report concluded.

Asked why sheriff’s officials did not previously know about their detective’s phone call, department spokesman Steve Whitmore said “he just didn’t offer it up ... which is one of the reasons the [Office of Independent Review] did its review, to drill down to exactly what did happen and what didn’t happen.”

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