One of my son's best friends works at Lost Hills Station. I have asked him about this case several times, and I have kind of a different slant on it because of what he has said.
In a nutshell, once they got Mitrice back to the station, and she calmed down, and the Restaurant Geoffrey's decided not to press any charges, the cops decided to simply give her an infraction ticket for the pot in her car. So she was no longer under arrest.
At this point she wanted to leave. The officer who was working with her one on one at this point is a black female officer who works that station. She tried very hard to keep Mitrice inside the building. She suggested several times that Mitrice wait in the lobby, which is quite comfortable and safe. This is a very small station, in a very quiet part of town. Even if she had sat on the front lawn she would have been very safe and secure until her mother arrived.
This officer asked her to wait for her mother to pick her up, but that was exactly what Mitrice did not want to happen. She wanted to avoid her parents, and she DEMANDED to be set free if she was not under arrest. Just because somebody has their car impounded, that does not make it legal for the police to keep a grown woman in custody. She had every right to leave the premises.
I have seen some posts here saying she was dumped out or thrown out--that is not how it was imo. She had every legal right to leave and she DEMANDED her civil and legal rights and she did NOT want to be around when her family arrived.
She , according to what our friend said, did not exhibit any mental health issues at the time she was being interviewed for release. The police felt that she was drunk and high earlier in the restaurant incident, but after the charges were dropped, and she rested in custody for a few hours, she was good to go. She was given the use of the phone and as far as they knew she had set up a ride for herself. That is what she told the officers before she left. They had no reason to doubt her. It is the way most released citizens do it--call a friend and get a ride home.
It is unfortunate that she was probably having a bi-polar high, and so she just took off on a rampage and ended up in the woods. It is quite possible she met up with some psyvchos in the woods, but I don't think we can blame LE for that. They gave her some solid options, and she refused. But she was a grown woman who was no longer under arrest. And she used all of her focus and strength to convince them that she was fine and that she had a ride and wanted to leave. I think it is wrong to blame them just because she didn't want to be there when her parents arrived.
I really do not think that any of the officers at Lost Hills Station harmed her. I just don't.
But I could be wrong.
