8-4-2011 California:
With the Phillip Garrido fiasco as a backdrop, legislative and law enforcement leaders agreed Wednesday to work toward preventing a similar one.
In a meeting at the Capitol convened by state Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, and El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson, officials discussed the failures that led to Jaycee Lee Dugard remaining captive for 18 years and offered ideas on how to improve supervision of sex offenders. .......
Dugard was kidnapped at age 11 in 1991, and was found alive in August 2009.
Various investigations have determined that federal – and later state – parole agents failed in their supervision of Garrido, who had a lengthy criminal history and was on parole for a 1976 kidnapping and rape when he and his wife, Nancy, abducted Dugard.
Lee Seale, director of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's internal oversight division, said that as soon as Dugard was discovered alive, his department launched two internal probes of how agents missed her presence on the Garridos' Antioch property.
Both probes found "serious shortcomings," Seale said, adding that the department is working to improve its supervision of sex offenders.
There was little dispute that there had been a massive series of failures to detect Dugard's presence as a captive. Pierson, who won guilty pleas from the Garridos in April, noted that the public may never know the full extent of his crimes.
He said Garrido told investigators earlier this year that he had committed other abductions, as well as dozens of date rapes.
Garrido claimed he had never killed anyone, but made it clear that he had no problem lying to authorities if he didn't want them to know about some crimes.
"He was fairly proud of that," Pierson said. ..Source.. by Sam Stanton
August 4, 2011
Dugard case prompts effort to improve sex offender supervision
August 28, 2010
Are sex offenders the bait, to get public attention?
8-28-2010 California:
I am sure folks have heard of what Gov. Schwarzenegger is doing to notify the public when paroled sex offenders do not comply with GPS monitoring. Two of many news reports follows, but there is something most folks do not realize, see my commentary following news reports.California to notify public if sex offenders flee
SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is ordering corrections officials to alert the public when a sex offender parolee slips away from supervision.
The order Wednesday follows recent incidents in Bakersfield and San Diego County. Parolees there are charged with attacking teenage girls after the felons discarded GPS-linked ankle bracelets that track their movements. Corrections spokesman Gordon Hinkle says the department already notifies law enforcement agencies when parolees disappear.
Hinkle says the department is likely to follow Schwarzenegger's order by posting information about the missing parolees on a public website. He says between 20 and 60 parolees flee in a typical month. He could not immediately say how many of the missing parolees were convicted of sex offenses. ..Source.. by Mercury News.com
New California Website Warns Public When Sex Offenders Bolt
A site to warn the public when sex-offender parolees remove GPS ankle monitors has been created by the California Department of Corrections, according to a statement by the department.
Member of the public can sign up to get email alerts about the parolee violations. Information such as photos, physical descriptions and last known whereabouts are all included in the alerts. The site was created after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger directed the department to notify law enforcement and the media if an offender escapes confinement. Alerts will be updated within hours of the issuance of a warrant.
Law enforcement agencies are already notified by the Department of Justice's Criminal Intelligence and Investigation system alerts. Offender information is located in the Parole Law Enforcement Automated Database System. Those wishing to sign up for the alerts can go to the department's website. ..Source.. by Steve La
All the news is about sex offenders and they are the reason this was all started, right? Lets see, first at the California DOC website it shows the list of parolees who are not complying, see DOC Website, then come back for the real story.
The website is all about sex offenders?
California DOC touts sex offenders, sex offenders, but the truth is that website contains far more than sex offenders. Want proof? There is a "Search Box" in the upper right of that page, put in any of the following: Robbery, Spouse, Ammo, Violence and I am sure there are others, and see what is returned.
Ahh, you found out the truth, its not all about sex offenders, it really is all about parolees who do not comply with GPS Monitoring. So why are they blaming sex offenders? That I have no answer to, and will leave that up to your imagination. Hint, sex sells, and will get the public attention.
Now, for those who will claim, that, those you find that do not indicate they are a sex offender, maybe are really sex offenders? Ok, its possible, but then why would the DOC give out such info to the public and not tell the public about the person being a sex offender? No folks those are other parolees who are not complying with GPS requirements.
Did they appropriate funds for this project?
Lets see, did they appropriate money to setup this website? Again, I do not know, but I do know something about the website, click on this link.
OK, did you notice it is the same information as the DOC link, without the DOC Titles? Yup, they setup the website using a simple FREE Google blog. Want proof? Click on RSS and it will take you back to the DOC website. Folks, I just happenstanced on this and did a bit of research.
Is the information correct?
Lets do a little test, in the search box type in "Taylor" without the quotes, and click search. On the left side it will show two parolees, now carefully do this, open each one, and their detail information will be as follows:
So, the public is going to look for a guy who is 5'10" 190 lbs -OR- a guy who is 6'2" and 230 lbs? And both descriptions show the same name, Richard Leslie Taylor. OH, you also noticed the pictures were of different people? OH yes, also one is a sex offender and the other convicted of robbery. And the title of the post is DIFFERENT??
I seriously doubt Jaycee Dugard, the girl kidnapped by Phillip Garrido -a California parolee- and kept her some 18 years in his backyard, would support these efforts of the California DOC. Should the general public?
For now have a great day and a better tomorrow.
eAdvocate
PS: Wouldn't it be simple to have someone verify what was posted, to see if it is correct? Since it involves public safety. No one thought of it, well they also never checked Phillip Garrido's electric cords going from his house to the hidden shacks in his backyard, where he kept Jaycee Dugard for 18 years, either. In God we trust, but the California DOC, we better double check.
March 9, 2010
Gov. wants sex offenders' parole records retained
3-9-2010 California:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday ordered California corrections officials to keep sex offenders' parole records indefinitely after he learned the files of a man now charged with killing a 17-year-old girl had been destroyed.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation disclosed the documents on John Albert Gardner III had been destroyed in a response Friday to a records request by The Associated Press.
Gardner pleaded guilty in 2000 to committing lewd and lascivious acts on a 13-year-old girl. Officials said his parole file was destroyed last fall, just a year after he completed three years of parole supervision.
Schwarzenegger called the practice unacceptable. He also told the department to make as much information available to the public as legally possible.
Department spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said 10,000 ex-convicts each month are placed on or released from parole. The system would be overwhelmed by paper records if it didn't destroy field notes kept by agents, he said.
However, he also disclosed Monday that portions of parole files, including those of Gardner, are transferred to central files and retained for 30 years.
Release of information from those files is governed by privacy laws, and in Gardner's case by an ongoing investigation and a gag order imposed by a San Diego County judge.
The department is reviewing what portions of Gardner's central file can be made public, Hidalgo said.
Schwarzenegger's order came hours after Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego, asked the department's inspector general to investigate whether records were improperly destroyed.
Fletcher praised the governor for acting swiftly to correct what he called an irresponsible policy.
Fletcher said he'll work with San Diego-area law enforcement officials, lawmakers, victims' rights groups and experts to review California sex offender laws to find any gaps. The King family released a statement at Fletcher's news conference supporting the review.
Gardner has pleaded not guilty to murdering Chelsea King in San Diego County and to the attempted rape of another woman. ..Source..
February 26, 2010
Jaycee Dugard May Sue California Department of Correction
2-26-2010 California:
Nancy and Phillip Garrido Head to Court on Motion to Meet as 'Family'
Jaycee Dugard has filed documents suggesting she may sue the state of California claiming that state "lapses" allowed convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy to kidnap her as a child and hold her prisoner for 18 years.
Dugardfiled her notice of claim against the California Department of Correction. Her mother Terry Probyn and two minor children she bore to Garrido during her captivity have filed similar claims.
Dugard's lawsuit, according to The Associated Press, does not specify the amount of damages being sought except to say that it is in excess of $25,000.
Dugard's spokeswoman, Nancy Seltzer, told the AP that the family members haven't decided whether they'll file a lawsuit.
"We are simply preserving Jaycee Dugard's right to file a lawsuit at a later date, if that is something she decides is in her family's best interest," Seltzer said
Dugard was kidnapped in 1991 at age 11, and held captive in a warren of shacks and tents in Garrido's back yard for nearly two decades.
As a registered sex offender with a violent history, Garrido was not allowed to be around children, but corrections department officials who were responsible by keeping tabs on Garrido never noticed Dugard's presence and later never questioned the presence of two young girls at Garrido's house.
The claims became public on the same day that Phillip and Nancy Garrido were scheduled to appear in court for a judge to consider two motions prosecutors have slammed as outlandish.
The couple has requested to meet with each other in jail to discuss "family" issues and Phillip Garrido's attorney has filed a motion to force prosecutors into revealing the secret location where Dugard and her daughters have been living since their rescue last August.
Garridos' "Family" Requests Slammed by Prosecutors
Prosecutors have slammed both requests. The request of the Garridos for a jailhouse meeting was quickly pounced on by El Dorado County Sheriff Fred Kollar.
"The psuedo-family the Garridos want to discuss was created by the kidnap, false imprisonment and multiple rapes of a young girl, producing two children," the sheriff state in court documents opposing the Garridos' request.
"While it may be argued that a restoration of family values would improve the quality of American life in general, the assertion of family rights in a case where the 'family' was the produce of 29 alleged felonies is astonishing," the sheriff continued.
In the conclusion to the papers filed on behalf of the sheriff, Kollar states that "Garridos' invocation of the sanctity of 'family' is breathtaking in its audacity."
Among the concerns outlined in the sheriff's rebuttal are the discussion of escape plans, creation of phony testimony and plans by one inmate to coerce or control the other.
"The essence of being in jail is that you don't get to visit whoever you please, under the conditions you might prefer," the sheriff's motion read.
Prosecutors and the defense have been tight-lipped about the case as it inches forward in the courts, but a series of filings and tactics have made public a complicatedlegal tug-of-war.
Earlier this month, prosecutors released portions of a diary Dugard kept during the 18 years she was allegedly imprisoned in the Garridos' backyard in hopes of persuading the judge to keep Dugard's current location a secret in the face of Phillip Garrido's attempts to find her from jail.
The words were heartbreaking. Six years before Dugard was freed from the backyard prison, she wrote, "How can I ever tell him I want to be free. Free to come and go as I please ... free to say I have a
Jaycee Dugard's Plea to Be Free
"It feels like I'm sinking. ... This is supposed to be my life to do with what I like ... but once again he has taken it away," Dugard wrote in another entry, dated July 5, 2004. "How many times is he allowed to take it away from me? I am afraid he doesn't see how the things he says makes me a prisoner."
The district attorney has asked for a court order preventing the Garridos from having contact with her or her family. ..Source.. SARAH NETTER
February 13, 2010
Parole logs shed light on 18-year-old mystery
2-13-2010 California:
It took nearly a year for state parole agents to account for the fact Phillip Garrido was a sex offender. By then, in 2000, the first California parole agent to supervise him had recommended his discharge from a lifetime parole term from Nevada, and seemed to want him off his caseload.
"On parole from NV for life. (Why did I take this case?)," the agent writes in parole logs that state corrections officials released Friday night under a court order.
Two months later, the agent again recommended Garrido for discharge.
There would be three more requests over the years for the man authorities say kidnapped Jaycee Dugard with his wife, Nancy, and repeatedly raped her in a hidden backyard compound and fathered Dugard's two girls.
The pages of often sketchy, sometimes illegible, parole logs describe dozens of visits to the Garrido house on Walnut Avenue near Antioch over the years, and several "visual, cursory" searches of the house, with no reports of trouble.
Later, in 2008, his parole agent reported that Garrido "was acting very strange, weird to say the least by ranting on about God and loudly saying songs." Ten days later, the agent showed up at the house to find a 12-year-old girl there. The agent "conducted a visual cursory search by walking around the entire house with negative results," the log shows. He questioned Garrido about the young girl, "whom he states is his brother's daughter." The log entry ends there.
Those are some of the details that led a state watchdog agency in November to issue a scathing report describing numerous lapses and missed chances to unearth Dugard's identity and end what became an 18-year-old mystery. The report criticized the state agency for wrongly classifying Garrido as a low-risk offender, failing to talk with neighbors and others, and failing to see visible power cables running behind the backyard fence, among other problems.
Garrido, 58, served 11 years of a 50-year federal sentence in the 1976 kidnapping of a South Lake Tahoe woman he raped in a converted storage shed in Reno. He was under federal parole supervision when authorities say he and Nancy Garrido kidnapped Dugard in 1991 and spirited her back to the house near Antioch. He was discharged from federal parole in 1999, then he came under California's watch through an agreement with Nevada, which had sentenced him to lifetime parole for the rape.
"I want to thank you for your cooperation over this period of supervision and I hope that you continue to do well," wrote his federal probation officer in 1999.
Among other details from the newly released documents:
More recently, Garrido was an active participant in a parole outpatient clinic, according to a 2009 parole progress report. The clinic provides treatment and supervision to mentally ill parolees and their families.
Nancy Garrido videotaped some of the parole agent visits to the house. Often, Phillip Garrido's mother, Patricia Franzen, would be there.
Garrido pushed for years to be discharged from parole. In April 2008, Garrido wrote to his parole agent, seeking to avoid having a GPS monitor strapped to his ankle and touting a religious presentation that would shake the world. He wrote that it "will gain the attention of world leaders causing the State of Nevada a public and political crisis that will allow the state of California to release me . . ." The next day, the agent recommended him for discharge.
By 2009, Garrido claimed he was no longer active in the family printing business and listed his occupation as "church."
Corrections officials released the 120 pages of parole documents only after three news organizations sued under the state Public Records Act. An appeals court judge late Thursday refused to issue a stay. ..Source..
December 5, 2009
News outlets sue to obtain parole records
12-5-2009 California:
SACRAMENTO, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- California corrections officials are being sued for refusing to release information on a man accused of holding a girl hostage for 18 years, authorities said.
Three media companies, The Sacramento Bee, KCRA-TV and the San Francisco Chronicle filed suit Friday in Sacramento Superior Court against the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the California Inspector General's Office.
The companies want access to records showing how parole agents supervised Phillip Garrido between 1999 and August, The Bee reported Saturday.
Garrido and his wife Nancy allegedly kidnapped Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991, when she was 11. The couple, who have pleaded not guilty, were arrested in August after Dugard walked into a parole office with Garrido, a registered sex offender who was on parole for an earlier kidnap and rape case.
A state review found previous parole agents were lax in supervising Garrido.
Friday, corrections spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said his agency could not release the records because of privacy laws related to parolees and because of the ongoing investigation in the Dugard case. ..Source.. UPI
November 28, 2009
San Bernardino sheriff's unit tracks registered sex offenders
I find it amazing that because of the Garrido case (who was properly registered while committing crimes, and monitored by many agents from different jurisdictions) that law enforcement still wants folks to believe that, knowing where registrants sleep -a few hours of the day- is MOST IMPORTANT to preventing new sex crimes.
The amount of time, money and resources that go into keeping a list of places where former offenders sleep -a few hours of the day- and ZIP into REAL PREVENTION proves this efforts real purpose is JOB SECURITY and nothing more; a stimulus program for employment of law enforcement officers.
All the justifications mentioned are nothing more than -sounds good pretexts- and will not prevent new sex offenses. In fact, non sex offenders released from prison commit 6 new sex crimes to every one committed by a previously convicted sex offender in the same time period following release. Non sex offenders released from prison are NOT MONITORED by law enforcement like sex offenders are. Source: Department of Justice. Lawmakers IGNORE this truth which proves PREVENTION is not their goal!
11-28-2009 California:
Not long ago, more than a quarter of San Bernardino County's sex offenders weren't meeting the terms of their registration.
Whether an offender's listed address was simply out of date, or he had gone completely underground, officials often lacked the time or resources to keep up.
Then came Jim Black.
Almost two years ago, the Sheriff's Department created a position for the retired San Bernardino police officer that focuses only on ensuring the area's offenders are in full compliance with their registration.
Since then, the county has trimmed its out-of-compliance registrants -- those off authorities' radar -- to well under 10 percent. That beats the state average and equals the success of Riverside County, which has an entire task force devoted to the issue.
"It's a never-ending battle," Black said. "It can be difficult to find these guys."
An up-to-date registry is important because law enforcement often makes the list one of its first stops when investigating child abductions and sexual assaults.
Working with deputies in the sheriff's Crimes Against Children detail, Black searches state and federal databases daily and coordinates collaborative sweeps and random home visits to stay ahead of a historically transient population.
The roughly 6 percent rate of sex offenders now out of compliance at any given time in either Inland county is less than half of the state average and a small fraction of those who have eluded officials in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
"They know they cannot rest on their haunches," said Ron Garcia, director of Riverside County's multi-agency Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement team. "We will show up at their houses to make sure they're residing where they're supposed to."
Creative adaptations
While Riverside County's team continues to be aggressive in its compliance efforts, Black and San Bernardino County's staff have adopted creative ways to bolster their effectiveness.
On days when state courts are closed because of furloughs, bailiffs have been asked to conduct sex offender checks. Black has posted fliers of the most wanted out-of-compliance sex offenders on the sheriff's Web site.
And next month, the department is expected to unveil a more detailed database for tracking the population.
Soon, Black hopes to be able to coordinate multi-agency operations that can identify sex offenders who slip through the cracks in smaller jurisdictions, such as Redlands, where detectives responsible for monitoring have many other duties.
"That way, we can make 100 or more checks at once and not have a Jaycee Dugard living in someone's backyard," Black said.
The case of Dugard, kidnapped when she was 11 and forced to live in captivity with a convicted rapist for almost 20 years, has heightened attention on the ways registered sex offenders are tracked once they are released from prison.
California's version of Jessica's Law, passed in 2006, allows local jurisdictions to enact ordinances greatly limiting where a sex offender can reside, restricting areas near parks, schools, day-care centers and bus stops.
Long-Term EFFECT
Last week, Black went over the issue with a class of deputies and officers from other departments, noting the many ways that offenders can violate their registration terms.
They include not listing every address where property is owned or not checking in every 30 days if an offender's address is listed as "transient."
The state-appointed Sex Offender Management Board issued a report last year stating the number of registrants listed as transients increased 60 percent from June 2007 to August 2008.
Jay Adams, a psychotherapist and advocate for more mental health treatment for sex offenders, said that the increased residency restrictions can result in more homelessness among offenders, and feared it would lead to increased recidivism.
"If you destroy all their contact with the community, their family relationships and their ability to get work, you're actually making them more dangerous," said Adams, a former Patton State Hospital therapist and contributor to the California Coalition on Sexual Offending.
Black, however, said that his unit has not seen any negative effects in the communities that have passed ordinances based on Jessica's Law.
"They still find places to live," he said. "I haven't seen a drastic increase in transient registrations in our county."
No Harassment
Black said that when he teaches deputies how to conduct compliance checks, and counsels citizens on how to deal with the public information available about sex offenders, he stresses that harassment is not part of the equation.
"If a sex offender gets harassed, threatened or terrorized, they're going to go underground and we're not going to know where they're at," he said. "And knowing where they're at is paramount."
Most San Bernardino County sex offenders found to be out of compliance have simply moved out of the area without notifying authorities, although some are found to have recently died.
Only a small fraction of the less than 10 percent not accounted for have disappeared.
When that occurs, prosecutors will issue felony arrest warrants that typically lead to more prison time. Black said he doesn't understand why anyone would take the risk.
"It's filling out a piece of paper, and it's a crime not to do so," he said. "It doesn't make sense to me." ..Source.. PAUL LAROCCO, The Press-Enterprise
November 19, 2009
Threats against parole agent in Jaycee Dugard case prompt move
11-19-2009 California:
ANTIOCH — The parole agent who supervised kidnapping and rape suspect Phillip Garrido has been moved to a different location because of threats against him and his family, the state corrections department said today.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Spokesman Gordon Hinkle said the agent and his family were moved shortly after Jaycee Dugard was discovered and Garrido and his wife, Nancy, were arrested Aug. 26.
The move was "due to security concerns that the department had," Hinkle said.
Hinkle said the agent's name leaked to the public, prompting the transfer. Hinkle would not say where the agent was transferred.
His children had to be taken out of school because of threats.
"He had received serious threats to his personal safety," Hinkle said. "There were threats of several kinds, but I can't divulge ... the details."
The Garridos have pleaded not guilty to abducting then 11-year-old Dugard outside her South Lake Tahoe home in 1991 and holding her captive in the backyard of their Antioch home for nearly two decades.
Phillip Garrido was a registered sex offender on federal parole for kidnapping and rape. The agent who was moved was the latest in a series of parole officers who supervised him. ..Source.. Roman Gokhman
November 7, 2009
CA- Questioning of Dugard, Garrido detailed
11-7-2009 California:
John Simerman, Contra Costa Times
Jaycee Dugard hid her identity, lied, refused to answer questions and asked for a lawyer as a parole agent probed her relationship with Phillip Garrido during the Aug. 26 meeting in Concord that prompted the arrests of Garrido and his wife.
Ultimately it was Garrido, questioned separately, who admitted he had raped and kidnapped Dugard and that he was the girls' father. Only later did the woman who went by "Alyssa" reveal herself, according to a report this week by the state Inspector General's Office.
The report, a lashing review of mistakes and missed chances by state parole agents over the past 11 years, sheds new light on how Garrido's parole agent and Concord police discovered an 18-year mystery, tipped off by two UC Berkeley officials.
The UC officials, including a campus police officer, grew wary when Garrido showed up Aug. 25 with two girls, seeking an event permit and spewing religious ramblings. The officer ran a background check, found Garrido was a registered sex offender and tracked down his parole agent.
Later that day, two parole agents drove to Garrido's home near Antioch, handcuffed him and searched the house, the report says. They found only Garrido's wife, Nancy, and his elderly mother. On a drive to the parole office, Garrido said the two girls "were the daughters of a relative and that he had permission from their parents to take them to the university."
A month earlier, parole officials had attached a new condition to Garrido's lifetime parole from his Nevada conviction for the 1976 rape of a woman he kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe, the report says. He was now barred from being around minors. But the parole agent and his supervisor looked past the new condition, drove him home and ordered him to report back to the office the next day, the report says.
His parole agent was on the phone with the UC officer when the Garridos showed up the next day with Dugard and the two girls in tow. The UC officer said the girls called him "daddy." The parole agent believed Garrido had no young children. He separated Garrido from the women and girls.
Alyssa said she was their mother.
"The parole agent believed that Alyssa looked too young to be the mother and asked her age. Alyssa said that she was 29 years old, laughingly explaining that she often gets that comment and that people believe she is the girls' sister," the report says.
She and Nancy Garrido became "agitated" under questioning. Alyssa said she knew Garrido had taken the girls to the Berkeley campus and also knew he was a paroled sex offender who had kidnapped and raped a woman.
"She added that Garrido was a changed man and a great person who was good to her kids," the report says. "Alyssa subsequently stated that she didn't want to provide any additional information and that she might need a lawyer."
No personal data
Separately, Garrido told a parole agent that the girls were his nieces, all of them daughters of his brother in Oakley. "Garrido stated that the parents were divorced, the girls were living with them and other people, and he did not know his brother's address or phone number."
The parole agent insisted on identification from Alyssa. She told him she "had learned a long time ago not to carry or give any personal information to anyone." She also said she needed a lawyer.
The parole agent called in Concord police.
"As they waited for the officer to arrive, Alyssa said she was sorry that she had lied. She explained that she was from Minnesota and had been hiding for five years from an abusive husband," the report says. "She was terrified of being found, she said, and that was the reason she could not give the parole agent any information."
Garrido finally admitted to a Concord officer that he had kidnapped and raped Alyssa, the report says. Dugard revealed her identity and "confirmed that she had been kidnapped and raped by Garrido."
'Survival skill'
Concord police Lt. Jim Lardieri declined to comment on the report. McGregor Scott, a former U.S. attorney who represents Dugard, did not return a call Thursday. Dugard's stepfather, Carl Probyn, told People magazine that the two girls, now 11 and 15, thought Dugard was their sister.
There is no evidence to suggest Dugard ever tried to escape the Walnut Avenue house where she and her two girls lived in a hidden backyard lair of tents, sheds and outbuildings, authorities say.
Her attempts to hide her true identity come as no surprise, said Katherine van Wormer, a social work professor at the University of Northern Iowa who has written about Dugard and other kidnap victims.
"After so many years of psyching themselves up, it's sort of like a denial. It's a survival skill. It becomes second nature," she said. "You shut off the part of your mind that would cause you to think in a disloyal way. And you go along.
"I call it 'traumatic bonding.' They really love these people," van Wormer added. "Maybe there is some element of protectiveness there, and a lack of judgment. It's just not rational, but she kept on doing it." ..Source..
November 6, 2009
CA- Jaycee Lee Dugard showed signs of Stockholm syndrome
11-6-2009 California:
Jaycee Lee Dugard showed signs of Stockholm syndrome when she was found after 18 years in captivity, according to an official report by California's inspector general.
When first interviewed by parole officers who were suspicious of her alleged abductor Phillip Garrido she did not reveal her identity.
Instead, she told investigators she was a battered wife from Minnesota who was hiding from her abusive husband, and described Garrido as a "great person" who was "good with her kids".
Miss Dugard, who called herself "Alyssa", told interviewers she was aware Garrido was a convicted sex offender but that he was a "changed man". Only after Garrido admitted he had kidnapped and raped her did she identify herself as Jaycee Dugard, the report said.
Since her release and being reunited with her family Miss Dugard has indicated she will testify against Garrido and his wife Nancy who are charged with her abduction and rape.
McGregor Scott, a lawyer hired by her family, said: "Miss Dugard is fully committed to working with law enforcement to ensure Mr Garrido is held accountable for his crimes."
The report by inspector general David Shaw also listed a catalogue of mistakes by parole officers assigned to monitor Garrido which prolonged Miss Dugard's imprisonment.
Garrido is accused of kidnapping Miss Dugard in 1991, when she was 11. Three years earlier, he had been released from prison after serving only 11 years of a 50-year sentence for rape.
Mr Shaw said: "We determined that Garrido was only properly supervised 12 out of 123 months, a failure rate of 90 per cent." Parole officers failed to interview Garrido's neighbours in Antioch, California or to investigate utility wires running to a secret backyard compound where Miss Dugard, and the two daughters Garrido fathered by her, are believed to have lived.
Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response in which kidnap victims begin to show sympathy for their abductors. It was named after a robbery in Sweden in which hostages became emotionally attached to their captors. ..Source.. by Nick Allen in Los Angeles
CA- Sex Offender GPS: A Tool, Not a Solution
A vendor has sold the state a white elephant, GPS will NEVER PREVENT crimes. Notice the comment about how parole agents must VISUALLY review reports from GPS units to see if they SEE any violations, nothing is automated. That type of system is a complete waste of taxpayer money. Given Garrido was on that type of GSP, is it any wonder why Agents never had time to do more than "Hello and Good Bye" when visiting parolees?
11-6-2009 California:
SACRAMENTO, CA - All 6,782 sex offenders currently on parole in California are being monitored by GPS. But the case involving Phillip Garrido shows the system is far from foolproof.
"We've never claimed (GPS) is going to end all problems with tracking sex offenders," said Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Gordon Hinkle. "That's not how the department looks at its use."
Parole Agent Bryan Nakayama demonstrated how he tracks the 23 paroled sex offenders under his supervision. Every day he reviews a map of each parolee's daily travels, looking for suspicious activity and curfew violations. But he readily admits the technology has its limitations.
"The GPS will only show you where they're at. It doesn't show you what they're doing," Nakayama pointed out.
For example, GPS monitoring showed Garrido spent a good deal of time in the area behind his home. Only after his arrest was it revealed the backyard is where he kept 1991 kidnap victim Jaycee Lee Dugard and her two children that he fathered.
Parole Agent Mark McCarthy believes GPS mapping can't replace human interaction in the field. "You still have to rely on good, basic casework," he said.
Voters approved Jessica's Law in 2006, mandating that all sex offenders be tracked by GPS for life. So far, GPS tracking has only been implemented for sex offenders on active parole, and fewer than a third of them are monitored in near-real time.
Most paroled sex offenders are passively monitored with gaps in tracking and reports delayed by a day or longer. Garrido was among those on passive GPS monitoring.
CDCR spokesman Gordon Hinkle said the department would like to place all paroled sex offenders on near-real time monitoring, but lacks the money and manpower to do so. ..Source.. by George Warren
November 5, 2009
CA- California Official Admits Failure in Jaycee Dugard Case
11-5-2009 California:
Parole Officers Ignored GPS Inconsistencies and Reports of Children on Phillip Garrido's Property
The corrections department official who was slammed in a California state report for failing to properly supervise Jaycee Dugard's accused kidnapper said today his parole agent's workload restricted him to spending only 45 minutes a week on each of his cases.
"Mistakes were made by the department and by this agent," Matthew Cate, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told "Good Morning America" today. "Our focus, though, is to make sure each agent has more time in that 45 minutes to focus on GPS tracks."
The scathing report, released Wednesday by the California Office of the Inspector General, said Phillip Garrido's parole officers missed several chances to rescue the now 29-year-old Dugard and the two daughters fathered by the registered sex offender.
Garrido was outfitted with GPS monitoring, according to the report, but parole agents ignored 335 alerts that his device had lost its signal, which Cate blamed on the location of his house and poor reception. Other signals showed Garrido was spending a considerable amount of time in his backyard.
The report also noted that Garrido was paid 60 visits by parole agents in a 10-year period. Even where there were obvious clues that something was amiss in the Garrido household, there was no follow-up.
A neighbor in 1991 -- the year of the kidnapping -- reported seeing a young blond girl in the backyard who said her name was Jaycee. And in 2008 a parole office found a young girl in Garrido's house, a direct violation of his parole, but did nothing.
And Garrido, a man with a violent history of rape and kidnapping, was considered a minimum-level offender when authorities now say he should have been classified as a highly dangerous predator.
California Inspector General David Shaw said his department's review found that Garrido was properly supervised for 12 out of the 123 months he was under California's jurisdiction, a failure rate of 90 percent.
Dugard was found in August, 18 years after her 1991 kidnapping. She was rescued after Garrido, 58, took her two daughters to hand out religious material at the UC Berkeley campus, tipping off two police employees there.
A background check showed that Garrido was a registered sex offender and his nearly two-decades-old crime unraveled when he showed up at a meeting with his parole officer with Dugard and the two girls in tow.
Cate admitted today that if it hadn't been for the UC Berkeley employees, it is "very possible" that Dugard and her daughters would still be in the Garridos' backyard.
Dugard initially protected Garrido when confronted by authorities the day she was rescued, telling them that he was a good man and that she was from Minnesota, hiding from an abusive husband, according to the report.
Dugard and her family did not comment on the specifics of the report but issued a statement on the overall findings.
"The inspector general's report clearly sets out many missed opportunities to bring a much earlier end to the nightmares of Jaycee Dugard and her family," a family spokesperson, who asked not to be identified, told ABCNews.com today, reading from a statement. "We expect that the appropriate authorities will take the necessary action to ensure this never happens again. In addition, Jaycee is fully committed to holding Mr. Garrido accountable for the crimes he has committed."
Garrido and his wife, Nancy, have been charged on 28 counts, including rape and kidnapping. They have pleaded not guilty. Garrido's bond has been set at $30 million.
Report: Parole System Jeopardizes Public Safety
The report also noted several general shortcomings in the system that "transcend parolee Garrido's case and jeopardize public safety."
Among the department's shortcomings in the Garrido case: Failure to adequately classify Garrido, who had a history as a sexually violent predator, and supervise him accordingly.
Failure to obtain key information from federal parole authorities.
Failure to train parole agents to conduct parolee home visits.
Failure to talk to neighbors or local public safety agencies.
Failure to act on information clearly showing Garrido had violated parole terms.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation took charge of Garrido's supervision in 1999 after he was released from federal supervision. Garrido was convicted in the 1970s of raping and kidnapping a California woman.
Recommendations include more training on search techniques to look for clues for potential parole violations or criminal behavior and contacting neighbors for information on parolee behavior.
Shortly after Garrido was arrested in connection with Dugard's rape and kidnapping, a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation official hailed the parole agents who had been assigned to Garrido's case, saying that Garrido had complied with his parole conditions and never received a violation.
But the report indicated that while Garrido had never been issued a formal violation from the state of California, he committed several violations in the past several years. The report did not list those specific violations.
The state began investigating the handling of Garrido's supervision "almost immediately" after Dugard was found, Shaw told ABCNews.com in September.
Shaw said it is believed that Garrido had five or six parole supervisors assigned by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in the past 10 years.
The investigation, he said in September, was to see if there had been any misconduct on the part of a state employee and to determine whether improvements could be made to prevent a similar situation from occurring again.
State parole officers and police are known to have paid Garrido and his wife, Nancy, visits to their Antioch, Calif., home. As recently as 2006, an officer with the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office was called to the house on a complaint from a neighbor that there were people living in the backyard.
The officer met with Garrido in his front yard, determined there was no threat and left.
At a press conference in August, Sheriff Warren Rupf took responsibility for the incident and noted that they were not aware of Garrido's sex offender status.
"He did not enter or request to enter the backyard. This is not an acceptable outcome. Organizationally, we should have been more inquisitive, more curious and turned over a rock or two," he said at the time. "I cannot change the course of events. But we are beating ourselves up over this and will continue to do so."
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Gordon Hinkle said the 2006 incident was cause in itself for review of communications between the state and local jurisdictions. Garrido's parole officer at the time was never notified of the complaint.
In the weeks after the Garridos' arrest, much of the blame seemed to rest on manpower: overwhelmed police officers and parole officers who have dozens or hundreds of felons to check on in a state that has been besieged by budget shortfalls.
Hinkle said parole officers are assigned to sex offenders on a 40 to 1 ratio statewide, unless the offender has been designated as a "sexually violent" predator, in which case the ratio shrinks to 20 to 1.
Garrido, he said, was not classified as a sexually violent predator.
In addition to the Garrido case, the supervision of sex offenders has come under fire in other states recently, most notably in the case of Cleveland predator Anthony Sowell, a registered sex offender who was charged with murder Saturday. Authorities have so far found 11 bodies hidden in his home.
Sex offenders were also at the forefront of the search for whoever kidnapped and murdered 7-year-old Somer Thompson in northern Florida last month. No arrests have been made in her death.
Jaycee Dugard Relishing Reunion With Family
Dugard, now 29, and her daughters, 11 and 15, have been living with her mother and half-sister in an undisclosed location in Northern California ever since they were reunited. A recent People magazine photo shoot portrayed the young woman, whose hair has darkened from blond to light brown, smiling with her family and happily riding horses.
Dugard was 11 years old when she was snatched off the street near her school bus stop in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. Her stepfather, Carl Probyn, heard her screams and chased the car down the street on a bicycle to no avail.
A gray Ford later impounded from Garrido's property matched the description Probyn gave to authorities after Dugard was abducted.
Garrido has also been considered a potential suspect in the disappearances of 9-year-old Michaela Garecht in 1988 and 11-year-old Ilene Misheloff in 1989. Both girls vanished within close proximity of where Garrido was living at the time and in a similar fashion as the Dugard abduction. Michaela was taken in broad daylight in front of a friend.
Searches of the Garridos' property once the Dugard investigators moved out turned up several pieces of bone fragment, but tests later revealed they were too old to have been connected to the disappearance of either girl. ..Source.. by SARAH NETTER
November 4, 2009
CA- California Officials Faulted for Supervision of Sex Offender Accused of Kidnapping Jaycee Dugard
Inspector General's Audit Report of Supervision of Phillip Garrido
11-4-2009 California:
Corrections officials failed to properly supervise convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido and missed opportunities to discover the girl he allegedly kidnapped and held in his backyard for 18 years, a report released Wednesday said.
The review by state Inspector General David Shaw blasted the handling of Garrido's case by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation during the decade he was under state supervision after being paroled in a previous rape case.
The report said parole agents were not trained to conduct home visits and did not follow up on information that showed Garrido violated his parole. It also faulted the state's GPS-monitoring system, saying it gives the public a false sense of security concerning the whereabouts of offenders.
Shaw said the GPS system falls short of its potential and recommended developing and implementing a comprehensive monitoring policy.
Police have said Garrido held Jaycee Dugard captive and raped her in a backyard encampment of tents during a period from 1999 until his arrest in August. He allegedly fathered her two children.
Shaw criticized parole agents for not investigating the clearly visible utility wires running from Garrido's house to the secret compound; not talking to neighbors who might have said something about the children; and not questioning further the presence of a 12-year-old girl during a home visit.
"The department failed to properly supervise Garrido and missed numerous opportunities to discover his victims," the report states.
The corrections department issued a written response saying it agreed to improve the parole system and cited legislation that will become effective next year intended to reduce caseloads among agents.
The total parole population in California is 109,982, with sex offenders numbering 6,782. The state has 2,493 parole agents, the statement said.
Garrido, 58, was under federal parole supervision and required to register as a sex offender when he and his wife, Nancy Garrido, allegedly snatched Dugard outside her South Lake Tahoe home in 1991 when the girl was 11. Phillip Garrido had been convicted in 1977 for kidnapping and raping a 25-year-old woman.
California took over Garrido's supervision in 1999.
As a parolee, Garrido wore a GPS-linked ankle bracelet that tracked his movements, met with his parole agent several times each month and was subject to routine surprise home visits and random drug and alcohol tests.
The Garridos have pleaded not guilty to 29 counts related to Dugard's abduction, rape and imprisonment.
Dugard, 29, was reunited with her family in August, and is living with her daughters and mother in an undisclosed location in Northern California. ..Source.. by Fox News
November 2, 2009
Anthony Sowell and Phillip Garrido Cases Raise Questions About Sex Offender Monitoring
11-2-2009 National:
Sowell Was Last Visited By Police About One Month Ago
Registered sex offender Anthony Sowell was able to hide six decomposed bodies in his Cleveland home from officials who routinely checked in on him has called into question the effectiveness of the probation and parole system.
There are too few officers checking on a growing registry of sex offenders that often tops 100 for each officer to keep an eye on, at times giving the same level of scrutiny to offenders who had one-time flings with a minor to dangerous predators. "The system is broken in the sense that we have a lot of people on sex registries and while it gives us a list of people who might be involved in crimes, there are so many people on those lists that they're overly inclusive," said Jonathan Simon, the associate dean for Jurisprudence and Social Policy at UC Berkeley's School of Law. "[These lists] don't give authorities the chance to select those who are the higher risks," said Simon.
Sowell, 50, was last visited by officials on Sept. 22, more than a month before it was discovered that there were six women dead in the home, five of whom are believed to have been strangled.
Investigators said some of the bodies had been in Sowell's home for months, possibly years. Sheriffs deputies say they were not allowed to go into Sowell's home on their routine house checks because Sowell, who spent 15 years in prison for choking and raping a 21-year-old woman in 1989, was not on probation or parole.
Sowell's house was only entered by authorities after a woman in the neighborhood reported having been raped inside the home, giving police reasons for a search warrant.
In September, California Inspector General David Shaw launched an investigation into how several different state parole officers failed to discover that accused kidnapper Phillip Garrido was able to keep Jaycee Dugard hidden for 18 years. Dugard was discovered in Garrido's Antioch, Calif., yard in August.
Shaw told ABCNews.com at the time that Garrido, 58, had five or six different state parole officers assigned to check up on him over the nearly two decades he held Dugard in his back yard.
The officers checking on Garrido at any one time had a case load that included at least 39 other offenders, according to public records.
Steve Austin, a correctional program specialist at the National Institute of Corrections, told ABCNews.com that these two cases highlight the problems that exist in the parole and probation system.
"A lot of times the resources are so limited that the parole agencies aren't doing the kind of checks that the public might think they are," said Austin. "These parole officers have such large caseloads they aren't able to do intricate checks of these offenders' homes."
Anthony Sowell Case Highlights Problems With Sex Offender Registries
In Garrido's case, officers were called to the home in 2006 when neighbors complained that there might be people living in the backyard. Officers reportedly met with Garrido in his front yard and determined everything was fine, a conclusion that the Contra Costa sheriff's office later took responsibility for.
Austin said that parole officers simply knocking on the doors of offenders and moving on to the next name on their list is not unusual.
Jonathan Simon, the associate dean for Jurisprudence and Social Policy at UC Berkeley's School of Law, said that the long lists sex offenders like Garrido and Sowell are put on are often ineffective in preventing future crimes from being committed.
"The system is broken in the sense that we have a lot of people on sex registries and while it gives us a list of people who might be involved in crimes, there are so many people on those lists that they're overly inclusive," said Simon. "[These lists] don't give authorities the chance to select those who are the higher risks," said Simon.
When 7-year-old Somer Thompson disappeared in northern Florida last month and was found days later in a Georgia landfill, police fanned out to interview the registered sex offenders in the area. There were 150 registered sex offenders within a nine mile radius of Somer's house.
Simon said another problem with the system is that many officers who follow offenders for years tend to get lax in their surveillance after making house calls for years.
"How do you spot [a criminal] and whose behavior on the surface doesn't put them far outside the norm in their community?" said Simon. ..Source.. by EMILY FRIEDMAN
October 15, 2009
CA- First pic of kidnap survivor Jaycee Dugard, 'I'm so happy'
10-15-2009 California:
She was gone for 18 years and no one truly knows or understands what she went through at the hands of a convicted sex offender.
But kidnap survivor Jaycee Dugard has an amazing attitude along with her stunning life story.
"I'm so happy to be back with my family," she told People.
She and her two daughters, Angel, 15 and Starlit, 11, are living with Jaycee's mom Terry Probyn, 50, reports People.
Her captor, Phillip Garrido, is in jail having pled not guilty to charges of kidnapping and other heinous crimes.
Jaycee is not living under the shadow of what happened to her. She is in the kitchen cooking and riding horses.
A spokeswoman for the Dugard family, Erika Schulte, told NBC's "Today" show that the release of the photos was Jaycee's way of saying thank you to the public that has showed so much support.
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy
Jaycee is riding horses as part of her therapy and her daughters are catching up in their schooling, although they were already pretty much up to their grade level when they were found this summer.
People has an extensive interview and collection of family photos in its issue that hits stands Friday. ..Source.. by Kimberley McGee
October 10, 2009
CA- Phillip Garrido Created His Own Elementary School in 2006
10-10-2009 California:
Normally Antioch schools are at the top of their class, but one local school has turned out to be every parents worst nightmare. In 2006, a quick background check on the Phillip C. Knight Institute wouldn’t have turned up much information, but it turns out that it was being run by none other than Phillip Garrido.
That’s right folks, the same guy who admitted to visiting local elementary schools just so that he could masturbate was able to get a business license to run his own elementary school just outside of Antioch. While there is no evidence to suggest that Garrido ever enrolled students in the school, the mere existence of the business license raises troubling questions about the safety of California’s private school system.
According to the Contra Costa County recorder’s office, Garrido filed two applications for his school. The first was filed on Jan 31, 2006 and used the name of “The Phillip C Knight” for the business. In August, he filed a second application and used the name Phillip C Knight Institute.
‘Phillip C. Knight’ is an alias that Garrido also used on his website, ‘Voices Revealed‘. The website also lists his e-mail address as ‘phillipcknight@yahoo.com‘. One purpose of using the alias may have been to hide the fact that his private school was being run by a registered sex offender.
At the time of the business filing, Jaycee’s two children would have been 12 and 8 years old. While the exact nature of the “institute” isn’t known, there seems to be two different schools of thought on Garrido’s possible motivations. The first is almost too terrible to imagine, that he intended to run his own elementary school in order to groom future victims.
Given his religious beliefs, it’s not too difficult to imagine a scenario where he could have convinced followers to enroll their kids into an academy where he was head principal. The mere fact that he was able to get this kind of business permit to begin with raises some serious questions about what type of screening takes place, when someone wants to start their own private school in California. If sexual predators are able to get around the criminal background checks by starting their own business, what safeguards are in place to protect our children?
The second school of thought is that the “institute” was created as part of an attempt to legitimatize the home schooling of Jaycee’s two kids. Reports have already confirmed that Jaycee and her children never visited a doctor or attended a public school. Given his desire to keep the kids off the grid, we are a bit puzzled as to why he would take the steps to officially create the “home school” and then fail to register it with the State of California. According to their 2006-07 private school database, there is no record of the Phillip C. Knight Institute ever being listed. The idea of a ‘home school’ would be appealing to Garrido because it would limit the outside attention that a regular public school would bring. Pictures of the Garrido residence confirm that there were many books and instructional tools lying around the compound, so it’s possible that the DBA application was intended to get discounts on textbooks.
If Garrido established the school as a way to legally home school Jaycee’s kids, then it raises the disturbing question of why sexual predators would even be allowed to home school their kids to begin with. Don’t get me wrong, parents should absolutely have the right to teach their kids on their own, but we take away the right to vote and the right to own firearms from felons, so why would it be unreasonable to take away the right to home school from convicted sex offenders? Two years ago, home schooling was almost declared illegal in California after a father who was accused of being abusive to one of his kids was sued to make him put his kids back in school. The California supreme court eventually ruled that the State had the right to make this request, but that families still had the right to educate their own kids.
Why should it take years of litigation in order to prevent children from being locked into an abusive prison? Garrido’s case is clearly not the norm, but if he was able to create a legal home schooling entity, then something is clearly broken with the system. For the sake of parents who want to know that private schools are safe and for the kids who may be stuck in an abusive home schooling environment, there needs to be some ground rules in place for those who do want to engage in alternative education.
There should be rules that require background checks on people trying create private schools. People convicted of sex crimes should be barred from establishing their own private institutions. What about the whole home schooling industry? How is the government suppose to regulate what goes on behind closed doors? It’s obvious by looking at the Garrido case that the State needs to have more control and oversight of the home schooling industry. ..Source.. by Simon King
October 6, 2009
CA- Jaycee Dugard case: Tipster in 1992 reported seeing abducted girl eyeing missing-child flier of herself
10-6-2009 California:
An anonymous caller in 1992 reported seeing a girl he thought was Jaycee Dugard staring at herself on a missing-child flier at an Oakley gas station, then returning to a yellow van, but the tipster disappeared and an area search came up empty, a Contra Costa County sheriff's official said.
The van, which the caller described as possibly a Dodge, could be a match to an old yellow Dodge junker that authorities removed last month from the property of Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy, near Antioch.
The tip, which came less than a year after Dugard's 1991 abduction from her South Lake Tahoe street, is among myriad details that El Dorado County prosecutors are gathering as they aim to build a leakproof case against the Garridos, who remain held without bail in a Placerville jail. They face 29 felony counts in Dugard's kidnapping and what authorities call a childhood of sexual bondage while confined to a hidden backyard warren of tents and shacks.
It seems to add little, however, to what authorities already know, said William Clark, chief assistant district attorney for El Dorado County.
"It's not something we've really said is dynamite. We pretty much know where she was in 1992," Clark said. "We've got clairvoyant tips, we got a whole tip line on (the case). To be honest, we're overwhelmed with just trying to get the mass, the core of the case together."
Authorities believe the Garridos spirited Jaycee directly from her South Lake Tahoe street to the house on Walnut Avenue, at first keeping her locked way in a shed. The next year, a deputy who arrived at the gas station found no sign of them, and no witnesses, said Contra Costa sheriff's Capt. Daniel Terry. Sheriff's officials forwarded their report to investigators in El Dorado County, who continued to pursue the case for years.
"We made all the necessary efforts. We did an area check. We looked for witnesses, canvassed the area. We were never able to prove there was any validity to it, or whether it was a hoax," Terry said. "The problem we have here is, you don't have a person to call or talk to, saying 'Can you be more specific?' We acted on it like it was legit. We were never able to confirm who the reporting party was or find any independent witnesses."
A tip from UC Berkeley officers led Phillip Garrido's parole officer to call him into the Concord parole office Aug. 26. Garrido brought his wife, Dugard and the two girls he fathered with her, police say. Once separated, Dugard, now 29, revealed herself under police questioning.
Today, better technology would allow investigators to check local registered sex offenders against ownership records on vehicles matching the description, Terry noted.
Still, there is no evidence that Phillip Garrido registered as a sex offender until 1999, when he transferred from federal to state parole supervision. He was first on federal parole from a 1976 conviction for kidnapping a South Lake Tahoe casino worker and taking her to Nevada to rape her in a storage shed. He transferred in 1999 to state supervision, under a lifetime parole term on his Nevada conviction for the rape.
If true, the report that Jaycee was seen by herself, at least briefly, supports what authorities have said: It appears she never tried to escape her captors.
"If it was a proper sighting, it would indicate he had at least taken her out of the house in a car," Clark said. "I'm sure psychologically she couldn't leave."
Later, Dugard gave birth to the two girls and became the creative force in his home printing business, former customers say. She is cooperating with authorities, said Clark, who declined to elaborate.
"She's talked to us. She hasn't said, 'I don't want to be around these people,'" he said. "She's happy to have her daughters. It's kind of, I guess, a blessing in disguise, in a way. It's not the normal way anybody wants to have children." ..Source.. by John Simerman, Contra Costa Times
September 30, 2009
CA- Review targets parole lapses in Calif. kidnap case
9-30-2009 California:
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California's inspector general is reviewing whether lapses in the state's parole system allowed Jaycee Dugard's alleged kidnapper to go undetected for 18 years, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
"We all are shaking our heads, saying the same thing: 'How did this happen?'" said Laura Hill, spokeswoman for Inspector General David Shaw.
Hill said five or six parole agents monitored Phillip Garrido during the 10 years he was under California's control as a convicted rapist. He previously was under federal parole supervision for eight years.
Authorities say he was hiding Dugard in the backyard of his Antioch home the whole time.
Garrido is charged with kidnapping Dugard outside her South Lake Tahoe home in 1991, when she was 11 years old. She resurfaced last month, along with two daughters allegedly fathered by Garrido.
"We're not so much focused about what one parole officer did wrong, but what went wrong," Hill said.
The investigation is important "so that nothing like this happens again," she said. "So if there are changes to be made at the system level, the department knows what they are."
The report will be completed within 30 days, she said.
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman Oscar Hidalgo welcomed the external investigation, but said the department is conducting its own review.
"We're always going to look to see if there's any problems, even if we believe we're 100 percent right," Hidalgo said. "It would not be prudent of us not to follow up and make sure all of the processes were followed."
Hidalgo said it appears parole agents made the proper visits to Garrido's home for years without discovering the victim and her children hidden behind a second backyard fence. He credited Garrido's current parole agent with uncovering Dugard's identity after Garrido's behavior with his two daughters caught the attention of University of California, Berkeley campus police.
"We're looking at what the agent did very well, and what the agent did very well was he arrested this guy," Hidalgo said. "He followed up on his instincts. He attacked quite aggressively once his suspicions were aroused."
The department has denied public records requests by The Associated Press and other media for Garrido's full parole file, citing government codes and regulations and confidential information within the file.
Hidalgo said the department plans to release more parole information, however, in cooperation with prosecutors.
"We're balancing the criminal prosecution ... with what the public appetite is for this to be shared," he said. ..Source.. by DON THOMPSON
September 25, 2009
CA- Ex-U.S. Attorney Representing Jaycee Dugard
9-25-2009 California:
A former U.S. Attorney is representing Jaycee Dugard, the California woman who disappeared when she was 11 years old, allegedly kidnapped and held for 18 years by a convicted sex offender who fathered her two children.
McGregor Scott was the top federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of California from 2003 until January. He is representing Dugard on a pro bono basis, he told Main Justice in an interview. Dugard, now 29, has told authorities she was held captive by Phillip and Nancy Garrido in a secret backyard structure, where she cared for her children.
Dugard was found this summer after she and her daughters accompanied Phillip Garrido, who’d previously been convicted of kidnapping and rape charges in Nevada, to a meeting with his parole officer. The couple pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The ex-U.S. Attorney previously acted as a spokesperson on the Dugard case for the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office in California, which is investigating the Garridos. Scott, a partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe in their Sacramento office, said he agreed last week to represent the Dugard and her daughters at the request of her family.
“These are people who will need good legal advice and counsel going forward,” Scott said. ..Source.. by Andrew Ramonas
September 23, 2009
CA- Parole panel in '99 praised Garrido's behavior out of prison
All I can say is, this is getting to be a "Comedy of Disasters" by everyone involved!
9-22-2009 California:
Nearly eight years after Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped, Phillip Garrido received a certificate from the U.S. Parole Commission lauding him for his behavior since his release from prison in 1988.
"You are hereby discharged from parole," the March 9, 1999, certificate read.
"After a thorough review of your case, the Commission has decided that you are deserving of an early discharge," said the document signed by administrator Raymond E. Essex. "You are commended for having responded positively to supervision and for the personal accomplishment(s) you have made.
"The Commission trusts that you will continue to be a productive citizen and obey the laws of society."
The certificate is among 19 pages of parole commission papers on Garrido released to The Bee under the federal Freedom of Information Act. Authorities allege Garrido kidnapped Dugard, then 11, near her South Lake Tahoe-area home in 1991 and managed to hide her from federal and state parole agents for years afterward.
Under the scenario laid out by law enforcement officials, Garrido had been out on parole for three years when he grabbed Dugard and had held her for eight years when he was released from parole for exemplary behavior.
Garrido was convicted of kidnap and rape in 1977 in Nevada and sentenced to 50 years in federal prison and a concurrent state sentence of five years to life. The newly released federal documents indicate he won release from federal parole after 11 years, even though he committed three drug-related offenses while in federal custody.
The federal parole commission declined to release 92 pages of documents from his file, saying that could "constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of the personal privacy of third parties."
It released no information about how often a federal parole agent visited Garrido's Antioch house.
Nor did the commission indicate whether parole authorities ever became aware of a young woman living in his home or backyard.
Redacted from the 19 pages that were released are the reasons he was reinstated to parole after a 1993 drug violation.
At the time he was sentenced, Garrido was expected to be on federal parole until 2027. The documents show that he was paroled from the federal prison at Lompoc on Jan. 20, 1988, "with a total of 14,235 days remaining to be served."
In the certificate of parole, Garrido was judged to have "substantially observed the rules of the institution," although two months earlier federal officials found he had violated prison rules.
"You committed 3 drug-related infractions," a Nov. 20, 1987, report stated.
The parole commission decided in January 1988 that his release "would not jeopardize the public welfare," and he was ordered released with the agreement that he would remain in Nevada until April 10, 2027.
The federal sentence covered Garrido's kidnap conviction, and he was sent from Lompoc to a Nevada state prison to complete his rape sentence of five years to life. Less than a year later, he was released from prison by the Nevada parole board, and despite the federal requirement that he remain in Nevada, he was allowed to return to his home in Antioch.
Authorities allege he kidnapped Dugard in 1991 and kept her hidden in his backyard for 18 years. The federal records give only a bare-bones glimpse of Garrido's supervision during that time, and do not provide any indication of how regularly he was visited by federal parole agents.
However, the records confirm that Garrido was subject to drug testing and that a warrant for his arrest was issued March 18, 1993, after a marijuana violation. He was sent to a federal prison in Dublin for about a month, then ordered released back to Antioch on electronically monitored house arrest until Aug. 31, 1993.
While he was incarcerated at Dublin, authorities allege, Garrido's wife, Nancy, kept watch over Dugard.
After being released from federal parole in 1999, Garrido technically faced lifetime parole under the supervision of Nevada officials. However, Nevada transferred responsibility to California because he was living in Antioch. ..Source.. by Sam Stanton and Denny Walsh
