Kidnapped woman hidden in CA backyard for 18 years

[hotwheelstx]

PLACERVILLE, Calif. – A little girl snatched on her way to school was kept hidden from the world behind a series of fences, sheds and tents for nearly two decades, even giving birth to her suspected abductor's children in the suburban backyard compound less than 200 miles from the home where she was taken.

Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was 11 when she was abducted from a South Lake Tahoe street in 1991, was taken directly to the house and sheltered from the world in a secret, leafy backyard, investigators said Thursday.

Her abductor, investigators said, raped her and fathered two children with her, the first when Jaycee was about 14. Those children, both girls now 11 and 15, also were kept hidden away in the backyard compound behind the Antioch home.

"None of the children have ever been to school, they've never been to a doctor," El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar said. "They were kept in complete isolation in this compound."

Even a parole agent who visited 58-year-old Phillip Garrido's home didn't have an inkling about the hidden compound, Kollar said. Garrido is a registered sex offender on federal parole for rape and kidnapping convictions.

"The way the house is set up, the way the backyard is set up, you could walk through the backyard, walk through the house, and never know," Kollar said.

But neighbors said there were clues even before a parole agent on Wednesday noticed Dugard, now 29, who accompanied Garrido, his wife and the children to a parole office.

Neighbor Diane Doty said she could see the tents and often heard children playing in the backyard, the corner of which abuts her own backyard. She said she even suspected the children lived in the tents, but her husband said she should leave the family alone.

"I asked my husband, 'Why is he living in tents?'" she said. "And he said, 'Maybe that is how they like to live.'"

Garrido, 58, is being held for investigation of various kidnapping and sex charges. Authorities said his 54-year-old wife, Nancy Garrido, was with him during the kidnapping in South Lake Tahoe and she also has been arrested.

The case broke after Garrido was spotted Tuesday with two children as he tried to enter the University of California, Berkeley, campus to hand out religious literature. Officers said he was acting suspiciously toward the children. They questioned him and did a background check, determined that he was a parolee and informed his parole officer.

Garrido was ordered to appear for a parole meeting and arrived Wednesday with Dugard, who identified herself as "Allissa," his wife, and two children. During questioning, corrections officials said he admitted to kidnapping Dugard.

Investigators said he did not yet have an attorney.

Dugard was reunited Thursday with her mother as her family learned that their blue-eyed, blonde ponytailed little girl had spent most of her life in captivity. Police said they had no evidence that she had ever reached out to anyone beyond the compound walls.

"She was in good health, but living in a backyard for the past 18 years does take its toll," Kollar said.

The backyard compound had electricity from extension cords and a rudimentary outhouse and shower, "as if you were camping," Kollar said.

Authorities said they do not know if Garrido also abused his daughters, but they are investigating.

Dugard's stepfather, who witnessed her abduction and was a longtime suspect in the case, said he was overwhelmed by the news after doing everything he could to help find her.

"It broke my marriage up. I've gone through hell, I mean I'm a suspect up until yesterday," a tearful Carl Probyn, 60, told The Associated Press at his home in Orange, Calif.

Garrido's compound was located in Antioch, a city of 100,000 about 170 miles from the Dugard family home in South Lake Tahoe.

People who knew Garrido said he became increasingly fanatic about his religious beliefs in recent years, sometimes breaking out into song and claiming that God spoke to him through a box. "In the last couple years he started getting into this strange religious stuff. We kind of felt sorry for him," said Tim Allen, president of East County Glass and Window Inc. in Pittsburg, Calif., who bought business cards and letterhead from Garrido's printing business for the last decade.

Three times in recent years, Garrido arrived at Allen's showroom with two "cute little blond girls" in tow, he said.

In April 2008, Garrido registered a corporation called Gods Desire at his home address, according to the California Secretary of State. During recent visits to the showroom, Garrido would talk about quitting the printing business to preach full time and gave the impression he was setting up a church, Allen said.

"He rambled. It made no sense," he said.

In a blog that appears to have been maintained by Garrido, he wrote that he had hired a private investigator to verify his ability to speak to people using only his mind. In an "affadavit" posted there, he said he had the ability to "control sound with my mind and have developed a device for others to witness this phenomena."

Garrido gave a rambling, sometimes incoherent phone interview to KCRA-TV from the El Dorado County jail Thursday in which he said he had not admitted to a kidnapping and that he had turned his life around since the birth of his first daughter 15 years ago.

"I tell you here's the story of what took place at this house, and you're going to be absolutely impressed. It's a disgusting thing that took place from the end to the beginning. But I turned my life completely around," he said.

In addition to kidnapping allegations, court records showed both Garridos were being held for investigation of rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and kidnapping someone under 14 with intent to rape. Phillip Garrido also faces allegations of sexual penetration.

The AP, as a matter of policy, avoids identifying victims of alleged sexual abuse by name in its news reports. However, Dugard's disappearance had been known and reported for nearly two decades, making impossible any effort to shield her identity now.

Garrido has a long rap sheet dating back to the 1970s.

He was convicted of kidnapping a 25-year-old woman whom he snatched from a South Lake Tahoe parking lot, handcuffed, tied down and held in a mini-warehouse in Reno, according to a November 1976 story in the Reno Gazette-Journal.

He also has a conviction for rape by force or fear stemming from the same incident, and was paroled from a Nevada state prison in 1988, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

In 1991, police believe he was trolling for victims in South Lake Tahoe in a Ford Granada when he snatched Dugard from a bus stop outside her home. The case attracted national attention and was featured on TV's "America's Most Wanted," which broadcast a composite drawing of a suspect seen in the car.

Her stepfather said he saw someone reach out and grab her before the car sped away.

"As soon as I saw the door fly open, the driver's door, I jumped on my mountain bike and I tried to get to the top of the hill but I had no energy," Probyn recalled. "I rode back down and yelled at my neighbor, 911!"

Probyn said his wife, from whom he is separated, was devastated by the kidnapping. He said for 10 years after the crime, she would take a week off work at Christmas and on the anniversary of the abduction and spend the time crying at home.

Jaycee Lee Dugard has retained custody of her children and was staying at a Bay area motel, authorities said.

Associated Press Writers Paul Elias and Terry Collins in San Francisco; Gillian Flaccus in Orange, Calif.; Brooke Donald in Antioch, Calif.; Don Thompson in Sacramento and Sandi Chereb in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., contributed to this report.

[OkeDoke]

I just seen this on GMA, that is sick.

[SurferGirl]

Her and her family went thru so much because of some sick perv.
I'm glad she is safe now but she must have really gone thru way too much.

[gmyers]

I can't believe that pervert messed with her when she was so young. If her kids are 11 and 15 she had to be 12 and 16 when she got pregnant with them. Totally sick.

[candygirl]

Until the law gets tougher on these dirty pieces of trashes,we will continue to hear sad stories :mad: Thank goodness the young lady is still alive.

We had a dirty SOB drive around our neighborhood last month asking kids to help him find his dog, one of the kids ran and told her big brother , by the time John got there with PIPE in hand , the dirty SOB was gone. :mad:The kids gave a good description of the SOB to the police and the local news.

[krisharry]

So sad for her and her kids. How does one ever recover from something like this? Tougher sentences for sex offenders now!

[gmyers]

They said she was feeling guilty because she kind of bonded with him over the years. It was probably stockholm syndrome where you bond with your kidnapper.

[littlebuggy]

Have you heard what this sickos defense is?! He gave an interview to the sacramento nbc affiliate kcra and this is what he said.


In the interview, Mr Garrido he said he had not admitted to the kidnapping and that he had turned his life around since the birth of his first daughter 15 years ago.

"Wait until you hear the story of what took place at this house," Mr Garrido said.

"You are going to be completely impressed. It's a disgusting thing that took place with me at the beginning. But I turned my life completely around and to be able to understand that, you have to start there.

"You're going to find the most powerful story coming from the witness, the victim - you wait. If you take this a step at a time, you're going to fall over backwards and in the end, you're going to find the most powerful heart-warming story."


You can go to kcra.com to watch the video on it. This guy is a piece of work.

[gmyers]

What a nut and that poor girl gave birth at that home he said they didn't have money for healthcare. Yeah right, he didn't want to be caught or any questions asked about who the father was.

[janelle]

Well thank God he got crazier as the years went by and tripped himself up. His wife is no better than he is and I hope goes to jail as well.

I would say nosy neighbors are a good thing now a days. That one neighbor could have put an end to it if she only reported her suspicions.

[gmyers]

I can't believe his wife went along with that. Theres no way I'd let my husband keep someone around to have sex with. Especially not a child. Thats sick.

[Jolie Rouge]

He claims to have turned his life around after the birth of his first daughter...

and yet he had a second daughter ... and kept all three prisoner in his backyard ... no interaction with other people ...

How is that "heartwarming" ?? The pervert and his equally perverted wife need to spend some serious time in jail.

[ElleGee]

Can you imagine the Hell those girls are going to go thru when they realize what they came from? It's inevitable they are going to figure this out..

[ma4angels]

This is beyond sick. And the wife is worse then him because she allowed it. I feel for this poor woman. She is feeling quilty about bonding with her kidnapper. She has nothing to feel quilty for she was a little girl when this happened he brainwashed this poor thing I am just glad that she was alive. These poor kids of hers no schooling or doctors visits. I have come to realize that there is so much evil in this world that it is so unreal. I just hope that these three gets some help to get through this and have a better life.

[gmyers]

On mail.com they told how a neighbor called the police in 2006 and told them he had kids and people living in tents in his back yard. When the cop went there he just talked to him on his front porch and didn't go in the back yard or house or anything. He told him it was a violation to have people living in tents in his yard and then left without going back there and checking. They said he didn't know the guy was a sex offender. It also said he was a suspect in the deaths of some prostitues and that he may have been a serial killer. They found the prostitutes dead in an area where he worked and thought he might be linked to their deaths.

[shadowcats]

[QUOTE=hotwheelstx;96200119]PLACERVILLE, Calif. – A little girl snatched on her way to school was kept hidden from the world behind a series of fences, sheds and tents for nearly two decades, even giving birth to her suspected abductor's children in the suburban backyard compound less than 200 miles from the home where she was taken.

Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was 11 when she was abducted from a South Lake Tahoe street in 1991, was taken directly to the house and sheltered from the world in a secret, leafy backyard, investigators said Thursday.

Her abductor, investigators said, raped her and fathered two children with her, the first when Jaycee was about 14. Those children, both girls now 11 and 15, also were kept hidden away in the backyard compound behind the Antioch home

this is just the most distressing part of this story

Describing his two daughters, he said, "Those two girls slept in my arms every single night from birth; I never kissed them."

In a later comment, he said that, from the time the youngest was born, "everything turned around."


this man is also suspected of killing others women . hes under suspision for several hookers who were killed and they still didint check him out properly
how can a man like this get away with this crap. that poor child , you know he had to have been scary to live with and his wife....... what a crap hole.
i wish i could get my hands on them both. id do the indian thing and peg them out on a red ant pile,,,,,,,,, and poor syrup on them , grrrrrrrrrrr
i hope those that are in the jail they go to get ahold of them , they are so
creapy , how can the police justify not knowing she was there,
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr it makes me soooooooooo mad..

:damnmate::damnmate::slapping:tearhair:hang

[fleabones3]

Its sick and twisted and demented. I feel so bad for Jaycee and her girls. To come out of that situation and face this crazy world how it is now compared to when she was 11.. and those girls. There is no way they will ever be able to go to " normal" schools. They will either have to be home schooled, tutored or something. The media is going to kill themselves trying to get pics of Jaycee if nothing else and her girls if they can.

[gmyers]

They said on HLN that he may be linked to the disappearance of two other girls. One woman talked about how he had her in a warehouse naked as a young girl when police showed up. He asked her was she going to be a good girl or was he going to have to tie her up. She said she would be good and not to tie her up. While the cop was there she said she escaped and ran out of there naked.. I believe thats one of the things he went to prison for. The woman is grown now, its supposed to have taken place in the 70's.

[gmyers]

They said today that he also could have taken her because his wife was infertile and wanted kids.

[Jolie Rouge]

Michaela's mom wants Nancy Garrido to tell what she knows
By Linda Goldston
09/24/2009 09:21:04 AM PDT


As she walked through the dusty remains of Phillip Garrido's backyard Tuesday afternoon, Michaela Garecht's mother paused to stare at five shallow holes, a few inches deep, a young child's body long, that investigators had dug in their search of the property.

No link to Michaela was found in those spots in unincorporated Contra Costa County, although to a mother, the holes "look like graves."

Ever since Michaela was snatched from a Hayward street in 1988, Sharon Murch has suffered through thousands of false alarms — dozens of tips from psychics that went nowhere, 14,000 leads — and counting — to police. So far, none of them has been able to answer the question that grips this mother's heart: Where is Michaela?

"Jaycee Dugard's mom woke up one morning and it was just an ordinary day," Murch said, "and then that afternoon she got a phone call that Jaycee was alive. You never know what each day is going to bring."

This time, standing in the backyard of a couple police still believe could have kidnapped Michaela, the day brought relief as police wrapped up their search of the Garridos' property. Investigators found no evidence linking the Garridos with Michaela or the kidnapping of Ilene Misheloff from Dublin.

But while much of their physical labor has ended — removing more than 20 trucks of debris and trash — police face weeks of the painstaking work of looking through thousands of documents and other potential evidence that was removed from the house and grounds of Phillip and Nancy Garrido.

"This investigation is far from being over," said Hayward police Lt. Christine Orrey. "He's still the strongest suspect we have going."

When Murch heard that Dugard had been found alive, her first thought was "Michaela must be with her." But after hearing and reading about Garrido, a convicted sex offender who brutally raped a South Lake Tahoe woman for hours, "it brought a new world of terrors, thinking of what she might have gone through with him," she said.

But if Garrido is the one, Murch is putting her hopes on an appeal to Garrido's wife, Nancy, that she might tell what she knows. In her blog "The Wondering Heart" at www.thewonderingheart.blogspot.com, Murch relays her belief that Nancy Garrido likely was a victim of Garrido, too, and writes: "I can only pray that if Nancy knows anything, she can find the courage to tell."

Police are confident the Garridos were living on the property near Antioch in late 1988, when Michaela was kidnapped. And there was at least one item of Nancy Garrido's left in the dirt as investigators packed their gear — An American Express card in her name, which expired in 1988.

"It's ironic," Murch said as she walked back to her car. "I've had many things come up all along the way."

After years of depression and then taking time off to focus on her other children, it was only recently that Murch became active about missing children again. She set up a Web site for Michaela — www.missingmichaela.com — in July; wrote a child safety manual and started giving a few child safety talks. Then the news surfaced about Dugard.

"I personally believe it's God making this happen," she said. "I don't know what it all means."

She does know it would help her whole family if Michaela could be found. Only one of them, her son, Alex, who was 8 years old when Michaela was kidnapped, remembers their sister, but the others wish they did. Perhaps the greatest toll has been on Murch.

She's never gotten over her fear that another of her children could be taken. She used to call them every 30 minutes when they were out on their own or with friends.

"Even now, I will text them a message: 'siren check, are you OK?' she said. "I used to send that all the time. Occasionally, they'll say, 'Oh, Mom, lightning won't strike twice.' ''

She never imagined a child she dreamed of having could leave her life so soon.

"I had to take fertility pills to get her," Murch said. "I had wanted kids so badly for so long."

Looking back, recalling the depth of her depression as the days without Michaela wore on, "I don't know how my poor kids survived," she said. "I used to lie on the couch with my eyes closed and cry. But they have grown up to be the most amazing, loving, kind, good people in the world."

With the news spotlight on Michaela again, Murch's other children have pitched in to help her dig out photographs and get them to reporters and television stations. They work with a united hope.

"I think it's entirely possible," Murch said. "Maybe it's time for Michaela to come home."

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_13404844?source=yahooNewsML&nclick_check=1

[gmyers]

I feel so sorry for her, she still hopes after all these years they'll find her. I wish a miracle would happen and they did.

[Jolie Rouge]

Judge: Dugard suspects can talk to each other
Lisa Leff And Brooke Donald, Associated Press Writers – 15 mins ago

PLACERVILLE, Calif. – The couple charged with kidnapping Jaycee Dugard and holding her captive for 18 years will be allowed to speak to each other while in jail, a judge said Friday.

Phillip and Nancy Garrido have been held separately since their arrests in August and denied access to each other. Their lawyers argued that they had a constitutional right to visit each other to talk about the case, their finances and their hopes for Dugard and the two daughters she had with Phillip Garrido.

Prosecutors and jail officials opposed the request. Jail officials had said arranging such visits would overburden the staff.

But El Dorado County Superior Court Judge Douglas C. Phimister granted limited visitation during a hearing Friday.

Phimister said Nancy Garrido would be allowed to place two five minute phone calls to her husband over the next several weeks. He scheduled another court hearing on April 15 to discuss the matter further.

The judge also appointed two lawyers to represent Dugard's two daughters.

Meanwhile, Dugard and her family have taken the first step to sue the state of California for lapses officials made while she and her daughters were allegedly held captive by the Garridos.

Dugard, her two daughters and her mother, Terry Probyn, each filed claim forms in late January against the Department of Corrections, said Jon Myers, a spokeswoman for the state's Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board.

Dugard's spokeswoman, Nancy Seltzer, said 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.

By law, victims have six months from the time of the incident to file a personal injury claim against the state.

The forms do not ask for a specific dollar amount, only saying damages exceed $25,000.

The damage or injury specified on the form was for "psychological and emotional injury" and the circumstances that lead to the damage or injury were described as "lapses by the Corrections Department."

A messages left with the Santa Monica, Calif.-based attorney listed on the claims, Dale Kinsella, was not immediately returned.

Prosecutors say Dugard was kidnapped from outside her South Lake Tahoe home in 1991 by the Garridos, then taken to Antioch, Calif., where she lived with two daughters fathered by Phillip Garrido in a ramshackle backyard compound.

Phillip Garrido had been under parole supervision because of a 1977 conviction for raping a 25-year-old woman. He was released from prison in 1988 and placed under federal supervision until 1999, when California took over.

According to an investigation by the Office of Inspector General, mistakes in how California monitored Garrido began right away. Among them, he was wrongly classified as a low-risk offender, which meant looser controls on him, and one agent did not try to confirm the identity of a young girl he saw at the house while on a visit, instead trusting Garrido's claim that she was his niece.

The secretary of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Matthew Cate, has acknowledged serious errors in the handling of the case.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100226/ap_on_re_us/us_kidnapped_girl_found_claims;_ylt=AiFM5miDsb5Dct w1d8h19BKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTQyZ3BlMmdqBGFzc2V0A2FwLz IwMTAwMjI2L3VzX2tpZG5hcHBlZF9naXJsX2ZvdW5kX2NsYWlt cwRjY29kZQNtb3N0cG9wdWxhcgRjcG9zAzYEcG9zAzMEcHQDaG 9tZV9jb2tlBHNlYwN5bl9oZWFkbGluZV9saXN0BHNsawNkdWdh cmRmYW1pbHk-

[Jolie Rouge]

Lawmakers pass $20M settlement for kidnapped girl
Don Thompson, Associated Press Writer – Thu Jul 1, 7:43 pm ET

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A woman who bore two children while being held prisoner for nearly two decades will receive $20 million from the state of California after claiming parole officers failed to do their job and find her while monitoring a convicted rapist.

Lawmakers approved the settlement Thursday for Jaycee Dugard, now 30, and her two daughters, who resurfaced last August after being held in a secret backyard by a suspect identified by authorities as Phillip Garrido. "It is compensation for three people for the rest of their lives who have been horribly damaged over a period of 17 or 18 years," mediator Daniel Weinstein told The Associated Press.

Dugard and her daughters, ages 15 and 12, filed claims in February, saying parole agents with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation began supervising Garrido in 1999 but didn't discover them.

The Dugard family members claimed psychological, physical and emotional damages. "I can't emphasize enough that we've got to be much more prudent in terms of how we provide oversight for released prisoners in the state of California," Assemblyman Ted Gaines, R-Granite Bay, said.

The money will be used to buy the family a home, ensure privacy, pay for education, replace lost income and cover what will likely be years of therapy, said Weinstein, a retired San Francisco County Superior Court judge. In addition, much of the money will be placed in long-term investments, he said. "It was not an effort to make reparations for the years of abuse and incarceration or imprisonment against their will, because ... the damages to these people were incalculable," Weinstein said in a telephone interview. "Part of this was a prudent effort by the state to shut off liability from a catastrophic verdict."

Weinstein praised the state for quickly accepting responsibility, and the Dugards for accepting a reasonable settlement at a time when the state faces a $19 billion budget deficit. He said the scope of the claim was unprecedented in his 20 years as a mediator because of the duration of the crime and that it led to the birth of two children.

The money will come from the state's hard-hit general fund, which pays for most state operations.

Dugard's mother Terry Probyn filed a claim with the state in February but was not included in the settlement, Weinstein said. Her claim is pending and under negotiation by the corrections department and attorney general's office, said Lynn Margherita, a spokeswoman for the Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board.

Dugard's lawyer Dale Kinsella said he could not comment beyond a joint statement issued with the state attorney general detailing how the money will be used.

Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the state corrections department, declined comment.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger intends to sign the bill detailing the settlement, spokesman Aaron McLear said.

Garrido and his wife Nancy have pleaded not guilty to charges that they kidnapped and raped the young woman.

Dugard and her children were hidden at the Garrido home in the eastern San Francisco Bay area city of Antioch, authorities said.

Lawmakers approved the settlement with a 30-1 vote in the Senate and a 62-0 vote in the Assembly. It involved the bulk of the money approved in AB1714, which settles three other claims for a combined $1.49 million.

Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Yuba City, said it was wise for the state to pay the claim quickly rather than fight a court battle that he said "exacerbates the grievous loss of the victims and the lifelong condemnation and pain of their families."

He predicted the state also will pay claims in the case of John Albert Gardner III, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to killing two San Diego County teenagers. Parole agents were also faulted in that case for failing to send Gardner, a convicted sex offender, back to prison.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100701/ap_on_re_us/us_kidnapped_girl_settlement;_ylt=AnZrR7kNDsKGw94A pnj7gjms0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTQwYmVzMnNhBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIw MTAwNzAxL3VzX2tpZG5hcHBlZF9naXJsX3NldHRsZW1lbnQEY2 NvZGUDbW9zdHBvcHVsYXIEY3BvcwM5BHBvcwM2BHB0A2hvbWVf Y29rZQRzZWMDeW5faGVhZGxpbmVfbGlzdARzbGsDbGF3bWFrZX JzcGFz

[Jolie Rouge]

Dugard sues feds over failure to monitor abductor
By BROOKE DONALD - Associated Press | AP – 46 mins ago

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Jaycee Dugard sued the federal government Thursday for failing to monitor the convicted sex offender who kidnapped her and held her captive for 18 years. The complaint filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco said the mistakes by federal parole officers in the handling of Phillip Garrido's case are as "outrageous and inexcusable as they are numerous."

Had federal parole officers done their jobs, Dugard's lawyers allege, Dugard and her daughters would not have had to endure their years of captivity in a ramshackle compound tucked inside Garrido's Antioch backyard. Garrido, who was convicted in 1977 of raping and kidnapping a 25-year-old woman, was on parole and under federal supervision when he kidnapped Dugard in 1991. He fathered Dugard's two children while he and his wife, Nancy, held her captive. The pair was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to kidnapping and rape charges in the case.

The complaint alleges that the federal government's negligence allowed Garrido to be free to kidnap Dugard. The complaint said federal authorities were aware he was still dangerous yet failed to revoke his parole and send him back to prison. Charles Miller, a spokesman at the U.S. Department of Justice, said government attorneys will review the complaint once they are served, and "make a determination about how we will ultimately respond in court."

Dugard's lawyers list a number of incidences in the complaint of alleged misconduct by federal authorities from failing to get Garrido proper mental health treatment to not providing adequate information to state authorities when he was transferred to their charge. They also say authorities neglected to take steps to ensure Garrido wouldn't commit another crime. It says Garrido tested positive for drugs and alcohol while on parole, a violation for a sex offender, but was never punished. It also says authorities ignored reports of sexual misconduct, including a complaint that Garrido showed up at his former victim's work and made an "alarming" comment to her.

"Inexplicably, the federal parole authorities responsible for Garrido's direct supervision disregarded the victim's concerns as mere hysteria," the documents say. After the incident, Garrido's counselor recommended electronic monitoring, but his parole officer disregarded it as "too much of a hassle," according to the complaint.

The documents also allege federal parole officers did not follow up on a sexual harassment complaint by one of Garrido's co-workers. "With this type of resume, it is hard to imagine that Garrido, a parolee classified as 'High Activity' supervision, would have received anything other than the utmost scrutiny and supervision by federal parole authorities," the complaint says. "Garrido, however, received nothing of the sort."

The documents say authorities went several months without checking on him and visited his residence less than a dozen times in the 10 years they supervised him. "Had federal parole authorities demonstrated a modicum of vigilance ... Jaycee and her daughters would not have been forced to endure a virtual lifetime of physical and mental abuse," the lawyers said.

Dugard is seeking unspecified damages from the federal complaint that she says she will donate to her nonprofit organization to help other victims. She and her daughters already have received a $20 million settlement, less legal fees and expenses, from the state of California for the failings of its law enforcement. The state took over Garrido's parole supervision in 1999.

Dugard, who was kidnapped when she was 11 years old, was reunited with her family in August 2009

http://news.yahoo.com/dugard-sues-feds-over-failure-monitor-abductor-190959991.html

[janelle]

I see her book, "A Stolen Life" is on the top 10 books of the year. I don't know if I want to read it. She said she was not sparing any details since she wants people to know how bad pedophilia is and what she went through.

[justme23]

I read it. She didn't spare details... however, it is clear that she wrote it w/ a child like mind... it was far less disturbing than I thought it would be (not what he did, how she wrote it). I don't mean to be insulting when saying this... but it is clear that she stopped really maturing when she went in to captivity, which is understandable... so the book is actually very easy to read and was good.