Report: Dugard Spoke With Parole Agents While Captive
Mara Gay
Contributor
AOL News
(July 8) -- California parole agents spoke with kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard during her 18-year-captivity but failed to identify her, according to a new report from the state attorney general's office.
The document was sent to state lawmakers last week before they voted to award Dugard and the two daughters she bore to her captor, convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido, a $20 million settlement. Garrido had been under the supervision of California parole officers since 1999.
"Agents saw and spoke to Ms. Dugard and her eldest daughter but failed to investigate their identities or their relationship to Garrido," the report read.
According to the report, first obtained by The Associated Press, state parole officers spoke with Dugard and her daughter at Garrido's Antioch, Calif., home, but did not follow up on the identity of the women. Nor did they bother to search Garrido's backyard, where a rambling system of tents and shacks served as Dugard's prison for nearly two decades. According to the AP, parole officers failed to conduct a thorough check of Garrido even after his court-ordered tracking device placed him in areas of his property where he was not allowed to be.
The report also suggested that a higher settlement may be in order because of the "uniquely tragic circumstances," specifically that Dugard had been forced to bear her abductor children. It noted that "educational" costs for Dugard and her daughters would likely amount to $450,000 and estimated that "therapy, assisted living and counseling" would cost about $7 million in the course of the women's lifetimes.
It is not the first time the state has been faulted for its handling of the Dugard case. In 2006, ABC reports, police received a tip that Garrido was living with children, a possible violation of his parole. But Dugard and her two daughters were never found.
The report also charges that the state parole board misclassified Garrido -- who according to the San Francisco Chronicle was known to neighbors as "Creepy Phil" -- as a low-risk offender.
Dugard, 30, was kidnapped outside her family's home in South Lake Tahoe in 1991. She and her teenage daughters were discovered in August 2009 and are living with family in an undisclosed location in Northern California.
Contributor
AOL News
(July 8) -- California parole agents spoke with kidnapping victim Jaycee Dugard during her 18-year-captivity but failed to identify her, according to a new report from the state attorney general's office.
The document was sent to state lawmakers last week before they voted to award Dugard and the two daughters she bore to her captor, convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido, a $20 million settlement. Garrido had been under the supervision of California parole officers since 1999.
"Agents saw and spoke to Ms. Dugard and her eldest daughter but failed to investigate their identities or their relationship to Garrido," the report read.
According to the report, first obtained by The Associated Press, state parole officers spoke with Dugard and her daughter at Garrido's Antioch, Calif., home, but did not follow up on the identity of the women. Nor did they bother to search Garrido's backyard, where a rambling system of tents and shacks served as Dugard's prison for nearly two decades. According to the AP, parole officers failed to conduct a thorough check of Garrido even after his court-ordered tracking device placed him in areas of his property where he was not allowed to be.
The report also suggested that a higher settlement may be in order because of the "uniquely tragic circumstances," specifically that Dugard had been forced to bear her abductor children. It noted that "educational" costs for Dugard and her daughters would likely amount to $450,000 and estimated that "therapy, assisted living and counseling" would cost about $7 million in the course of the women's lifetimes.
It is not the first time the state has been faulted for its handling of the Dugard case. In 2006, ABC reports, police received a tip that Garrido was living with children, a possible violation of his parole. But Dugard and her two daughters were never found.
The report also charges that the state parole board misclassified Garrido -- who according to the San Francisco Chronicle was known to neighbors as "Creepy Phil" -- as a low-risk offender.
Dugard, 30, was kidnapped outside her family's home in South Lake Tahoe in 1991. She and her teenage daughters were discovered in August 2009 and are living with family in an undisclosed location in Northern California.
