Kidnapping of Jaycee Lee Dugard

Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped on June 10, 1991, in South Lake Tahoe, California. Dugard was 11 years old at the time and was abducted from a street while she was walking from home to a school bus stop. Searches began immediately after the kidnapping, but no reliable leads were generated. She remained missing for more than 18 years.

On August 25, 2009, convicted sex offender Phillip Craig Garrido visited the campus of UC Berkeley accompanied by two young girls. Their unusual behavior there sparked an investigation that led to his bringing the two girls to a parole office on August 26, accompanied by a young woman who was then identified as Dugard.

Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy Garrido, 54, of Antioch, California, were arrested for kidnapping and other charges; they pleaded guilty on April 28, 2011, to Dugard's kidnapping and sexual assault. Law enforcement officers believe Dugard was kept in a concealed area behind Garrido's house in Antioch for 18 years. During this time, Dugard bore two daughters who were aged 11 and 15 at the time of her reappearance.

On June 2, 2011, Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years imprisonment; his wife received 36 years to life.^[1]

Background of kidnappers

Phillip Craig Garrido was born in Contra Costa County, California, on April 5, 1951. He grew up in Brentwood, where he graduated from Liberty High School in 1969. His father, Manuel Garrido, who continues to reside in Brentwood, said his son was a "good boy" as a child, but radically changed after a serious motorcycle accident as a teenager, and later turned to drug use (primarily crystal meth).^[9] The Sacramento Bee and the Associated Press have reported that the elder Garrido has begun demanding money in exchange for speaking with reporters; both organizations have refused.^{[10][11][12][13]}

In 1972, Garrido was arrested and charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl, but the case did not go to trial after the girl declined to testify.^[14] In 1973, Garrido married high-school classmate Christine Murphy, who said Garrido was abusive. Murphy alleges that Garrido kidnapped her when she tried to leave him.^[15]

In 1976, Garrido kidnapped Katherine Callaway in South Lake Tahoe, California. He took her to a Reno, Nevada, warehouse, where he sexually assaulted her.^[16] When a police officer noticed a suspicious car parked outside at unusually late hours, he came up to investigate. Callaway then emerged and asked for help. Garrido was promptly arrested.^[16] He was charged and convicted of crimes in both federal and state courts.^[16][17] In a 1976 court-ordered psychiatric evaluation, Garrido was diagnosed as a "sexual deviant and chronic drug abuser."^[18] The psychiatrist recommended that a neurological examination be conducted because Garrido's chronic drug use could be "responsible in part" for his "mixed" or "multiple" sexual deviation. Garrido was then evaluated by a neurologist. The diagnostic impression was: "normal neurological examination."^[19] In court, Garrido testified that he masturbated in his car by the side of grammar schools and high schools while watching young girls.^[20] Garrido was convicted on March 9, 1977, and began serving a 50-year federal sentence on June 30, 1977, at Leavenworth Penitentiary in Kansas.

At Leavenworth, Garrido met Nancy Bocanegra, who was visiting another prisoner, her uncle. On October 5, 1981, Garrido and Bocanegra were married at Leavenworth. On January 22, 1988, Garrido was released from Leavenworth to Nevada State Prison, where he had served seven months of a five-years-to-life Nevada sentence. He was transferred to federal parole authorities in Antioch on August 26, 1988.^[17] In Antioch, the Garridos lived in the home of his elderly mother, who suffered from dementia. As a parolee, he was monitored, later wore a GPS-enabled ankle bracelet, and was regularly visited by police.^[21]

Abduction and search effort

In September 1990, Jaycee Dugard and her family moved from the Orange County city of Garden Grove, to South Lake Tahoe, to which her family moved because they thought it a safe community. At the time of the abduction, Dugard was in the fifth grade and because of her shyness, was worrying about an upcoming field trip. Dugard was close to her mother, Terry Probyn, and infant sister. Dugard's biological father had left the family, and although Dugard's mother had remarried, Dugard was not close to her stepfather, Carl Probyn, On June 10, 1991, Dugard's mother, who worked as a typesetter at a print house, left for work early in the day. Dugard, wearing her favorite all-pink outfit, walked up the hill from her house to catch the school bus, walking against traffic, and when she was halfway up, a car pulled up. Dugard thought the man in the car would ask for directions, but when he rolled down the window, Phillip Garrido paralyzed Dugard unconscious with a stun gun, and abducted her. Nancy Garrido, whom the District Attorney in the Dugard case believes scouted Dugard as a prize for her husband, held Dugard down in the car as Dugard drifted in and out of consciousness during the drive to the Garrido home in Antioch, two hours from Dugard's home. The only time Dugard spoke was when she pleaded that her parents could not afford a ransom.^[22]

Carl Probyn witnessed the abduction of his stepdaughter from within sight of their home. He saw two people in a gray sedan (possibly a Mercury Monarch or Mercury Zephyr) make a U-turn at the school bus stop where Dugard was waiting, and a woman forced Dugard into the car. (In a Primetime interview on July 10, 2011, Dugard stated a stun-gun was used to incapacitate her). Probyn then gave chase on a bicycle, but he was unable to overtake the vehicle. Some of Dugard's classmates were also witnesses to the abduction. Initial suspects included Probyn and Ken Slayton, Dugard's biological father. Probyn took and passed several polygraph tests, and Slayton was also quickly cleared of suspicion.

By the time the Garridos arrived at their home on Walnut Avenue, in an unincorporated area in northeast Antioch,^[23] they had removed Dugard's clothing, leaving only a butterfly-shaped ring that Dugard would hide from them for the next 18 years. In taking Dugard from their car onto their property, Phillip Garrido placed a blanket over Dugard's head and ushered her into an area of his backyard where a series of sheds and storage units stood, placing her inside a tiny one that was soundproofed, and handcuffing her before leaving her naked in the structure, which he bolted shut, warning her that Doberman Pinschers trained to attack her if she tried to escape were outside.^[22]

Within hours of Dugard's disappearance, local and national media converged upon South Lake Tahoe to cover the story. Within days, dozens of local volunteers assisted in the search effort, which involved nearly every resource within the community. Within weeks, tens of thousands of fliers and posters were mailed to businesses throughout the United States. Since Dugard's favorite color was pink, the entire town was blanketed in pink ribbons as a constant reminder of her disappearance and a demonstrated support for the family throughout the community.

Terry Probyn founded a group called Jaycee's Hope, which directed the volunteer and fundraising effort. Cassette tapes of the song Jaycee Lee along with T-shirts, sweatshirts and buttons were sold to raise money for poster materials, postage, printing and related expenses. Child Quest International and The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children were also involved in the effort. A reward was offered, which was displayed on the posters and fliers. The kidnapping case also attracted nationwide attention and was featured many times on the television show America's Most Wanted.

The ensuing months and years were a continuous effort of child safety awareness, fundraising events and candlelight vigils marking Dugard's disappearance and keeping her story before the public.^{[24][25][26][27][28][29][30]}

Captivity

Right after he kidnapped her, Phillip Garrido forced Dugard into a shower with him. The first time he raped her, she was still in handcuffs, in which she remained during her first week in captivity. During that time, Dugard's only human contact was Garrido, who sometimes brought her fast food, and sometimes told her amusing stories. Garrido provided Dugard with only a bucket for her to relieve herself. At one point he provided her with a TV, but she could not see the news, and was unaware of the publicized search for her. Almost a month and a half after her kidnapping, by Dugard's recollection, Garrido moved her to a larger room next door, where she was handcuffed to the bed. He explained that the "demon angels" let him take her, and that she would help him with his sexual problems because society had ignored him. Garrido also told her that by engaging in sex acts with him, which he would videotape, she was protecting other girls that he would not need to victimize. Garrido also went on methamphetamine binges he called "runs", during which he would dress Dugard up, and spent time with her cutting out figures from pornographic magazines. He would also make her listen for the voices he said could hear from the walls. These binges ended with Garrido sobbing and apologizing to Dugard, but alternately threatened to sell her to people who would put her in a cage.^[22]

A neighbor of the Garridos said he recalls, as a child, meeting Dugard through a fence in the Garridos' yard soon after the kidnapping. He said that she had identified herself by the name "Jaycee" and that's when he asked her if she lived there or was just visiting, she answered that she lived there. At that point Phillip Garrido came out and took her back indoors.^[31]

Seven months into her captivity, Garrido introduced Dugard to his wife, Nancy, who brought the child a stuffed animal and chocolate milk, and engaged in the same tearful apologies to Dugard. Though the lonely Dugard craved the woman's approval at the time, in retrospect she has stated that this was manipulation on the part of Nancy, who alternated motherly concern with coldness and cruelty, and who expressed jealousy over Dugard, whom Nancy Garrido regarded as the one at fault for her predicament. Dugard characterizes Nancy, who worked as a nursing home aide, as "evil" and "twisted". When Phillip Garrido returned to prison for failing a drug test, Nancy Garrido replaced her husband as Dugard's jailer. The Garridos further manipulated Dugard by presenting her, on two occasions, with kittens that would later "mysteriously vanish". When they discovered her signing her real name in a journal that Dugard kept about her cats, she was forced to tear out the portion of the paper with her name, the last time she would be permitted to say or write her name until years later.^[22]

Thirty-four months into her captivity, the Garridos began to allow Jaycee freedom from her handcuffs for periods of time, though they kept her locked in the bolted room. On April 3, 1994, Easter Sunday, they gave her cooked food for the first time. They informed her that they believed she was pregnant. Now age 13 and four and a half months pregnant, Dugard herself had learned of the link between sex and pregnancy from television. At this time, Terry Probyn was holding rummage sales to pay for private investigators, and distributing a million flyers across the United States featuring a sketch artist's image of a teenaged Dugard, while raising her younger daughter, Shana. Dugard watched programs on childbirth, in preparation for the birth of her daughter, which occurred on August 18, 1994. Her second daughter was born in November 1997.^[22][32]

Dugard took care of her daughters using information gleaned from television, working to protect them from Phillip Garrido, who would continue his alternating enraged rants and Biblical lectures.^[22] Garrido eventually built a tall fence around the backyard, and set up a tent for Dugard, the first time she was allowed to walk outside since her kidnapping.^[22][31] She coped with her continued captivity by planting flowers in a garden, and home-schooled her daughters. At one point, Phillip Garrido informed Dugard that to pacify his wife, Dugard and her daughters would address Nancy as their mother, and teach her daughters that Dugard was merely their older sister.^[22] When Dugard and her daughters were eventually allowed to come into contact with other people, they upheld this fiction.^[33] Most U.S. media sources have declined to name the children, although names have been given in foreign media coverage of the case.^[34]

Garrido operated a print shop where Dugard acted as the graphics artist. Ben Daughdrill, a customer of Garrido's printing business, claimed he met and spoke by telephone with Dugard and that she did excellent work. During this time, Dugard had access to the business phone and an email account. One customer of the printing business indicated she never hinted to him about her childhood abduction or true identity.^[35]

While in Antioch, Garrido also kept a blog associated with what he called "Gods Desire Church." In the blog Garrido said he had the power to control sound with his mind. Garrido asked several people, including customers, to sign testimonials confirming that they witnessed his ability to "control sound with my mind" and a device he developed "for others to witness this phenomena."^[36][37]

Law enforcement officers believe that at the time they became involved in 2009, Dugard's living quarters were in a secondary backyard behind Phillip Garrido's house. The private area of the yard included sheds (one of which was soundproofed and used as a recording studio in which Garrido recorded himself singing religious-themed and romantic country songs),^[22] two tents, and what has been described as a camping-style shower and toilet. The area was surrounded by tall trees and a 6-foot (1.8 m) high fence. An entrance to the secondary backyard was covered by a tarpaulin. Privacy in the yard was enhanced by tents and outbuildings, as well as an old car similar to the one used in the abduction. Law enforcement officers visited the residence at least twice, but did not give the backyard more than a quick inspection. When police investigated, they found the backyard to be crowded with typical childhood possessions, including books and toys, among the tents and sheds. Electricity was supplied by extension cords. Jaycee Dugard was seen in the house and sometimes answered the front door. While the family kept to themselves, the girls were sometimes seen playing in the backyard or as passengers in Garrido's car.

Dugard's aunt, Tina Dugard, and a former business associate of the Garridos, Cheyvonne Molino, have commented that Dugard's children looked healthy. Tina Dugard said that upon her meeting them after their reappearance, they "always appeared and behaved like normal kids". Molino said of the times she met them while they were captive "that in her presence the girls never acted robotically" and didn't wear unusual clothing.^[38][39]

Missed opportunities to rescue Dugard

• Police failed to make the connection that Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped in South Lake Tahoe, the same location as Garrido's 1976 kidnapping of Katherine Callaway Hall.

• On April 22, 1992, less than a year after her kidnapping, a male caller contacted the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department from a gas station in Oakley, California, less than two miles from the Garridos' home in Antioch. The caller reported that he saw Dugard in the gas station staring intently at a missing child poster of herself. The caller then reported seeing her leave in a large yellow van, possibly a Dodge. In 2009, after Dugard's release, an old yellow Dodge van was recovered from the Garrido property, one that matched the description of the van given in the call. The license plate was not reported in the 1992 call and the caller, the girl, and the van were gone by the time police arrived. The caller never identified himself, and the police did not pursue the matter any further.^[40] Jaycee Dugard reported that she never left the Garrido property from the day she was kidnapped until shortly before her first child was born in August 1994.^[41]

• In June 2002, the fire department responded to a report of a juvenile with a shoulder injury that occurred in a swimming pool at Garrido's home. This information was not relayed to the parole office, which had no record of either a juvenile or a swimming pool at Garrido's address.^[42]

• In 2006, one of Garrido's neighbors called 9-1-1 to inform them there were tents in the backyard with children living there and that Garrido was "psychotic" with sexual addictions. A deputy sheriff spoke with Garrido at the front of the house for about 30 minutes and left after telling him there would be a code violation if people were living outside on the property. After Dugard was found in August 2009, the local police issued an apology.^[43][44]

• On November 4, 2009, the California Office of the Inspector General issued a report^[42] which enumerated various lapses by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that contributed to Dugard's continued captivity. The central finding was that Garrido was incorrectly classified as needing only low-level supervision and all other lapses were derived from it. In his report, the inspector general detailed an instance in which a parole agent encountered a 12-year-old girl at the home of Phillip Garrido, but accepted Garrido's "explanation that she was his brother's daughter and [the agent] did nothing to verify it."^[45]

Reappearance

On August 24, 2009, Garrido visited the San Francisco office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and left a four-page essay containing his ideas about religion and sexuality, suggesting he had discovered a solution to problem behaviors like his own past crimes. The essay described how he had cured his own criminal sexual behaviors and how that information could be used to assist in curing other sexual predators by "controlling human impulses that drive humans to commit dysfunctional acts." On the same day, Phillip Garrido went to a University of California, Berkeley police office seeking permission to hold a special Christian event on campus as a part of his "God's Desire" program. He spoke with U.C. Berkeley special events manager Lisa Campbell. She perceived his behavior as odd and asked him to make an appointment for the next day, which he did, leaving his name in the process. The next morning, August 25, Campbell notified campus police officer Ally Jacobs about the meeting later that morning with Garrido, and her concerns. Jacobs ran a background check, learned that Garrido was on parole for rape, and decided to sit in on the meeting. Garrido arrived with two girls, whom he introduced as his daughters. At the meeting, Jacobs felt that the girls' behavior was unusual, and phoned the parole office to relay her concerns. As no one was in, she left a report of the meeting on voicemail.^[42][46][47]

After hearing Jacobs' recorded message, two parole agents drove to Garrido's house later that day. Upon arrival, they handcuffed him and searched the house, finding only his wife Nancy and his elderly mother at home. Then the parole agents drove Garrido back to the parole office. En route, Garrido said that the two girls who had accompanied him to UC Berkeley "were the daughters of a relative, and he had permission from their parents to take them to the university." Although the parole office had barred Garrido from being around minors a month before, the agents overlooked this violation. After reviewing his file with a supervisor, they drove him home and ordered him to report back to the office again the next day to further discuss his visit to UC Berkeley and follow up on their concerns about the two girls.^[42]

Garrido arrived at the parole office in Concord on August 26 with his wife, Nancy, the two girls and Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was introduced as "Allissa". When they arrived, his parole officer was on the phone with Jacobs to obtain a more detailed description of her interaction with Garrido and the two girls. Jacobs informed the officer that the girls were calling Garrido "Daddy," but the parole officer believed that Garrido had no children. The parole officer then decided to separate Garrido from the women and girls to obtain an identification.

Dugard, maintaining her false identity as "Allissa", stated that she was the girls' mother. When the parole officer said that she looked too young to be the mother and asked her age, "Alyssa (sic) 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 states. As the questioning continued, Dugard and Nancy Garrido became agitated and wanted to know why they were being questioned. When the parole officer explained that he was investigating Garrido's visit to the UC campus with the two girls, Dugard said that she knew Garrido had taken the girls to the campus and that she 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. Allissa subsequently stated that she didn't want to provide any additional information and that she might need a lawyer."

It was later suggested that Dugard was beginning to show signature signs of Stockholm syndrome during her questioning.^[48]

The parole agent then asked Garrido in another room to explain the relationship between him and "Allissa" and the two girls. Garrido said that all three were his nieces, the 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 report states. The parole officer returned to the women and insisted on seeing identification from "Allissa," but Dugard replied that she "had learned a long time ago not to carry or give any personal information to anyone." She also said she needed a lawyer. At this point, the parole officer called in Concord police.

The report continues: "As they waited for the officer to arrive, Alyssa (sic) 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. She was terrified of being found, she said, and that was the reason she could not give the parole agent any information." Two Concord police officers continued the questioning of Dugard, who maintained her false identity and the story she had told to the parole agent. In the other room, a Concord police sergeant questioned Garrido, who finally admitted that he was the father of the two girls. When the parole agent resumed his questioning of Garrido, the latter admitted to kidnapping and raping "Allissa". Under further questioning, Dugard revealed her true identity and confirmed that she had been kidnapped and raped by Garrido.

Garrido and his wife were then placed under arrest. An FBI Special agent put Dugard on the telephone with her mother, Terry Probyn. Dugard retained custody of her children and was soon reunited with her mother.^[49][50][51]

Aftermath

Reunion and afterward

In the days following Dugard's return, Carl Probyn, her stepfather, confirmed that she and her daughters were in good health and intelligent, their reunion was going well, and they were proceeding slowly. He said his stepdaughter had developed a significant emotional bond with Phillip Garrido, and the girls cried when they learned of their father's arrest. According to Jaycee Dugard's aunt, Tina Dugard, about the two girls: "They are clever, articulate, curious girls who have a bright future ahead of them."^[52][53][54] Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said Dugard's reappearance is an important event for families of other long-term missing children, because it shows that there is hope even in long-term cases. Elizabeth Smart has stressed the importance of focusing on the future with a positive attitude as an effective approach to accepting what has happened. Shawn Hornbeck also commented on the case.^{[55][56][57][58]}

Three weeks after her release, Jaycee Dugard made a request to gain control of the pets that were raised in the home where she was held captive.^[59] On October 14, 2009, People published on its cover the first verified photo of Jaycee Dugard as an adult. Her mother, Terry Probyn, was reported in 2009 to have planned with Broadway Books to publish a book, originally set for release in 2010, detailing the girls' decades-long absence and return.^[60] Dugard's memoir, A Stolen Life, was published on July 12, 2011, by Simon & Schuster.

Police investigations

Following the arrest, police extensively searched the Garrido house for evidence of other crimes. Because Phillip Garrido had access to his neighbor's house, it was also searched for evidence.^[61][62] Police also searched the homes and business of one of Phillip Garrido's printing business clients.^[63] Between September 15, 2009, and September 22, 2009, police agencies from Hayward, California, and Dublin, California, conducted searches of the Garridos' property, investigating missing girls from those communities. The results of the search turned up no clues to the disappearances of the girls.^[64] In July 2011 Hayward police announced that Garrido has not been eliminated as a suspect and is still a person of interest in the case of Michaela Garecht.^[65]

Garrido's statements

On August 27, 2009, KCRA-TV in Sacramento, California, interviewed Garrido in his jail cell by telephone. During the interview Garrido said, "In the end, this is going to be a powerful, heartwarming story",^[66] because, in his version of events:

Garrido repeatedly told the reporter how he "filed documents" with the FBI on August 24, 2009, which, when they were published, would cause people to "fall over backwards" and that he could not reveal more because he "had to protect law enforcement" and "what happened" [...] was "something that humans have not understood well." In the interview Garrido denied he had ever harmed Dugard's two daughters. He said their births changed his life and "they slept in my arms every single night since birth. I never touched them." On August 28, 2009, FBI spokesman Joseph Schadler confirmed that Garrido had indeed left the documents with the agency, as he had claimed, but declined to discuss further details.^[66] The document, titled 'Origin of Schizophrenia Revealed', was eventually released by the FBI. The document is about stopping schizophrenics from turning violent and controlling sounds with the human mind.^[67]

Legal proceedings

On August 28, 2009, Garrido and his wife pleaded not guilty to charges including kidnapping, rape and false imprisonment. A bail review/pre-preliminary hearing was held September 14, 2009, at the El Dorado County Superior Court in Placerville, California.^[68] At the hearing, Superior Court Judge Douglas Phimister set bail for Phillip Garrido at $30 million. However, there is a no-bail parole hold on Garrido. The judge kept Nancy Garrido in custody on a no-bail hold. Nancy Garrido could request bail at a later date.^{[69][70][71][72][73][74][75]} At the September 14 hearing, Phimister also granted a request from Phillip Garrido's attorney to have a psychologist or psychiatrist appointed to conduct a confidential evaluation of Garrido. This examination is to be used by the defense to assist in case preparation. Additional mental health examinations could be ordered at subsequent phases in the proceedings.^[76] On October 29, 2009, a short hearing was held to set a date for the next pre-preliminary hearing when issues such as discovery were to be discussed. This hearing occurred on December 11, 2009. Katie Callaway Hall, whom Phillip Garrido raped in 1976, appeared in the courtroom in both the October and December hearings. She did not speak in either proceeding.^[77][78]

On November 5, 2009, Phimister ordered Nancy Garrido's defense attorney, Gilbert Maines, to be removed from the case. According to a posting on the court's website,^[79] the decision occurred in review of "confidential evidence" that has not been disclosed to the public, and details of the proceedings were kept sealed. The decision was immediately stayed until November 30, 2009.^[80] On November 12, 2009, Phimister appointed Stephen A. Tapson as interim counsel for Nancy Garrido.^[81] Gilbert Maines appealed the decision and was given a favorable ruling by the California Third District Court of Appeal on December 15, 2009.^[82] On December 22, 2009, the same court gave the Eldorado Superior Court until January 2010 to respond to the ruling.^[83] Both Gilbert Maines and Stephen Tapson appeared at the discovery hearing on December 11, 2009.^[78] A hearing was held on January 21, 2010. At that hearing, Maines was removed from the case and Tapson was appointed defense counsel for Nancy Garrido. In addition, bail in the amount of $20 million was set for Nancy Garrido.^[84]

Mr. and Mrs. Garrido both made a 'full confession' in the case, said Tapson at a press conference on February 28, 2011. The development came as lawyers for both sides have re-opened discussions on a possible plea deal that may obviate the need for a trial. Mrs. Garrido's attorney acknowledged that she was facing "241 years, eight months to life" and that he was working for a reduced sentence in the 30-year range. He stated that the prosecutor had acknowledged that Mr. Garrido was a master-manipulator and that Mrs. Garrido was under both his influence and that of substances during the period of Dugard's kidnapping, so should receive some consideration while alluding to parallels with Patty Hearst and Stockholm Syndrome.^[85]

On Thursday, April 7, 2011, Phillip and Nancy Garrido, instead of pleading guilty (as had been expected based on their previous statements) pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping and raping Dugard, as well as other charges, in an amended indictment. Phillip Garrido's attorney, public defender Susan Gellman, alleged that the grand jury might have been improperly selected and might have acted improperly. Gellman did not elaborate on her claim in the courtroom, but said outside that she had questions about the racial and geographic makeup of the grand jury that originally indicted the Garridos in September 2010. Judge Phimister noted that there were issues about the process itself before the grand jury, and also stated that the court would consider whether the grand jury acted appropriately. The developments were largely unforeseen by attorney Stephen Tapson, who represents Nancy Garrido; Tapson had said earlier that week that Phillip Garrido had made a deal with prosecutors to plead guilty and spend the rest of his life in prison. Gellman was upset with Tapson for telling reporters that her client had planned to plead guilty, saying that Tapson should speak about only his own client, Nancy Garrido. Tapson said he found out about Gellman's plans only late on Wednesday. Neither attorney would elaborate further on the specific concerns about the grand jury. El Dorado County, California District Attorney Vern Pierson did not think the complaints about the grand jury would ultimately derail his case against the Garridos.

On April 28, 2011, the Garridos pleaded guilty to kidnapping and rape.^[86] The District Attorney also stated Nancy Garrido seemed to feel genuinely guilty, while it was said that Dugard was relieved that she and her children would not have to testify.

On June 2, 2011, Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years; his wife received 36 years to life.^[1] Phillip Garrido is serving his sentence at California State Prison, Corcoran while Nancy Garrido is incarcerated at Valley State Prison for Women.^[87][88]

Dugard, who did not attend the sentencing, had sent a written statement that was read aloud in court :

"I chose not to be here today because I refuse to waste another second of my life in your presence. I've chosen to have my mom read this for me. Phillip Garrido, you are wrong. I could never say that to you before, but I have the freedom now and I am saying you are a liar and all of your so-called theories are wrong. Everything you have ever done to me has been wrong and someday I hope you can see that. What you and Nancy did was reprehensible. You always justified everything to suit yourself but the reality is and always has been that to make someone else suffer for your inability to control yourself and for you, Nancy, to facilitate his behavior and trick young girls for his pleasure is evil. There is no God in the universe that would condone your actions. To you, Phillip, I say that I have always been a thing for your own amusement. I hated every second of every day of 18 years because of you and the sexual perversion you forced on me. To you, Nancy, I have nothing to say. Both of you can save your apologies and empty words. For all the crimes you have both committed I hope you have as many sleepless nights as I did. Yes, as I think of all of those years I am angry because you stole my life and that of my family. Thankfully I am doing well now and no longer live in a nightmare. I have wonderful friends and family around me. Something you can never take from me again. You do not matter any more."

—Jaycee Lee Dugard, June 2, 2011

Settlement with the State of California

In July 2010, the State of California approved a $20-million-dollar settlement with Jaycee Dugard, to compensate her for "various lapses by the Corrections Department [which contributed to] Dugard's continued captivity, ongoing sexual assault and mental and/or physical abuse." The settlement, part of AB1714, was approved by the California State Assembly by a 70 to 2 vote, and by the California State Senate by a 30 to 1 vote. San Francisco County Superior Court Judge Daniel Weinstein, who mediated the settlement, stated that the settlement was reached to avoid a lawsuit which would be a "greater invasion of privacy and greater publicity for the state."^[89]

The bill was signed by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on July 9.^[90][91]

Lawsuit against the United States

On September 22, 2011, Dugard filed suit in United States District Court for the Northern District of California accusing the United States of failing to monitor Garrido when he was a federal parolee.^[92]

In media

• Dugard documented her life in captivity in a book, A Stolen Life: A Memoir, which she wrote as part of her therapy with Rebecca Bailey, who specializes in post-trauma family reunification. Dugard says she wrote the book, which was published in July 2011, in order to assist other survivors of sexual abuse.^[22]
• An American crime show on the Investigation Discovery network titled Wicked Attraction aired an episode about Phillip Garrido and Nancy Garrido. The episode also went into details of the events leading up to Jaycee Dugard's kidnapping and recovery.
• A documentary that aired in October 2009 on Channel 4 in Britain titled Captive for 18 years: Jaycee Lee focused on the story of Dugard's kidnapping, recovery and the beginnings of trial including interviews with Jaycee's step-father.^[93]

See also

• Cases of children kept in captivity
• Cases of kidnapped American children

References

External links

• Jaycee Dugard Case ongoing coverage by the Contra Costa Times
• Photo slide show of Dugard case
• The JAYC Foundation Inc.
• "The Origin of Schizophrenia Revealed", the "manifesto" that Phillip Garrido sent to the FBI.