A scathing report released by California Inspector General David Shaw finds that the state parole department failed to adequately supervise kidnap suspect Phillip Garrido and missed numerous opportunities to discover Jaycee Dugard living in his backyard. (Click here for pdf.)
Phillip Garrido, 58, and his wife Nancy Garrido, 55, allegedly kidnapped 11-year-old Dugard from near her South Lake Tahoe home on June 10, 1991.
For the next 18 years, the couple allegedly held Dugard captive in the backyard of their home just outside of Antioch, where Dugard was allegedly repeatedly raped and gave birth to two daughters fathered by Garrido.
In 1977, Garrido had been convicted in state and federal court for kidnapping a 25-year-old woman in Lake Tahoe, taking her across state lines and raping her in Nevada.
He was sentenced in federal court to 50 years in prison. The Nevada state court sentenced him to an additional five years in state prison, according to the report.
Garrido was paroled from federal prison in 1988 after serving 11 years of his sentence and released to Nevada prison authorities. He was paroled from state prison seven months later and returned to the jurisdiction of federal prison to serve the remainder of his federal parole term, according to the inspector general's report.
But because he was living at his mother's house in unincorporated Contra Costa County, the California parole board assumed supervision of Garrido in June 1999 under an interstate parole compact.
Garrido remained undersupervision of state parole agents until his arrest on Aug. 26.
According to the report, on Aug. 27, the day after Dugard, now 29, and her two daughters were discovered, the parole department held a press conference where an official "hailed the diligence of parole agents who supervised Garrido," according to the report.
"While it is true that Garrido's California parole was never officially violated, our review shows that Garrido committed numerous parole violations and that the department failed to properly supervise Garrido and missed numerous opportunities to discover his victims," the report states.
The report notes that between August 1988 and January 1999, Garrido was under the jurisdiction of federal parole authorities. It was during that time that Garrido and his wife allegedly kidnapped and raped Dugard and federal parole authorities also failed to detect any criminal conduct or discover his victims.
It wasn't until after Garrido showed up on the University of California at Berkeley campus with Dugard's two daughters and a university police officer became suspicious that the story came to light.
The inspector general's report also said that state parole authorities failed to adequately classify Garrido and obtain key information about him from federal authorities, did not properly supervise and train parole agents, failed to use global positioning system information on Garrido and failed to refer Garrido for mental health assessment.
The report also states that parole agents failed to investigate "clearly visible utility wires running from Garrido's house toward the concealed compound" in the backyard where Dugard was being held.
They also did not adequately question the presence of a 12-year-old girl during a home visit or talk to neighbors or local law enforcement agencies, the report states.
The CDCR issued a statement this afternoon in response to the report.
"The circumstances surrounding the kidnapping and 18-year disappearance of Jaycee Dugard are horrendous. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is committed to improving its operations every day to ensure an incident like this never happens again," CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate said in the statement.
Cate said that in March, the administration began seeking comprehensive parole reform that will focus resources on high-risk offenders like Garrido. The reforms will become law in January. They will include risk assessment of every parolee and a reduced caseload for parole agents supervising high-risk offenders.
They will also include monitoring all sex offenders on parole through GPS technology.
The El Dorado County District Attorney's Office also released a statement this afternoon, questioning "why a dangerous sexual predator like Phillip Garrido was released after serving only eleven years of a fifty-year federal sentence and a five-to-life Nevada State sentence."
That issue was not addressed in the report.
Phillip and Nancy Garrido have both pleaded not guilty to 29 felony charges, including kidnapping, forcible rape and false imprisonment.
They are scheduled to be in El Dorado County Superior Court in Placerville on Dec. 11 for a further pre-preliminary hearing in the case.
Bay City News
