Jaycee Dugard Sues Federal Government

Jaycee Dugard has filed a lawsuit against the federal government in San Francisco in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.  Dugard in her lawsuit seeks general damages in an amount to be determined according to evidence presented in court.

In the lawsuit, the 31-year old who was held captive for 18 years by Phillip Garrido and raped repeatedly, says authorities should have been monitoring this monster following his parole after serving time in jail for rape.  She gave birth to two daughters during that time when she was 13 and 16.

Kidnapper Garrido Was Sentenced To 431 Years In Prison

Dugard's kidnapper Phillip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years in prison in June of 2011 for his crimes against Dugard. His wife Nancy earned 36 years.

The husband and wife both pleaded guilty to kidnapping Dugard from a Lake Tahoe, Calif., bus stop when she was just 11.

Garrido, who kidnapped Dugard in 1991 when she was 11, had previous federal convictions dating to 1977 for kidnapping and forcible rape in a case stemming from his abduction of a woman in the Tahoe area of Northern California whom he took to Reno, Nevada.

Previous Federal Convictions

Garrido who was sentenced to 50 years in prison, was released early on parole in 1988 after serving less than 11 years, Dugard's attorneys state in their lawsuit.  Dugard's attorney Dale Kinsella said in a statement that from December 1988 to March 1999 federal parole agents "failed on numerous occasions to properly monitor" Garrido.

"We believe that the years of abuse experienced by Ms. Dugard are a direct result of the U.S. Parole Commission's colossal blunders in the supervision of Mr. Garrido," Kinsella said.   A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the lawsuit.

In particular, the lawsuit states that parole officers failed to follow up on accusations of sexual harassment made against Garrido in 1989 by a co-worker and other women at the nursing home where he was employed.

Garrido tested positive for drugs multiple times during his first year-and-a-half under federal supervision, but that was not reported to the Parole Commission despite its "zero tolerance" for drug use by parolees, the lawsuit states.

The suit also says that parole officers, despite being required to conduct monthly personal check-ups with Garrido, failed to visit his home in 1990, 1992 and 1994.  The California inspector general found the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation failed to properly supervise Garrido starting in 1999, when his parole case was handed over from federal officials to the state.

Dugard's family received a $20 million settlement in 2009 through a state victims' compensation fund.  Since her miraculous discovery and escape in 2009, Dugard lives with her mom and her two girls.

Book References For Jaycee Dugard

Shattered Innocence by Robert Scott

More Information

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