Facts via “Shattered Innocence.” The book about the Jaycee Lee Dugard kidnapping/captivity/sexual abuse. It was a more sensationalized account, but gave another valuable perspective on the story. Mostly, I liked the acknowledgement of how deeply the Tahoe/Northern NV was affected. It was also horrifying to see all the ineptitude listed in one chapter. Here goes:
Phil Garrido received a 50 year federal prison sentence for Kidnapping Katie Callaway on the California side of Lake Tahoe and driving her across the state line to Reno where he had fashioned a “Porn Palace” in a storage unit. He bound her with a leather strap for transit, then took drugs and raped her for 6 hours before a police officer stumbled upon the car with CA plates.
Garrido was released from federal prison after only 11 years. He was sent to Nevada to serve time for the state offense of drugs and rape. They only held him for 7 months before paroling him. In 1999, parole was moved to California. On four occasions (November 1999, July 2004, December 2005, and April 2008) California made requests that Nevada should let Garrido off of parole all-together.
Parole agents get a ten week training program, no field training, then are rushed into work where their caseloads are staggering.
Under conditions of his parole, Garrido had to submit to searches of his property at any time. No prior notice or warrant was required for such a search.
During the first month of this transition from Nevada to California–no one looked at the Garrido residence, as was policy. Worse, no parole officer ever visited the residence for the first year they lived in Antioch! This could have been because CA mis-assigned Garrido to the minimum level of supervision instead of the high control status he was supposed to have.
No agent visited Garrido the six months from Nov ’99 to May ’00. Phil merely visited the parole office on 3 occasions, submitted 5 brief monthly reports, and called on the phone once during that period. It wasn’t until May ’00 that CA even realized Phil was a sex offender and should have been placed at a high level of supervision. He should have been submitting to frequent drug tests all along, as he cited drugs in the rape case, as the primary reason for his behavior!
Another oversight were the mental health assessments mandated by the judge. This was not done at all between 1999 and October 2007.
Still, between April ’01 and October ’03 no reviews were done at all! Furthermore, between June ’01 and July ’02 no one even bothered to visit the Garrido residence as mandated. From June ’04 to August ’05 there was only one visit to the house.
In June of 2002, the local fire department responded to a call that a juvenile had sustained a shoulder injury while swimming in the pool. No juvenile should have been on a sex offender’s property. Any parole agent had access to this report, but of course they didn’t bother to look.
There were at least 30 incidences in which emergency services were called to the Garrido residence, mostly to deal with Phil’s elderly mother. Any of those agencies had an opportunity to see something amiss. Also, parole officers have access to emergency reports.
On June 17, 2008, an agent went inside Garrido’s house unannounced. His report stated inside there were Phil, Nancy, Phil’s mother, and “a 12 year old female.” Again, sex offenders on parole are not supposed to be near children. And when questioned who the girl was, Phil said it was his brother’s daughter. The parole agent did not contact the brother to confirm this–if he had, he would have realized Phil’s brother does not have a daughter.
On at least 10 occasions parole officers had not completed mandated reviews. And in 15 more instances, reviews were performed, but obvious deficiencies were not corrected. It was noted that of the 123 months Garrido was under parole supervision, 111 months were rated inadequate to departmental standards.
In fact, over the years, there were about 60 face to face visits at Garrido’s home, where Parole Officers took pictures of utility lines, cables, and telephone lines running from the house to a carport in the backyard. This was not investigated further. Not on a single one of those 60 visits!
Parole agents never once spoke to any of Garrido’s neighbors either. If they had, they might have talked to Dennis McQuaid, who said at five years old, he spoke with a blonde girl in Phil’s backyard. “She said, ‘My name is Jaycee.'” Two other neighbors reported seeing under-aged girls at Phil’s house. On November, 30, 2006, neighbor, Erika Pratt, called the police and said, “He has several tents in the yard with people living in them, and there are children there!” The report noted she was concerned because her neighbor has a sexual addiction. This is the infamous incident when police were sent to the house, and instead of checking the backyard, or questioning Phil, they warned him tents could be a code violation.
It wasn’t until 2008, that Garrido had to wear a GPS unit. The unit used satellite to transmit location, speed of movement, and direction of travel to the department. In a 32 day period the summer of 2009, Garrido’s GPS proved that he had left his home after curfew 14 times. Worse, it showed he traveled well outside of his permitted 25 mile range, to Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco.
Most suspiciously of all, the GPS device showed that Garrido had gone to his “secret” backyard 30 times in just one day! Between July 23, 2009 and August 23, 2009 Garrido’s GPS signal disappeared every night, for as long as 9 hours. A parole agent learned of the GPS descrepencies and no action was taken at the time!
Back to the “secret” compound in the backyard: In a federal file was a report of the search of Garrido’s soundproof shed. This is the same shed Jaycee Lee Dugard was imprisoned and raped. This search by federal agent, was not shared with state authorities, who were obviously unaware the property extended any further.
In July 2008, a regional sex offender task force did a sweep of the Antioch area, including the Garrido residence. They searched the house and backyard, but not one looked past the 8 foot fence and into the secret compound.
In June 2009 (a month before Garrido’s arrest), a recidivism test was requested. The test could estimate the likelihood rapists would re-offend, and was primarily used on prisoners requesting parole–not those already out on parole. The test was not run until 3 weeks AFTER Garrido’s arrest. Of course results came back as a high-risk of re-offense-ya think?
On August 25, 2009, when Berkley officers called Garrido’s parole agent, that agent did the worst thing possible: He asked (an increasingly paranoid and erratic) Phil to come to his office the next day. This could have alerted Phil to a problem and prompted him to run, or worse, hurt Jaycee or her two, young daughters.
Everyone FUCKED up. And sure, the state of California paid Jaycee Lee Dugard an unprecedented settlement of 20 million dollars, but is it enough? How can all of the damage be un-done? Jaycee missed her childhood, was held captive in horrible conditions, and raped. Nothing can change that now. She has two children and a lot of emotional damage that can never be un-done. None of this should have happened, and 20 million dollars won’t change that. . .
Tags: California, Garrido, Jaycee Lee Dugard, Nevada, tragedy, traumatized
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