As the story unravels in the investigation of convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido, one thing is clear; multiple people and agencies share in the blame and shame in this appalling case. The Court failed, the cops failed, the parole officer failed, his ankle monitor failed, our society failed.
Before he victimized Jaycee Lee Dugard, there was the 1976 abduction and rape of Katie Callaway Hall; she was taken in California and transported to Nevada where she was brutally attacked. He was subsequently sentenced to 50 years yet served only 11 of those years because to a clearly inadequate judicial system. Had he remained in prison, obviously, 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard would not have been kidnapped, repeatedly sexually assaulted and imprisoned for 18 years.
Then there is a Contra Costa County Sheriff deputy that responded to the Garrido compound in 2006, unaware Garrido was a convicted sex offender and failed to search the back yard where Jaycee and her two daughters lived. How about countless interactions with his parole officer? Nothing!
Garrido coned the Judge, the Court and the prison system that set him free. He conned the Deputy in his front yard and repeatedly conned his parole officer. He obviously conned the community as a whole. Hopefully, the grift ends here.
In fairness, two female police officers, Allison Jacobs and Lisa Campbell of the UC Berkeley Police Department finally saw into the evil that is Phillip Garrido.
Our action plan? Promote Jacobs and Campbell. Fire Deputy and Parole officer for being asleep on the job. Convict Garrido and sentence him for Life. Work to make sure that this type of fumble never happens again.
Comments
Going back to 1972 when he was accused of brutally raping a 14 year old. Victim would not testify. Charges dropped. All of his sexual crimes after this incident may not have happened had he been tried in 1972, He just kept getting away with it. Well it's over now Mr. and Mrs. Garrido, your new prey will be much older and a bit on the agressive side. Hope you both rot in HELL!
Not to mention the parole officers who failed to visit and find out where this freak was living and what he was doing. I guess she was taken in 1991, and in 1993 (only two years later) after violating probation he spent for 4 months in federal prison (California have yet to release any details of that violation or explain why he was again released into the community). Nevada officials said they were never notified of Garrido's parole violation, which would have allowed the state to revoke his parole. Had California parole inspected his home in 1993, we would not be here now asking questions, we would be saying our system works, now I am not sure of anything. Because now I wonder how many more of these freaks are in our country doing the same thing under the noses of our so called authorities.
Yes, I agree he should have served all the time for his first offense, but don’t let our authorities off the hook. I can only say if you have a neighbor that fits this profile, call and call again to try to ensure that this does not happen again. Simply amazing.
You know most of these so called “police/ parole officers” always have a chip on their shoulders, and even when they fail at their jobs they appear arrogant like saying “what are you going to do”, let’s face it, she saved herself, she was not saved by the authorities. Does anyone believe that the authorities were still investigating her disappearance? The car used in her kidnapping was in the backyard, the lazy ass cops didn’t even bother to go through the backyard when the information indicated that kids were living back there, they didn’t check local schools to see if the kids were going to school or even asked to see the kids, no report to child protective services, boy how lazy can you be and still pick up your public service check.