SACRAMENTO — The decades-long interaction between Phillip Craig Garrido and the law is rife with blown opportunities, missteps and plain mistakes.
As details emerged Thursday about additional allegations against Garrido – including the alleged drugging and rape of a 14-year-old girl in 1972 – authorities explained their dealings with the 58-year-old convicted kidnapper and rapist.
But no one could explain how a man with Garrido's record got out and stayed out of prison, or how he allegedly kept Jaycee Lee Dugard hidden from sight for 18 years.
"If you look at the reports of the psychiatrists and others involved, it is incomprehensible that any objective body would ever allow this man back into society," said former U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott, who is acting as spokesman for El Dorado County prosecutors. "It is just an absolute dereliction of duty."
The federal prosecutor who thought he had put Garrido away for decades when he convicted him of kidnapping in 1977 and won a 50-year sentence was equally blunt.
"It is so horrendous," said Leland Lutfy, now an attorney in Las Vegas.
Here, based on court and police records and interviews, is what happened.
Read the complete story at sacbee.com