State parole agents failed completely to properly supervise accused rapist and kidnapper Phillip Garrido for 10 years, and after his alleged victim, Jaycee Lee Dugard, was discovered alive in August, top corrections officials praised parole despite the fact that agents missed numerous opportunities to discover her presence, a new state audit has found.
A four-page executive summary of the audit by Calfornia Inspector General David R. Shaw, posted online at 11 a.m., lists numerous failings by corrections officials and suggests needed improvements in the system. A detailed report on Shaw's two-month investigation is expected to be released after a news conference Wednesday, but Shaw found "systemic problems that transcend parolee Garrido's case and jeopardize public safety."
"Despite numerous clues and opportunities, the department, as well as federal and local law enforcement, failed to detect Garrido's criminal conduct, resulting in the continued confinement and victimization of Jaycee and her two daughters," the audit states. "On August 26, 2009, Garrido and his wife were finally arrested for these heinous crimes, and Jaycee was reunited with her family."
Dugard was 11 and walking to school near South Lake Tahoe when Garrido and his wife allegedly abducted her in 1991, using a stun gun they carried and hiding her in his Antioch-area backyard for 18 years. Garrido was on parole, first under federal supervision and later under supervision by a California state parole agent, for a 1977 conviction for rape and kidnapping.
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