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A federal appeals court ruled 2-1 on Friday that Jaycee Dugard, who was kidnapped from South Lake Tahoe and held in Antioch by a parolee for 18 years, cannot hold federal parole officers liable for failing to supervise her captor. The ruling was made seven years to the day she was rescued - on Aug. 26, 2009. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals had already ruled on this case in March, but Friday's decision was an expanded version of their original opinion. Friday's opinion now becomes a legal precedent. Dugard had argued, unsuccessfully, that federal parole officers failed to...

An appeals court says the U.S. government cannot be held responsible for the 1991 abduction of Jaycee Dugard, who was held by a federal parolee for 18 years. Dugard had sued, alleging that federal officials should have revoked the man’s parole prior to her kidnapping. Phillip Garrido had been convicted of a previous rape and abduction. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that Dugard wasn’t Garrido’s victim at the time he was placed under federal supervision

In her first television interview, an emotional Jaycee Lee Dugard talked about why she was speaking out about the pain and determination she felt as she was held captive for nearly two decades by convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido. "Why not look at it? You know, stare it down until it can't scare you anymore," she told ABC News' Diane Sawyer. "I didn't want there to be any more secrets...I hadn't done anything wrong. It wasn't something I did that caused this to happen. And I feel that by putting it all out there, it's very freeing." Dugard was clear...

PLACERVILLE -- Phillip and Nancy Garrido were sentenced to virtual life terms in prison Thursday morning shortly after Jaycee Dugard exhorted the pair through her mother, capping a whirlwind of a case that captured hearts and imaginations worldwide after Dugard surfaced and revealed she spent two decades as the prisoner of a twisted sexual bondage and captivity scheme outside Antioch. Phillip Garrido, 60, received a sentence of 431 years to life in prison, while Nancy Garrido, 55, was sentenced to 36 years to life in prison, all in accordance with their guilty pleas last month in a El Dorado County...

PLACERVILLE -- A convicted sex offender and his wife pleaded guilty Thursday to kidnapping and raping a Northern California girl when she was 11 and holding her captive for nearly two decades. The pleas came as part of a surprise deal with prosecutors that will spare victim Jaycee Dugard and her two daughters born after she was raped by defendant Phillip Garrido from having to testify at a trial. "I'm relieved that Phillip and Nancy Garrido have finally acknowledged their guilt and confessed to their crimes against me and my family," Dugard said in a statement released by her spokeswoman...

Criminal proceedings against the man accused of kidnapping Jaycee Lee Dugard have been sensationally halted because of concerns about his mental state. Superior Court Judge Douglas Phimister made the decision yesterday after a short pre-trial hearing for Phillip Garrido. Phimister said he had concerns about Garrido's mental competency to participate in his defence. He is facing 29 counts of kidnapping, rape and false imprisonment in the 1991 disappearance of Dugard

Here is a video report showing the first photo released of Jaycee Dugard since she was freed from her 18-year ordeal of being held hostage after being kidnapped at the age of 11 years old. The photo is published in "People Magazine." Matt Lauer interviews Larry Hackett from "People Magazine." . . . (VIDEO)

In a handwritten jailhouse letter full of misspellings, accused rapist and kidnapper Phillip Garrido expressed concern for his alleged victim, Jaycee Dugard, saying he believes her "civil rights have been clearly violated." Accused kidnapper and rapist Phillip Garrido wrote in a jailhouse letter that Jaycee Dugard's civil rights have been violated. In it, Garrido wrote that Dugard's "free speach [sic] rights are being violated, also she has been repeatedly denied access to have an attorney present during questioning." Garrido urged Gray to "take this to a privet [sic] attorney who will look this matter over for her best interest."

Aunt Tells Of Dugard Family Joy Tina Dugard says the two young girls are educated and bright The first details have emerged of how the Dugard family is faring since the release of Jaycee Lee, who was abducted and held for 18 years in California. Aunt Tina Dugard told the Orange County Register there was a lot of laughing, crying, holding hands and reconnecting. She said Jaycee Lee's two girls "know what's going on" but had not been allowed to watch coverage of the case.

Phillip Garrido, accused of kidnapping an 11-year-old girl in 1991 and imprisoning her in a shed for nearly two years, may have started his spree of sexual crimes as far back as 1972, police said. Garrido, then 21, gave a 14-year-old girl drugs and then sexually assaulted her multiple times, Antioch Police Lt. Leonard Orman told NBC's The Today Show on Thursday. The victim refused to testify about the incident, and the charges against Garrido were dropped, Orman said. Officials believe this is the third victim that Garrido has raped in the last 37 years -- and they're looking for...

Nancy Garrido, the wife of Jaycee Dugard's accused kidnapper, has a serious legal problem in her defense: She apparently kept the girl prisoner for a five month period while her husband Phillip Garrido went to prison for violating his parole, her lawyer acknowledged today. SNIP One of the many legal dilemmas Nancy Garrido faces is what she did during five months when Phillip was serving a prison sentence for violating his parole in 1993, just two years after Dugard was snatched off a school bus stop. Dugard was still only 13 when Phillip Garrido was returned to prison. But Nancy...

Appears to be Jaycee's captor driving down the road on Google Earth's street view. Creepy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abs9pKEDbo4

As Jaycee Dugard gets to know her family again after 18 years in depraved captivity, a California sheriff admitted today that his officers booted a chance to rescue Jaycee nearly three years ago. "We missed an opportunity to bring earlier closure to this situation," Contra Costa County Sheriff Warren E. Rupf said in a news conference today.

Since 1999, when he was placed under California parole supervision for a 1976 rape in Nevada, Phillip Garrido, 58, was subject to drug testing, required to wear a GPS device and subject to twice-monthly visits by his state parole officer. In 2006, a neighbor called 9-1-1 to report that children were living in Garrido's backyard in squalor, but the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Department failed to search the registered sex offender's premises. Last month, UC Berkeley Police Officer Allison Jacobs became suspicious of Garrido, figured out that he was a registered sex offender who was accompanied by two adolescent girls,...

Jaycee Dugard, the woman who was abducted at the age of 11 in 1991, was recently discovered living in a virtual prison in the back yard of a couple's come in Antioch, Calif., as has been widely reported. She had been there for 18 years, confined and horrifically abused, even giving birth to her rapist's children. They were kept prisoner and isolated, never having attended school or seen a doctor. Amazingly, a Reno psychic is now claiming the case proves the accuracy of her abilities. Dayle Schear, who was paid by Jaycee's parents to help locate their daughter, says she...

Preface: Did alleged abductor of Jaycee Dugard, Philip Garrido, receive Section 8 rental assistance payments? Did actions of the Race Equity Project block the City of Antioch and Contra Costa County from inspecting the Garrido home? Read below. Excerpted from Race Equity Project homepage http://lsnc.net/equity/2008/09/27/targeted-enforcement-of-section-8-participants-in-antioch/ Targeted Enforcement of Section 8 Participants in Antioch September 27, 2008 (posted by ElektroMoose) Author: The Race Equity Project, Legal Services of Northern California Several trends collided in the town of Antioch to cause a “perfect storm” threatening the civil rights of African-American participants in the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program. Antioch, a city...