Jaycee Dugard Sues U.S. Over Captors Parole Supervision

Jaycee Dugard filed a lawsuit against the federal government on Thursday for failing to monitor the felon who kidnapped her off of a California street as a child and subsequently held her captive for 18 years.

In the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Dugard's attorneys argued that parole agents did not adequately monitor Phillip Garrido, Dugard's captor who was a convicted sex offender on federal parole when he abducted his victim in 1991.

Garrido was granted parole in 1988 after serving 11 years in prison for a prior kidnapping and rape charge. Dugard's lawyers claim that Garrido's parole officers did not report or act on a series of drug and alcohol violations. In addition, Garrido reportedly violated his parole by sexually harassing a coworker and contacting the victim of his 1976 kidnapping and rape that landed him in prison.

The failures of federal parole authorities in handling Garrido's case management are as outrageous and inexcusable as they are numerous, the complaint reads.

Dugard was 11-years-old when she was abducted only blocks away from her Northern California home in 1991. Garrido and his wife, Nancy, kept her in their home for almost two decades, housing her in a compound of tents and sheds behind their house. Garrido raped Dugard regularly, fathering two girls with her while she was still a teenager.

Although parole officers were required to conduct monthly personal check-ups with Garrido, the lawsuit claims they failed to visit his home in 1990, 1992 and 1994.

Dugard, now 31, was freed in 2009 after Garrido brought his wife, Dugard and her two daughters to a parole office, where he was scheduled to check in after an employee at the University of California, Berkeley reported him to campus police for suspicious behavior. Although Dugard initially insisted her name was Allisa she admitted who she was under further questioning from parole officers.

Garrido was sentenced to 431 years to life in prison in June after pleading guilty to kidnapping and multiple counts of sexual assault. Nancy Garrido was sentenced to 36 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to one count each of kidnapping and rape by force.

Dugard's family received a $20 million settlement in 2009 through a state victims' compensation fund. She reportedly initiated her lawsuit after two failed attempts at mediation with the government and is hoping to raise money for the JAYC Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to treating victims of abduction, The New York Times reports.