Opinion: $20 mil. Dugard payment covers up truth
By Bruce Maiman, Sacramento Bee
The decision last week by the California Legislature to approve a settlement for Jaycee Lee Dugard is costing us way more than $20 million.
Kidnapped near her Tahoe-area home in 1991, authorities say that Dugard, then 11 years old, was imprisoned in the Antioch home of Phillip and Nancy Garrido for nearly two decades. Phillip Garrido confessed to kidnapping and raping Dugard, although both Garridos have pleaded not guilty to numerous charges.
Without question, what Jaycee Dugard endured is beyond comprehension, but it should be patently obvious that California taxpayers weren’t responsible for what happened to her. It’s not our fault she was kidnapped, brutalized, raped and enslaved. Yet we’re paying the fine.