DA: No compassion for Nancy Garrido
By Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times
Another court delay Thursday dashed speculation of possible guilty pleas from Phillip and Nancy Garrido, the couple accused of kidnapping and sexually tormenting Jaycee Lee Dugard and holding her captive for 18 years in their backyard compound in Northern California.
After a hearing in El Dorado County Superior Court, District Attorney Vern Pierson criticized comments made by Nancy Garrido’s defense attorney a few weeks ago, when he called for compassion for his client because Garrido was “like her mother” when Jaycee’s children, fathered by Phillip Garrido, were born.
“Perhaps my alleged lack of compassion comes from my awareness of many disgusting facts concerning Nancy Garrido’s personal involvement in this case,” Pierson said in a statement.
Pierson said Nancy Garrido not only assisted her husband when he snatched Dugard off a South Tahoe street 18 years ago, but also helped imprison the girl in the couple’s backyard and videotaped other young children to “provide her rapist husband with sexually perverse entertainment.”
The couple confessed to the crimes last month because Phillip Garrido, 59, hopes to negotiate a reduced sentenced for his wife, according to Stephen Tapson, Nancy’s Garrido’s attorney.