Dugard to receive $20 mil. from state
By Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee
The state Legislature voted this morning to give kidnap victim Jaycee Lee Dugard $20 million to head off a potentially larger judgment against the state for failing to adequately supervise her alleged kidnapper, prison parolee Phillip Garrido.
The $20 million was placed into an otherwise routine “ciaims bill,” Assembly Bill 1714, on Wednesday. It passed the Senate 30-1 and the Assembly 62-0 sending it to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Because the bill would clear the Legislature in the new fiscal year and the state has not approved a budget, the governor will have to formally request that the measure come to his desk.
Jaycee Lee Dugard
Dugard was 11 years old when she was kidnapped off the street near her home in South Lake Tahoe in 1991, and authorities say she was held prisoner for nearly two decades in Garrido’s Antioch home. He and his wife, Nancy, face numerous charges relating to the case and potentially face life in prison.
So every time a government employee makes a mistake where someone is injured you can make a quick 20 million. Think of prisoners in our jails being raped or assaulted, or an abused child in a foster home. When will the insanity end?
Both our state senator and assemblyman voted for this giveaway. When will the insanity end?
This is not a handout, this is well-deserved considering the 20 years of free will Jaycee lost and the sexual assaults she endured, all while this guy was on parole.
This was not one government employee who made a mistake. Or two government employees. Or for that matter, three government employees who made mistakes. It was multiple government employees at multiple levels of government, with a system that completely failed. As a result of these multiple failures, Jaycee and her family lost 18 years of their lives together. Though money will not restore what they have lost, it will go a long way toward providing the counseling, education and other services she and they need and deserve. I just hope that lessons have been learned, and that a hard look is taken at the failures within the system and the performance of the individuals involved so that a tragedy like this is never repeated.