Lost and Found (42 page)

48

“
A MASTER MANIPULATOR
”

On Thursday, November 12, Walt Gray of KCRA-TV received a bizarre letter of apology from Phillip Garrido, handwritten on yellow legal paper.

“First off,” wrote Garrido, “I would like to apologize to every human being for what has taken place. People all over the world are hearing testimony that through the spirit of Christ a mental process took place ending a sexual problem believed to be impossible.”

After taking legal advice, KCRA-TV decided not to release any more of his letter at that time.

Defense attorney Susan Gellman said the letter called into question her client’s mental competency.

“Mr. Garrido is expressing genuine remorse,” she told KCRA-TV. “He would like people to consider the fact that he’s a changed man and his story is best told all at one time, instead of in pieces.”

The public defender also revealed that she was in the process of establishing whether Phillip Garrido was mentally fit to stand trial.

“He presents obvious issues,” she said, “concerning whether or not he is competent to be a defendant, and we are looking into that.”

Prosecutor Vern Pierson strongly disagreed, calling Garrido “a master manipulator.” This new letter, he said, was just his latest attempt to manipulate the system, as he had done so many times in the past. And Pierson vowed to see that Garrido was punished to the fullest extent of the law.

“We see this as another example of his attempt to control the situation around him and his prior victims,” said the district attorney. “These recent statements are eerily similar to what Mr. Garrido told the judge who sentenced him in 1977, and to the parole board when he duped them into releasing him from prison, after only serving eleven years of a fifty-year federal sentence and five-to-life Nevada State sentence.”

Five days later, a low-budget adult filmmaker named Shane Ryan announced plans for a movie about the Jaycee Dugard story, to start shooting in December. Its working title was
Abducted Girl: An American Sex Slave
, but the director of straight-to-DVD movies such as
Amateur Porn Star Killer, Sex Kids Party
and “
Warning!!! Pedophile Released
” denied that his film would be exploitive.

“We want to capture how sad this story is,” Ryan explained. “But also how interesting. We’re trying to figure out a way to do it so it’s not exploitive.”

Angrily reacting in a statement, the Dugard family’s new high-powered public relations spokeswoman Nancy Seltzer branded the plan “exploitive, hurtful and breathtakingly unkind.”

Seltzer, whose other clients include Whitney Houston and Garth Brooks, said Jaycee and her family should decide if and when a movie will be made about her life.

November 19, 2009, marked the twenty-first anniversary of Michaela Garecht’s abduction. And to mark the sad occasion, a crowd of family, friends and supporters gathered outside the Hayward supermarket where she had been snatched.

Sharon Murch, who had started writing letters to her lost daughter on her blog after Jaycee Dugard was found, addressed the large crowd.

“I don’t believe in coincidences,” she said. “All this must be for some purpose.”

Sharon said everything had changed for her after Jaycee’s reappearance, giving her and so many other parents of abducted children fresh hope.

“As more and more information came out,” she said, “I started to understand how [Michaela] might be somewhere and have the ability to free herself . . . that she’s with someone she cares to protect, that she doesn’t want to reveal herself.”

A few days before the poignant anniversary, Murch posted this message for her daughter on her blog,
thewonderingheart.blogspot.com
.

“You can write to me without telling me where you are or who you are with. If you did, I would want to trace your e-mail address and run to where you are, throw my arms around you and take you home with me. But if it would mean the difference between hearing from you and not, I would refrain from doing that. I long to hold you in my arms. But at the very least if you are reading my words, talk to me please.”

One week later, Terry and Shayna Probyn sat down with Jaycee for their first Thanksgiving together in eighteen years. It was a dream come true for Terry, as she played with her granddaughters Angel and Starlit, giving thanks for their true miracle.

As they were waiting to eat a turkey meal with all the trimmings, Shayna posted a mood hungry
message on her MySpace page: “Apparently 22 lb turkeys take a really long time to cook. Dinner pushed to 3 instead of noon so we are all sitting around laughing & eating the pies first. YUMM!”

The night before Thanksgiving, the Third District Court of Appeals in Sacramento blocked Judge Phimister’s order removing Gilbert Maines as Nancy Garrido’s attorney. Late Wednesday evening, the appeals court ordered Judge Phimister to make available transcripts of the secret testimony accusing Maines of misconduct.

Judge Phimister had already scheduled a hearing the following Monday when he would decide whether to execute his previous order to remove Maines, but the appeals court now said it would take the final decision.

The defense attorney, who had strenuously denied ever discussing the Jaycee Dugard case over drinks at his golf club, now had two sworn declarations to back him up. Bartender Eduardo Bartolome, who had poured the drinks that Friday afternoon, wrote that Maines had never appeared drunk and the alleged conversation had never taken place.

In a separate declaration, club member Sam Cooper claimed he and Maines had discussed their golf games in the bar, and he had never become “intoxicated, loud, or obnoxious.” Cooper said that if other club members ever asked about the Garrido case, the attorney refused to discuss it.

“There are some members who are quite vocal,” wrote Cooper, “about the fact that they don’t think people like these defendants deserve to be represented and that anyone taking on their defense are of questionable ethical or moral standards. When these statements are made directly to Gil he sometimes responds. Sometimes with a rather pointed and crude reply, concerning their lack of understanding of the Constitution or the law or something regarding the location of their heads. He comes to the club to get away from all this,” he said.

In a new filing, Maines denied ever seeking the rights to Nancy Garrido’s story, or discussing book opportunities or any “other exploitation” of her life story with anyone. And he accused Judge Phimister of summoning him to a private meeting and then ambushing with transcripts of the alleged accusations, made two days before in a secret hearing.

The defense attorney maintained that there was absolutely no “actual or potential conflict of interest” with him defending Nancy Garrido, and his removal would “seriously impair her defense.”

He also included a sworn declaration by Nancy Garrido, saying she “did not really understand what was going on” at the hearing where Judge Phimister removed Maines as her lawyer.

“I have a relationship with Mr. Maines,” she wrote in a declaration, “and I know and trust him.”

Nancy added that after meeting with her interim attorney, Stephen Tapson, she wanted Maines to remain her attorney, regardless of whether he had or had not a conflict of interest.

At the next El Dorado Superior Court hearing on Friday, December 11, Nancy Garrido was represented by the two defense attorneys, Gilbert Maines and Stephen Tapson. Also adding to the drama were Katie Callaway Hall and Ken Slayton, with his attorney, Gloria Allred, who all sat in the public gallery.

When Phillip Garrido was brought into court in a red jailhouse jumpsuit and shackles, there was an audible gasp. He now had a crew cut and had visibly lost weight since his last appearance. Nancy also appeared much thinner, sitting in the jury box with Tapson, while Maines hovered close by.

When Judge Phimister asked who was representing Nancy Garrido, both defense lawyers replied that they were. The judge then said he had received two new sets of allegations against Maines, which he ordered sealed.

“I don’t want anything to prejudice this case, potentially,” the judge explained.

He then scheduled the next hearing for January 21, by which time the appeals court would have decided whether Maines should defend Nancy Garrido.

Outside the courtroom, a reporter asked Maines whether the allegations about him discussing the case were true.

“That’s enough of that,” snapped the lawyer. “I never get drunk or obnoxious and I never discuss the case when I’m drinking.”

Once again, TV crews and reporters descended on Katie Callaway Hall and Ken Slayton.

“I just want to make my presence known,” she declared as her husband Jim stood next to her. “Any day I see that man in shackles is a good day for me.”

And Jaycee’s natural father, Ken Slayton, wearing a black leather jacket over a sweater with an American flag, repeated that he wanted to meet Jaycee as soon as possible.

“I don’t know what’s going on,” he said, “but I see there’s no man out there, and I think they need a man. And I’m a good man.”

Four days later, the Third District Court of Appeals ordered Judge Phimister to reinstate Gilbert Maines as Nancy Garrido’s lawyer, or explain exactly why he had been removed.

“We have carefully examined the record,” wrote Presiding Justice Arthur G. Scotland in his ruling, “including the sealed transcripts of two proceedings and other material placed under seal.”

Justice Scotland then ruled that the evidence Judge Phimister had used to remove Maines from the case did not support the removal. And he ordered the judge to reinstate Maines as Nancy Garrido’s attorney by December 24, or file additional papers by January 5 to remove him.

“It’s an early Christmas present,” Maines told
The Sacramento Bee
. “I had high hopes of prevailing in this matter. I have a lot of respect for Judge Phimister. I don’t know what drove this. I believe he overreacted to chatter.”

As Christmas approached, Jaycee Lee Dugard was named one of
People
magazine’s twenty-five most intriguing people of 2009. And her iconic childhood picture shared the front page with Barack and Michelle Obama, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie and Sarah Palin.

Jaycee had also now received her official California identification card, and Angel and Starlit their birth certificates. On them, the girls surnames are listed as “Dugard,” with Angel’s birth date listed as August 1994 and Starlit—who has been renamed “Gabriella”—as November 1997. The girls’ father is listed as “Phillip Garrido” and mother “Jaycee Lee Dugard,” with their place of birth “Walnut Avenue, Antioch.”

On Christmas Day, Jaycee, her mother Terry and half-sister Shayna celebrated their first Yuletide together in eighteen years. They all decorated Christmas cookies, breaking out into fits of laughter. Jaycee clowned around in a Santa hat with Shayna, while the two sisters listened as their mother told them the cookie recipe she used. When Jaycee made a mistake with her cookie, everyone burst into laughter.

“I’ve never gotten to decorate a cookie before,” said Jaycee.

Later that night, the three gathered by a roaring fireplace, beneath their Christmas stockings.

“It’s a dream come true for me to have both my girls be here with me,” said Terry in a family home movie shot that day. “I’m so thankful for the precious moments that we have together. It seems like I’ve waited an eternity for this.”

49

“
MR. GARRIDO DOES NOT HARBOR ANY ILL WILL
”

On Thursday, January 7, Gilbert Maines was finally removed from the case, after the Third District Court of Appeals ruled against him. The court had considered five new sealed pieces of evidence against him, including further testimony from a police officer and other new witnesses.

“This comes as a complete surprise to me,” the attorney said, after learning he would no longer be representing Nancy Garrido. “They generally said I was talking out of school . . . first off there’s not a gag order. And even assuming I did talk—and I don’t admit I did—if there’s something wrong with that, it’s up to my client to say.”