U.S. accused of tampering in Dugard case

[alp227]

Source: SF Chronicle

Lawyers for Jaycee Dugard, seeking to hold federal officials responsible for her abduction and nearly two decades of captivity by a paroled rapist, accused government attorneys Monday of tampering with a crucial witness who allegedly withdrew her support of Dugard after a phone call from the Justice Department.

In a federal court filing in San Francisco, Dugard's lawyers said government attorneys had committed a "flagrant violation" of legal ethics and court rules that deserved a severe penalty: a finding that federal authorities should have revoked Phillip Garrido's parole and sent him back to prison before he kidnapped the 11-year-old girl in 1991. That would amount to a verdict in Dugard's favor and leave only the amount of damages to be determined by a jury.

The government's conduct "has unfairly prejudiced plaintiffs (Dugard and her two daughters, both fathered by Garrido) by depriving them of their sole expert witness," said attorney Dale Kinsella in the court filing.

The Justice Department was not available for comment late Monday. Kinsella said the department's lawyers have claimed they were not aware that the witness had agreed to act as a consultant for Dugard when they contacted her.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/U-S-accused-of-tampering-in-Dugard-case-3767336.php

[Justice wanted]

1. State city and federal government should ALL be held repsonisble for her captivity. they could have

ended it and they didn't./

[pennylane100]

2. I am no legal expert but now this woman is no longer an expert witness,

can she be called to testify for the plaintiff as to why she had been willing to testify, what testimony had she prepared and why she is no longer willing to do so. I would think these are all relevant issues and the judge should ask her to explain them.

The article said she spent about fifty hours working on her testimony. A lot of time and effort was wasted because the government thought it was more important to save face about a dysfunctional system than allow a victim to seek justice. It stinks.

[atreides1]

3. Interesting

[fasttense]

4. Corruption at all levels of government, just another symptom of a Banana Republic

Corruption seems to be standard operating procedures for most of our government. They even use it for a now defunct minor issue that will make the government look slightly (the procedure have since changed) incompetent. No matter that a victim does not get justice, it's more important to save face.

I can't believe that after 50 hours of working up a statement, that the expert witness would not have seen this "lie" she is now so concerned about. Strange that it took a phone call from the justice department for the expert witness to notice the lie.