Couple charged in Dugard case appear in court

[October 30, 2009]  PLACERVILLE, Calif. (AP) -- The Northern California couple charged with kidnapping and raping Jaycee Lee Dugard made a brief appearance in a courtroom Thursday for a hearing that gave two people with personal stakes in the case their first glimpses of the defendants in court.

Phillip and Nancy Garrido were in El Dorado County Superior Court for two minutes before they were ordered to return for another case update on Dec. 11. Nancy Garrido smiled at her attorney, while Phillip Garrido kept his eyes on the judge.

The pair have been charged with abducting Dugard from a school bus stop when she was 11 years old and then holding her captive in the backyard of their Antioch home for 18 years along with Dugard's two daughters, who were fathered by Phillip Garrido. They have pleaded not guilty. Their defense lawyers did not make any statements.

Neither Dugard nor any members of her immediate family went to the hearing. But it was attended by the woman Phillip Garrido was convicted of raping and kidnapping in 1976, as well as a Southern California man who says he is Dugard's biological father.

Katie Callaway Hall and Kenneth Slayton said they want to support Dugard even though they have not spoken with her, and that monitoring the proceedings was their way of ensuring that Garrido is punished.

Callaway Hall was kidnapped in her car and driven to a Nevada storage shed where Phillip Garrido raped her for hours. He served 11 years in prison for the attack before being released on parole. She said it said it was harder than she expected to see Garrido again up close.

"The same old fear came back that I felt 33 years ago," she said. "I feel so incredibly passionate about this. I am going to make sure this time he goes away forever."

The Associated Press does not identify rape victims as a matter of policy, but Callaway Hall has come forward to tell her story publicly. Dugard's disappearance had been known and reported for nearly two decades, making impossible any effort to shield her identity when she resurfaced in late August.

Slayton claims to be Dugard's father but says he has never met her because he did not know she existed until he briefly became a suspect in her 1991 kidnapping. He was more blunt about his feelings toward Garrido.

"I just wanted to rip the guy's face off," Slayton said. "I would go ahead and take care of business right now."

Slayton has retained a lawyer of his own to help him establish his paternity and what he hopes is the opportunity to forge a relationship with Dugard, who has been staying in a secret Northern California location with her mother and daughters since she resurfaced in late August.

"Is it ever too late to be a father?" said Slayton, who is married and has two other daughters. "I am here because Jaycee Lee Dugard needs a father. She needs a masculine role model."

The lawyer, Gloria Allred, said Dugard's mother, Terry Probyn, so far has not tried to dispute that Slayton is the father, but has not permitted him to be in contact with her.

[Associated Press; By LISA LEFF]

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