Jaycee Duggard - Settlement, Thoughts?

katanne9

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20398717,00.html

Summary: Duggard, who was kidnapped and held hostage for 20 years, recently discovered, is sued the state of CA on the basis that they weren't supervising Garrido, her captor, while he was on parole (i.e. while he kidnapped her). The CA State Assembly has just approved a settlement of $20 million. This still must be passed by the senate.

What are your thoughts?

GreenPepperBurger

For all that bastard put her through, it isn't enough.

nannewmur

. This still muIn Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_jaycee-duggard-settlement-thoughts?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:136Discussion:0c06382f-3fe4-406a-a45c-6864c316433bPost:303ff287-148e-4824-972f-0706fa89c761">Jaycee Duggard - Settlement, Thoughts?</a>:
[QUOTE]<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0">http://www.people.com/people/article/0</a> ,,20398717,00.html Summary: Duggard, who was kidnapped and held hostage for 20 yeher). ars, recently discovered, is sued the state of CA on the basis that they weren't supervising Garrido, her captor, while he was on parole (i.e. while he kidnapped The CA State Assembly has just approved a settlement of $20 millionst be passed by the senate. What are your thoughts?
Posted by katanne9[/QUOTE]

As PP said, it is not enough.  She was held FOR YEARS and has, I believe, two children due to this.  I say she should get WHATEVER she wants.

katanne9

I'm torn with how I feel.

A. She was completely robbed of her life. Her family was robbed. There will never be enough justice to make what was done okay. From a practicality standpoint she also has 2 daughters to provide for due to this situation, on top of what I'm sure will be a lifetime of needed therapy and counsel for everyone.

B. I'm not really sure I feel that taking $20 million away from the state is really making a lot of sense. Yes, perhaps they should have been keeping a closer eye on Garrido, but I can't help but think about where they are taking the money away from. I don't know how I feel...

KD+BC

I agree with you Kat, on the one hand, she deserves every penny. However, the state will have to pay her which means the tax payers. If $20 million is coming from the state, it's being cut from somewhere else. I don't know. It's hard to pick a side.

oceana919

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_jaycee-duggard-settlement-thoughts?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:136Discussion:0c06382f-3fe4-406a-a45c-6864c316433bPost:303ff287-148e-4824-972f-0706fa89c761">Jaycee Duggard - Settlement, Thoughts?</a>:
[QUOTE]<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.people.com/people/article/0">http://www.people.com/people/article/0</a> ,,20398717,00.html Summary: Duggard, who was kidnapped and held hostage for 20 years, recently discovered, is sued the state of CA on the basis that they weren't supervising Garrido, her captor, while he was on parole (i.e. while he kidnapped her). The CA State Assembly has just approved a settlement of $20 million. This still must be passed by the senate. What are your thoughts?
Posted by katanne9[/QUOTE]

Her entire life was completely upended. She lost nearly her entire childhood, was forced into repeated rapes over the span of 20 years, and bore two children during captivity. All the while, Childrens Services and law enforcement were called repeatedly to the home by concerning neighbors, and they failed to look further into the situation until her recent discovery. That's a fundamental failing on the part of the state agencies of CA.

She, along with her children, will likely have to undergo years of therapy and counseling, and that's assuming that there are no physical ramifications to her captivity. I think that amount is entirely appropriate, considering everything she and her family went through.

While I can understand the hesitation based on the fiscal situation that CA is in, she should not suffer because of the state's inability to responsibly manage its finances.

oceana919

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_jaycee-duggard-settlement-thoughts?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:136Discussion:0c06382f-3fe4-406a-a45c-6864c316433bPost:42670c9c-493c-4dc3-93c7-33df6c0ad3e9">Re: Jaycee Duggard - Settlement, Thoughts?</a>:
[QUOTE]I agree with you Kat, on the one hand, she deserves every penny. However, the state will have to pay her which means the tax payers. <strong>If $20 million is coming from the state, it's being cut from somewhere else. </strong>I don't know. It's hard to pick a side.
Posted by KD+BC[/QUOTE]

Perhaps 20 individual movie stars should give up $1mil from their next film payout. That would do it. For a film star like Julia Roberts or Tom Cruise, making $20-25 mil/picture, that would be a drop in the bucket.

leia1979

Kat and KD make good points. Yes, I do believe the state/county failed to properly follow up on Garrido as part of his parole and had there been better supervision, she may have been found a decade ago. On the other hand, if Garrido thought he was going to be caught, he also might have killed her.

I don't know how one places a dollar value on pain and suffering. However, the state of California is also broke, and that $20 million has to come from somewhere.

katanne9

I agree with everyone that she should be deserves to be lavishly "compensated" (for lack of a better word) for what happened and her tragedy is worse than I could ever imagine.

I just feel like it's pining a lot on the state - Garrido is the pervert who caused all the problem. I think she SHOULD be provided a large settlement, I just don't know if I agree where it's coming from. Hmmm.

KD+BC

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_jaycee-duggard-settlement-thoughts?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:0c06382f-3fe4-406a-a45c-6864c316433bPost:b47d074c-0a29-45b4-965c-c1cc6d8da5a7">Re: Jaycee Duggard - Settlement, Thoughts?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Jaycee Duggard - Settlement, Thoughts? : Perhaps 20 individual movie stars should give up $1mil from their next film payout. That would do it. For a film star like Julia Roberts or Tom Cruise, making $20-25 mil/picture, that would be a drop in the bucket.
Posted by oceana919[/QUOTE]

That would be nice.

desertsun

Honestly, a bajillion dollars couldn't take away her pain and suffering. Throwing money at a victim isn't the way to make it right.

Is sitting in a lavish house, not working or interacting with the world, playing with her money going to make it better? Nope.

The way to make it right is to use that money to correct the systems that failed her -- parole, child services, law enforcement, etc. It would help a lot of other people, too.

It's just a stupid way to use government money, IMO. Not that she shouldn't get a settlement. But I should think $5-7 million, if she uses it wisely, would be plenty to help her with therapy, child care, a home, any schooling or other training she wants to pursue, etc.

**Mutley**

I am with Desert. 

While I think that she went through hell, I don't know what $20 million will do to help.  That $20 million will be taken from the same agencies that failed her.  I don't see how that will help prevent this from happening again.  All of those agencies are already hurting. 
I do think that the people who dropped the ball should pay for their mistakes, but those are not the people who are going to pay with this settlement. 

yellowroseFRA

This is a really interesting debate - BF is currently finishing up his legal qualifying exams in Germany, and I found out from him that in this country, there is NO SUCH THING as punitive damages, settlements etc. I am not entirely sure how I feel about that, since there are lots of cases where punishing a wealthy and negligent company or person financially and giving $ aid to the victim can work out well - for example, I'm sure BP will pay a huge a$$ amount to the families of the people killed when their rig exploded, and that seems very fair to me. But suing the state of California and getting $20 million? I don't know. For one thing, "negligence" would probably be pretty complicated in this case - I know that in TX there are strict limits as to how invasive goverment agencies can be when searching homes because of a complaint call, as in they sometimes aren't allowed to actually go in the house. But mainly, I'm not sure $20 million can do anything about the horror story that is this woman's life. It goes way beyond providing for her financially, and why does making her excessively wealthy seem like an apropriate compensation for her past? That makes it seem like our legal system thinks that wealth can "pay off" victims for their suffering.

bsidebella

I think everyone makes great points (esp. oceana - I think the Governator himself could cover half of her settlement), but a message had to be sent to the California Correctional System - this cannot happen again. Jaycee Dugard deserves a hefty compensation for her family and her daughters for the hell they were unneccesarily put through. If the state had been doing its job a little more carefully, either Garrido would not have snatched her up, or she would have been rescued way sooner. I think this is more a punishment for California agencies not doing their job more carefully, rather than just handing over pain & suffering money to a victim.

**Mutley**

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_jaycee-duggard-settlement-thoughts?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:0c06382f-3fe4-406a-a45c-6864c316433bPost:9350cce3-1399-4620-98bc-465969d73c61">Re: Jaycee Duggard - Settlement, Thoughts?</a>:
[QUOTE]I think everyone makes great points (esp. oceana - I think the Governator himself could cover half of her settlement), but a message had to be sent to the California Correctional System - this cannot happen again. Jaycee Dugard deserves a hefty compensation for her family and her daughters for the hell they were unneccesarily put through. If the state had been doing its job a little more carefully, either Garrido would not have snatched her up, or she would have been rescued way sooner. <strong>I think this is more a punishment for California agencies not doing their job more carefully, rather than just handing over pain & suffering money to a victim.</strong>
Posted by bsidebella[/QUOTE]

From my point of view, I don't see how this punishes the California agencies.  Taking money away from the agencies (and it isn't even directly doing that, it is just taking it away from the overall CA budget) does not help them to function properly.  I feel like this does the exact opposite.  It further limits the agencies to appropriately respond to situations like hers.

I do not see how this sends any sort of message to the CA Correctional system.  It needs a severe overhaul.  It IS a broken system.  I just don't see how taking more money away from a broken system will help to fix it.     

 I don't think that there is any punishment that will rectify what happened to her.  Nothing can do that.  There is no amount of money that could ever do that.     

Ana_2985

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_jaycee-duggard-settlement-thoughts?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:0c06382f-3fe4-406a-a45c-6864c316433bPost:9350cce3-1399-4620-98bc-465969d73c61">Re: Jaycee Duggard - Settlement, Thoughts?</a>:
[QUOTE]I think everyone makes great points (esp. oceana - I think the Governator himself could cover half of her settlement), but a message had to be sent to the California Correctional System - this cannot happen again. Jaycee Dugard deserves a hefty compensation for her family and her daughters for the hell they were unneccesarily put through.<strong> If the state had been doing its job a little more carefully, either Garrido would not have snatched her up, or she would have been rescued way sooner.</strong> I think this is more a punishment for California agencies not doing their job more carefully, rather than just handing over pain & suffering money to a victim.
Posted by bsidebella[/QUOTE]

I don't think this is true at all.  Shiit happens.  It's unfortunate, but not everything can be prevented and there isn't always someone to blame.  Do believe that every time a child goes missing it is someone's fault?

However, I have heard that the part about officials being sent to the house in the past and never noticed anything.  It's possible they didn't do their job properly.  It's also possible that this guy is just really sick and really good at what he did.

In general, I agree with Dessert and Mutley and Kat.  Nothing can make up for what happened to this woman and her family and I do not believe this money will be a "punishment" to any agencies.

bsidebella

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_jaycee-duggard-settlement-thoughts?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:0c06382f-3fe4-406a-a45c-6864c316433bPost:818c142f-bb6c-4324-91d6-95257e8aca67">Re: Jaycee Duggard - Settlement, Thoughts?</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Jaycee Duggard - Settlement, Thoughts? : Taking money away from the agencies (and it isn't even directly doing that, it is just taking it away from the overall CA budget) does not help them to function properly.  I feel like this does the exact opposite.  It further limits the agencies to appropriately respond to situations like hers. I do not see how this sends any sort of message to the CA Correctional system.  It needs a severe overhaul.  It IS a broken system.  I just don't see how taking more money away from a broken system will help to fix it.       I don't think that there is any punishment that will rectify what happened to her.  Nothing can do that.  There is no amount of money that could ever do that.     
Posted by **Mutley**[/QUOTE]

This is also very true. Good point.

I didn't really mean that this is a "punishment" in the literal sense. Perhaps that was the wrong word to use. I can't really explain it any other way. It's more like...<em>well, this is what's going to happen if _____</em>. But I don't think that's the best way to explain it either.

bajediva

Team Desert. You make an excellent point in advocating for using the majority of the funds to reform the faulty systems. There is no way to quantify what was stolen from her. If she can be provided with the support she and her children need - whether through access to services and professionals, cash, or a combination - then I think making an investment that would work to prevent these kinds of occurrences would be an excellent step.

oceana919

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_jaycee-duggard-settlement-thoughts?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:136Discussion:0c06382f-3fe4-406a-a45c-6864c316433bPost:164e08e7-4f92-498b-bed7-cd3170025cdd">Re: Jaycee Duggard - Settlement, Thoughts?</a>:
[QUOTE]Honestly, a bajillion dollars couldn't take away her pain and suffering. Throwing money at a victim isn't the way to make it right. Is sitting in a lavish house, not working or interacting with the world, playing with her money going to make it better? Nope. The way to make it right is to use that money to correct the systems that failed her -- parole, child services, law enforcement, etc. It would help a lot of other people, too. It's just a stupid way to use government money, IMO. Not that she shouldn't get a settlement. But I should think $5-7 million, if she uses it wisely, would be plenty to help her with therapy, child care, a home, any schooling or other training she wants to pursue, etc.
Posted by desertsun[/QUOTE]

For all we know, she could turn around and donate the money to kidnapping/endangered child-related causes, or use a portion of it to build a similar-type organization or foundation. In my mind, that would be doing a great deal to help strengthen the systems that failed her and help prevent other children from being in similar situations.

**Mutley**

Oceana, I agree with that line of thinking.  I just... 

It is so hard for me as a resident of CA to think of all of that money going to one person to do as they see fit.  I can hope that she would invest it back in a way that would help right the system that wronged her, but that is just hope.  On the other side, I also do not trust the CA government to actually use that $20 million in the best way. 

I hate the financial state that CA is in right now.  I cannot even describe how much I disagree with so many choice that have been made over the last couple of years.  $20 million is just SOOO freaking much money to a state plagued by deficits in every department.  Sigh.  Then again, I definitely feel like even $100 million would not right the wrongs that she suffered.  There is no way to quantify her pain and suffering. 

I think that Arnold paying it personally is the best option. 

katanne9

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_jaycee-duggard-settlement-thoughts?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:136Discussion:0c06382f-3fe4-406a-a45c-6864c316433bPost:3d1c7706-27cd-4b6b-955d-03780e463abb">Re: Jaycee Duggard - Settlement, Thoughts?</a>:
[QUOTE]$20 million is just SOOO freaking much money to a state plagued by deficits in every department.  Sigh.  Then again, I definitely feel like even $100 million would not right the wrongs that she suffered.  There is no way to quantify her pain and suffering.
Posted by **Mutley**[/QUOTE]

This is exactly how I feel. I WANT her to be given something even though it will never equate to what she has been robbed of. But I also can't help thinking of all the other places/programs that depend on state money will NOT receive it or what they need because of this. $20M is a heck of a lot of money.

I also don't think we can blame the state of CA for being negligent in their keeping tabs on Garrido. ACTUALLY, it's BECAUSE of state employees (wasn't it 2 cops who discovered her because they recognized his face?) that she was found.

Narwhal

I haven't really paid attention to this, but from what y'all are saying, I think that no amount of money will be able to justify what was done to her, and I'm sure she feels the same way. She definitely deserves something for what she went through, but these things happen, regardless on whether the government interferes or not.  There are so many serial killers that were right in the face of the goverment, some that were never on parole to begin with, who did terrible things and no one stopped them.  Sometimes they're just very good at what they do.

There are instances where a woman was brutally beaten and raped in the middle of the street and nothing was done to stop it, even though there were loads of people walking around. Sure, it's our civic duty to stop that kind of stuff, but should every one of those people on the street be sued for their negligence?

 I think that she should have all counseling and support necessary at her disposal, but 20 million dollars seems a little... excessive. Money won't heal the wounds, and it will only cause the departments that screwed up to have to cut more corners in order to make up for the budget decrease.

I think they should take this 20 million and put it into more extensive training and other things to ensure to the best of their ability that this won't happen again.

notquiteblushing

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_not-engaged-yet_jaycee-duggard-settlement-thoughts?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:136Discussion:0c06382f-3fe4-406a-a45c-6864c316433bPost:9350cce3-1399-4620-98bc-465969d73c61">Re: Jaycee Duggard - Settlement, Thoughts?</a>:
[QUOTE]I think everyone makes great points (esp. oceana - I think the Governator himself could cover half of her settlement), <strong>but a message had to be sent to the California Correctional System - this cannot happen again</strong>. Jaycee Dugard deserves a hefty compensation for her family and her daughters for the hell they were unneccesarily put through. If the state had been doing its job a little more carefully, either Garrido would not have snatched her up, or she would have been rescued way sooner. I think this is more a punishment for California agencies not doing their job more carefully, rather than just handing over pain & suffering money to a victim.
Posted by bsidebella[/QUOTE]

Exactly this.  I usually cringe when big settlements get announced because it always sparks the debate of "lawyers suck/do they deserve all this money?/is it even about money?" etc. and especially California who is dead azz broke right now so I think that sparks some emotion from people too.  But face it, a message has to be sent.  How the heck did a parolee manage to have a tent city hostage camp in his backyard for 18 years?  How?  The state screwed up and poor Jaycee suffered.  The state has to pay.