Jaycee Dugard

The state Assembly Thursday approved a $20-million settlement for Jaycee Dugard, who was kidnapped and held captive for 18 years. State justice officials have recommended paying the settlement, which still must be approved by the state Senate. Phillip Garrido is accused of snatching Dugard when she was 11 from outside her South Lake Tahoe home. Since his arrest, officials have revealed he was being monitored by the state parole system for years and had at least five parole officers.

Reporting from San Francisco -- Jaycee Lee Dugard sued the U.S. government Thursday, alleging that slipshod federal supervision of convicted rapist Phillip Garrido allowed him to remain free, snatch Dugard while she walked to a school bus stop and hold her captive for 18 years. So lacking was the government's oversight, according to the complaint, that its "gross neglect borders on virtual complicity" with Garrido, who pleaded guilty in April to charges that he kidnapped and raped Dugard.

To watch Diane Sawyer's interview Sunday night with Jaycee Dugard was to wonder at times if that was Dugard herself on screen or an actress hired to play the role of the quintessential survivor. Dugard was so serene and lacking in rancor that it was hard to believe she had been kidnapped at age 11 and held prisoner for 18 years, during which she was repeatedly raped and bore two children, the first when she was just 14. But there she was, saying things like "there is life after something tragic" and joking about how being locked indoors for so many years was her secret to smooth skin.

Reporting from Sacramento -- El Dorado County Dist. Atty. Vern Pierson, who prosecuted the man convicted of abducting Jaycee Lee Dugard and holding her for nearly two decades, on Tuesday blasted the criminal justice system that let onetime parolee Phillip Garrido previously go free. In a report issued the day before state Sen. Ted Gaines (R- Roseville) has scheduled a "community discussion" here to focus on tightening parole requirements, Pierson cited the fact that parole agents over the years had made about 60 visits to Garrido's home and failed to discover Dugard, who was kept hidden in the backyard.

A married couple in Northern California pleaded guilty Thursday to kidnapping Jaycee Dugard when she was 11, raping her and confining her in a hidden backyard encampment for 18 years in a plea deal that will spare the victim from having to testify at a trial. Phillip Garrido, 60, and his wife, Nancy, 55, entered their pleas in an El Dorado County courtroom in a case that drew international headlines after Dugard and two daughters she bore with Phillip Garrido were discovered in August 2009.

As 14-year-old Jaycee Dugard struggled in a crude backyard shed to deliver her baby daughter, the serial predator who had abducted and raped her stepped in to unwrap the umbilical cord that trapped the infant. "She was beautiful," Dugard said of the child she birthed three years into her captivity in Northern California. "I felt like I wasn't alone anymore. I knew I could never let anything happen to her. " In an exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer broadcast Sunday on ABC, Dugard, displaying remarkable poise and smiling often, provided chilling details about the 18-year ordeal she endured at the hands of her captors, an increasingly deranged parolee named Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy, who aided the abduction and condoned his rapes.

Reporting from Placerville, Calif. -- Accused kidnapper and rapist Phillip Garrido pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he and his wife abducted an 11-year-old school girl near South Lake Tahoe and held her as a sexual slave for almost 20 years. Jaycee Dugard, now 30, gave birth to two daughters while in captivity in a ramshackle encampment of tents and soundproof sheds behind the Garridos' Antioch home. Garrido, 60, is the father. He and wife Nancy, 55, have confessed to snatching Dugard as she walked to the school bus in 1991.

Kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard says she didn't know she was pregnant when she gave birth to her first child. Dugard had been abducted by Phillip and Nancy Garrido when she was 11 years old, handcuffed, raped and imprisoned for 18 years. Now 31, she is telling her story in the memoir "A Stolen Life" and in an exclusive interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer. Watch a clip below. "Now I can walk in the next room and see my mom," Dugard said in her first interview. "Wow. I can decide to jump in the car and go to the beach with the girls.

Reporting from Placerville, Calif. -- At times, the voice is young and terrified — an 11-year-old girl who was kidnapped during the last week of school, raped for years and kept in line under threat of pain. At times, the voice is brave and resilient — a mother protecting her vulnerable daughters, struggling to give them a normal life under the most horrific of circumstances. And at times, it is angry and defiant — a survivor facing down her abusers and prevailing. Always, though, the voice is Jaycee Lee Dugard's.

State parole officials missed many chances to capture convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido and find Jaycee Dugard, whom he is accused of kidnapping 18 years ago and harboring in his Antioch backyard, a prison watchdog has concluded in a highly critical report to be released today. Inspector General David R. Shaw said a two-month investigation found that the state parole division supervising Garrido for the past decade could have discovered Dugard, and her two children fathered by him, much earlier than August, when he was arrested.

To watch Diane Sawyer's interview Sunday night with Jaycee Dugard was to wonder at times if that was Dugard herself on screen or an actress hired to play the role of the quintessential survivor. Dugard was so serene and lacking in rancor that it was hard to believe she had been kidnapped at age 11 and held prisoner for 18 years, during which she was repeatedly raped and bore two children, the first when she was just 14. But there she was, saying things like "there is life after something tragic" and joking about how being locked indoors for so many years was her secret to smooth skin.

Reporting from San Francisco -- There are graphic details of her years as a sex slave, descriptions so unsettling that a judge has refused to make much of Jaycee Lee Dugard's grand jury testimony public. There are chapters dedicated to her life today — a mix of intensive therapy and simple pleasures, of healing from 18 years as a captive and seeing her teenage daughters blossom, finally, in freedom. But while Dugard's memoir "A Stolen Life" chronicles her growth from victim to survivor, from terror to strength, it also is an indictment of the parole system and a meditation on loneliness.

See the 'new' Da Vinci An oil painting recently authenticated as the work of Leonardo da Vinci will be on display at the National Gallery in London in the fall as part of a larger exhibition on the Renaissance artist. "Salvator Mundi," which dates to around 1500, depicts a half-length figure of Christ with one hand raised in blessing and the other holding an orb. The National Gallery said Monday that the work will be included in an exhibition titled "Leonardo da Vinci: Painter of the Court of Milan," from Nov. 9 to Feb. 5, 2012.

"A Stolen Life," Jaycee Lee Dugard's memoir of 18 years in captivity, landed on electronic bookshelves shortly after midnight Tuesday. On its cover is a photograph of a smiling, toothy little 11-year-old, tongue out, blond hair tumbling down her shoulders -- Jaycee, free, before she was kidnapped by Phillip and Nancy Garrido and held as a sex slave in a ramshackle compound in their Antioch backyard. There's also a pine cone -- the last thing Dugard remembers touching before she was dragged into the Garridos' car as she headed to the school bus in 1991.

As 14-year-old Jaycee Dugard struggled in a crude backyard shed to deliver her baby daughter, the serial predator who had abducted and raped her stepped in to unwrap the umbilical cord that trapped the infant. "She was beautiful," Dugard said of the child she birthed three years into her captivity in Northern California. "I felt like I wasn't alone anymore. I knew I could never let anything happen to her. " In an exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer broadcast Sunday on ABC, Dugard, displaying remarkable poise and smiling often, provided chilling details about the 18-year ordeal she endured at the hands of her captors, an increasingly deranged parolee named Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy, who aided the abduction and condoned his rapes.

Kidnap victim Jaycee Dugard says she didn't know she was pregnant when she gave birth to her first child. Dugard had been abducted by Phillip and Nancy Garrido when she was 11 years old, handcuffed, raped and imprisoned for 18 years. Now 31, she is telling her story in the memoir "A Stolen Life" and in an exclusive interview with ABC News' Diane Sawyer. Watch a clip below. "Now I can walk in the next room and see my mom," Dugard said in her first interview. "Wow. I can decide to jump in the car and go to the beach with the girls.

After Jaycee Lee Dugard was abducted and went missing for 18 years, Meghan Dorris, an elementary school classmate, went to college and traveled the world: Egypt, Costa Rica, Spain, Japan, Jordan. Two years ago, Dorris returned home. She remains close to high school friends, attends their weddings and keeps tabs on their growing families. "I just wonder what Jaycee would have done," Dorris, 28, said Sunday as she walked through town, a crisp breeze rustling aspens, sun sparkling on the cerulean lake.

A 58-year-old registered sex offender and his wife have been arrested in the bizarre and nearly two-decade-old kidnapping of an 11-year-old girl who surfaced in the Bay Area this week after state authorities encountered her alleged captor during a separate investigation, authorities said. Phillip Garrido, a convicted rapist, and his wife, Nancy Garrido, of Antioch were arrested Wednesday night in connection with the kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard, now 29, El Dorado County sheriff's officials said during an afternoon news conference.

Reporting from Placerville, Calif. -- At times, the voice is young and terrified — an 11-year-old girl who was kidnapped during the last week of school, raped for years and kept in line under threat of pain. At times, the voice is brave and resilient — a mother protecting her vulnerable daughters, struggling to give them a normal life under the most horrific of circumstances. And at times, it is angry and defiant — a survivor facing down her abusers and prevailing. Always, though, the voice is Jaycee Lee Dugard's.

Reporting from Placerville, Calif. -- Twenty years after Jaycee Lee Dugard was abducted while walking to her school bus stop, the couple who kidnapped and raped her and stole her childhood were sentenced Thursday to prison terms that could keep them behind bars for the rest of their lives. Phillip Garrido, a 60-year-old serial predator, was sentenced to 431 years to life in prison. His 55-year-old wife, Nancy, was sentenced to 36 years to life and cannot be paroled until she is in her 70s. As he imposed the lengthy prison term, Eldorado County Superior Court Judge Douglas C. Phimister said Garrido "lacks a soul" and called his actions "beyond horrible.