Public, officials must be alert to possibilities of abuse

Public, officials must be alert to possibilities of abuse

It is difficult to see Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy, as criminal geniuses, and so it is impossible to understand how the California couple managed to pull off the crime that they did.

And yet, by all accounts, for 18 years they held in secret the girl they kidnapped at the age of 11, Jaycee Lee Dugard. During that time, Garrido raped Jaycee, impregnated her at least twice, and kept those births secret as well. Neither child, now 11 and 15, was ever enrolled in school, ever taken to a doctor or hospital. And during that entire time, Garrido, a convicted sex offender, was on probation, and was even jailed for a period of time for an unspecified parole violation.

Certainly there are enough lessons to be learned from the eventual unraveling of this crime to write a book — and books of varying degrees of accuracy and varying degrees of value — will be written.

Sooner rather than later

But perhaps the greatest lesson to be learned from a California kidnapping is the same lesson to be learned from a recent case of horrendous child abuse in Trumbull County. People who see something suspicious and have reason to believe a child is in danger should speak up.

Actually, one of the Garrido neighbors did speak up about three years ago, but a deputy sent to investigate reports of children living in tents in Garrido’s backyard didn’t do the necessary computer check to know that Garrido was a convicted sex offender and didn’t go past holding a conversation with Garrido on his front porch. Likewise, Garrido’s parole officers, who had the authority to do spot checks at his home also, obviously didn’t get much farther than the front door.

But those failures of people paid to protect the public should not deter others. Imagine how other Garrido neighbors who decided to mind their own business feel, now that the full horror of what was going on in the backyard compound is coming to light.

As to the lackadaisical deputy and the slipshod parole officers, it will be up to their supervisors to reject their lame excuses and hold them to account for their misfeasance and the role they played in facilitating the abuse of Jaycee and her children by the Garridos.

The recent Trumbull County case was not nearly so dramatic as the kidnapping and imprisonment of a young girl, but it had the potential for tragedy.

The signs were there

Neighbors on Everett East Road in Brookfield Township had noticed troubling signs of possible abuse of an 8-year-old boy, the son of Celinda Wise and stepson of Damion Wise. And the police and Children Services had even been to the home on matters not directly involving the boy.

Neighbors who saw some bruises on the boy or had noticed that he spent an inordinate amount of time alone and listless in his yard kept silent. Even his mother says she knew her husband did not treat the boy well, but did not realize he was being abused.

Aug. 22, however, an anonymous caller had seen enough and notified police. By that time, the boy had been beaten, bruised and terrified to such an extent that he required brief hospitalization and will no doubt require extraordinary and loving support for some time to come.

Damion Wise has already been sentenced on unrelated domestic violence charges; he faces felony counts for child abuse, and the 8-year-old boy and an infant brother are in foster care.

Perhaps there were signs that were missed. Perhaps when school began, an alert teacher would have intervened. Or perhaps, if someone had not shown the minimal courage it takes to make a call, the results would have been tragic.

Some neighbors are feeling guilt for not having intervened, but happily, the result is one that everyone, including the children involved, can live with. That’s worth remembering the next time something involving a child looks wrong.