Nov 13, 2009 3:15 pm US/Pacific
Garrido Issues Apology In Jailhouse Letter
SACRAMENTO (CBS 5 / AP) ―
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Phillip Garrido enters the courtroom recently for a hearing at the El Dorado Superior Court in Placerville.
AP
The man accused of kidnapping and raping Jaycee Lee Dugard and holding her captive for nearly two decades wrote an apology in a jailhouse letter that talks about "ending a sexual problem believed to be impossible."
Phillip Garrido's handwritten letter, received Thursday by a Sacramento-area television station, did not mention Dugard or her two daughters allegedly fathered by Garrido.
"First off," Garrido wrote, "I would like to apologize to every human being for what has taken place."
He continued, "People all over the world are hearing testimony that through the spirit of Christ a mental process took place ending a sexual problem believed to be impossible."
The letter was three paragraphs long. Anzio Williams, news director at the station, said it only publicly released the one paragraph it deemed newsworthy.
The station said it has received a total of three letters from Garrido.
In an earlier letter, Garrido alleged Dugard's civil rights were violated during questioning by authorities.
Garrido and his wife, Nancy, are currently being been held at El Dorado County Jail.
They were arrested in August and charged with abducting Dugard outside her South Lake Tahoe home in 1991.
Prosecutors allege the couple sexually assaulted Dugard and held her in a secret compound at their home near Antioch. The couple has pleaded not guilty.
Phillip Garrido's lawyer, Susan Gellman, said her client was expressing genuine remorse.
"He would like people to consider the fact that he's a changed man," she said. "He presents obvious issues whether or not he is competent to be a defendant and we are looking into that."
But El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson called Garrido a "master manipulator" who is trying to "manipulate the process, the people involved in that process, and, most significantly, his prior victims."
"It appears once again that Mr. Garrido seeks leniency due to claims of religious transformation and alleged personal change," Pierson said on Friday afternoon. "Our office fully intends to hold Mr. Garrido legally accountable for his actions and see that he is punished to the full extent of the law."
Dugard's attorney, McGregor Scott, declined to comment on the letter.
Dugard was reunited with her family Aug. 27 after her whereabouts were discovered during a meeting with Garrido's parole agent.
The agent had summoned Garrido, a registered sex offender, after two University of California Berkeley police officers grew suspicious of him when he showed up at the campus with two girls and asked for a permit to hold a religious event.
The two girls are Dugard's daughters fathered by Garrido, police said.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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