Jaycee Dugard Not to Testify After Garrido Indictment

Jaycee Dugard’s alleged kidnappers, Phillip and Nancy Garrido, were indicted in a California court this week for kidnapping and holding the 11-year-old girl captive for 18 years. A lawyer in the case said Dugard may not have to testify against the Northern California couple in an open court in October.
Jaycee Dugard Not to Testify After Garrido Indictment
Jaycee Dugard's alleged captors, Philip and Nancy Garrido, were indicted this week. Pictured above, a People magazine story with Dugard featured on the cover in October 2009. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
9/23/2010
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/jaycee_dugard_92345871.jpg" alt="Jaycee Dugard's alleged captors, Philip and Nancy Garrido, were indicted this week. Pictured above, a People magazine story with Dugard featured on the cover in October 2009. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)" title="Jaycee Dugard's alleged captors, Philip and Nancy Garrido, were indicted this week. Pictured above, a People magazine story with Dugard featured on the cover in October 2009. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1814363"/></a>
Jaycee Dugard's alleged captors, Philip and Nancy Garrido, were indicted this week. Pictured above, a People magazine story with Dugard featured on the cover in October 2009. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
Jaycee Dugard’s alleged kidnappers, Phillip and Nancy Garrido, were indicted in a California court this week for kidnapping and holding the 11-year-old girl captive for 18 years. A lawyer in the case said Dugard may not have to testify against the Northern California couple in an open court in October.

Dugard was abducted from a South Lake Tahoe street in 1991 and was not found until 18 years later in a compound on Garrido’s property outside of Antioch, California.

An El Dorado grand jury handed down the indictments on Tuesday or Wednesday, Nancy Garrido’s lawyer Steve Tapson told the Associated Press on Thursday.

Grand jury proceedings are held in secret and Tapson said he didn’t know the exact charges that were handed down.

“I don’t like grand juries. I never have,” Tapson told AP. “We don’t get to see or question witnesses, even if they’re police officers.”

With the new indictments, the need for a prelimary hearing would be unneccesary as the judge would have enough evidence the couple to go to trial. AP reported Tapson said a statement from Dugard, 30, may not be neccessary.

The Garridos are to be arraigned in court as early as Oct. 1.