SACRAMENTO, Dec. 5 (UPI) -- California corrections officials are being sued for refusing to release information on a man accused of holding a girl hostage for 18 years, authorities said.
Three media companies, The Sacramento Bee, KCRA-TV and the San Francisco Chronicle filed suit Friday in Sacramento Superior Court against the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the California Inspector General's Office.
The companies want access to records showing how parole agents supervised Phillip Garrido between 1999 and August, The Bee reported Saturday.
Garrido and his wife Nancy allegedly kidnapped Jaycee Lee Dugard in 1991, when she was 11. The couple, who have pleaded not guilty, were arrested in August after Dugard walked into a parole office with Garrido, a registered sex offender who was on parole for an earlier kidnap and rape case.
A state review found previous parole agents were lax in supervising Garrido.
Friday, corrections spokesman Oscar Hidalgo said his agency could not release the records because of privacy laws related to parolees and because of the ongoing investigation in the Dugard case.
