Chelsea King, 17, Missing 2-25-2010 Rancho Bernadino CA (BODY FOUND)

[klaasend]

http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=7233.msg1093120#new

Gardner not kept on short leash, documents show
Parole records indicate several infractions

By Mike Gardner,

Jeff McDonald, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

When John Albert Gardner III walked out of a Central Valley prison a free man in September 2005, state prison officials classified the convicted sex offender as a “high control” parolee.

That meant agents should conduct two face-to-face checks on Gardner every month, including one unannounced visit to his home. It also meant surprise drug testing, mandatory counseling and a vigilance on the part of parole agents reserved for the worst offenders.

The 43 pages of parole records released by prison officials Thursday do not show whether those practices were followed in Gardner’s 2000 case, in which he pleaded guilty to molesting a 13-year-old Rancho Bernardo neighbor.

But they do show that agents and their supervisors passed up opportunity after opportunity to return Gardner to prison — an action that might have safeguarded the lives of two North County teenagers. He is charged in the killing of one and is a focus of the investigation of the other.

“This guy should never had been released from parole,” said Caroline Aguirre, a retired parole agent of 24 years who has been following the Gardner case. “This business of sex offenders not being properly supervised has been going on for years.”

Gardner was charged last week with rape and murder in the death of Chelsea King, a 17-year-old Poway girl who went to go running around Lake Hodges on Feb. 25 and never returned. He is also under investigation in the February 2009 disappearance of Amber Dubois, a 14-year-old from Escondido whose remains were found near Pala on March 6.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday ordered a probe into the handling of Gardner’s previous case, from prosecution through parole.

A prominent victims’ rights advocate defended parole agents, saying they are pressured to look the other way because of budget constraints and overcrowding in the prison system.

“That’s not where the heat should be going,” said Harriet Salarno, president of Crime Victims United. “The heat should be going upstairs to the administration. ... If this guy had seven violations, the parole agents would want to return him.”

Todd Spitzer, a former Republican assemblyman who chaired a prison oversight committee, said it has been well-documented that supervisors were discharging offenders from parole over the objections of agents in the field. The reason? Prisons are packed, Spitzer said.

“They cared more about overcrowding than public safety,” said Spitzer, now an assistant district attorney in Orange County.

In the Gardner case, “there is a very strong probability” that field agents were overruled, but “we don’t know for sure yet,” Spitzer said. That information may be stored in Gardner’s “central file,” which prison officials have refused to release.

State Auditor Elaine Howle, in an investigation, discovered that from Jan. 1, 2007, to March 31, 2008, 20 percent of the 156 cases reviewed indicated that “district administrators discharged parolees against both the parole agents’ and unit supervisors’ recommendations to retain them and often did not provide written justification for discharging parolees, contrary to staff recommendations.”

Prison officials did not respond to questions yesterday. But in an interview Thursday, Assistant Corrections Secretary Oscar Hidalgo said his agents followed well-established procedures in monitoring Gardner.

“As a law enforcement agency, we have to apply a consistent level of revocations or corrections as a whole,” he said.

Gardner was convicted in 2000 of two counts of committing lewd and lascivious acts on a 13-year-old girl and a charge of false imprisonment. He served just over five years of a six-year sentence before he was placed on parole for three years on Sept. 26, 2005.

Records show that Gardner violated conditions of his parole at least seven times, any one of which could have resulted in his return to prison. The most serious violation occurred in September 2007, when he lived in an apartment near Miramar College and its day-care center. It also was close to Scripps Ranch High School and Hourglass Field Community Park.

That was the only incident resulting in a referral to the Board of Parole Hearings, which allowed Gardner to continue on parole after a hearing in September 2007. The records for that hearing state, “There have been no parole violations, positive anti-narcotic tests or law enforcement contact/arrests.”

But documents obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune show that Gardner was stopped for running a red light in Loma Linda on Dec. 12, 2006. He also was ticketed in San Diego on Jan. 11, 2007, though that citation was dismissed three months later after he completed traffic court.

If the convicted sex offender had been returned to prison, his parole would have become subject to at least some provisions of Jessica’s Law, passed by voters in 2006, including possible confinement at a mental hospital or lifetime GPS monitoring.

A handwritten note in Gardner’s parole records from August 2007 says, “Continued structure & supervision is warranted for community protection.”

Retired parole agent Graham McGruer said the circumstances — as well as the underlying crimes that landed Gardner in prison 10 years ago — should have prompted parole officials to do more.

“Those are red flags,” said McGruer, who lives in Chula Vista. “A parole agent needs to spend extra time looking at this individual because he’s popping up in the system. This guy would not have fallen through the cracks if parole (agents) had been checking up on what he was doing.”

Hidalgo declined to respond to those criticisms, but said multiple traffic infractions typically are not reason enough to send a parolee back to prison.

San Diego criminal defense attorney Donald Levine said supervising agents encounter parolees who behave much worse than did Gardner. “They’re definitely going to prioritize,” Levine said. “But when you have a person on parole for the heinous crime he committed, you’ve got to be hypervigilant.”

Gardner continued to cross paths with police and other law enforcement officers after completing parole.

He collected four citations in 15 months, according to records in various courts.

[klaasend]

Watch live tomorrow at 2pm:

http://www.10news.com/index.html

TODAY at 2pm PST you can watch the public memorial at the above link LIVE

[klaasend]

http://www.10news.com/news/22831432/detail.html

Thousands To Gather For Chelsea King Memorial

POSTED: 9:24 am PST March 13, 2010

SAN DIEGO -- Family, friends and classmates of slain Poway High senior Chelsea King will gather by the hundreds Saturday in the school's football stadium, along with throngs of people the teen never met, to celebrate her life and to share in the grief of her loss.

Thousands of people are expected on the North County campus for the 2 p.m. memorial, which will provide a focal point for a mass outpouring of grief and outrage over the slaying of a straight-A student who seemed to have the brightest of futures.

Early in the morning, all of the roughly 6,000 passes for seating at the event had been handed out, and King family spokeswoman Sara Muller Fraunces said the stadium has reached its seating capacity.

Fraunces encouraged members of the general public wishing to view the memorial to view it online. Anticipating a crush of mourners, Chelsea's family issued priority seating passes to her relatives, close friends and fellow Poway High students.

The amount of community interest in the memorial "has exceeded anyone's expectation and grows each day," Fraunces said earlier this week. "Therefore, we are working closely with officials from (the school), Poway Unified School District, the Sheriff's Department, other law enforcement agencies and scores of San Diego businesses donating their services to meet the event's needs," Fraunces said.

Chelsea's parents, Brent and Kelly King, said they "never anticipated that so many people would want to honor Chelsea in this way, and very much wish we could accommodate every single person." "We apologize in advance if that turns out not to be the case," they added.

Chelsea, an avid cross-country runner, disappeared Feb. 25 while going for an after-school run in Rancho Bernardo Community Park. An search by law enforcement teams from numerous agencies aided by thousands of citizen volunteers ended five days later with the discovery of the girl's body in a shallow grave along a tributary to Lake Hodges.

Three days after Chelsea went missing, registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III, 30, was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting and killing her. Police said DNA found on Chelsea's underwear incriminated Gardner.

Gardner is also charged with sexually assaulting a woman in the same park Dec. 27.

He is also being investigated in the disappearance and apparent murder of 14-year-old Amber Dubois, who vanished while walking to school in February 2009. The Escondido High School freshman's skeletal remains were found Saturday on a hillside in Pala, near the Riverside County border.

[klaasend]

http://www.cbs8.com/Global/story.asp?S=12131701

Ex-friend: Gardner sexually abused and suicidal over breakup
Posted: Mar 12, 2010 12:03 PM PST Updated: Mar 13, 2010 8:18 AM PST
Click image to enlarge

(CBS - A former close friend of accused killer John Gardner has come forward with shocking revelations about his past.

Jennifer Brandt and Gardner weren't close in high school, but became friends shortly after they graduated from the Class of 1997 at Rim of the World high school near Lake Arrowhead, California.

"He was a fun and crazy guy," Brandt said.

That was the John Gardner who Jennifer Brandt thought she knew, until his 2000 conviction for molesting and assaulting a 13-year-old girl.

"Pretty much all of his friends were hurt and betrayed by him after that.  We stopped all contact with him," Brandt said.

She hasn't spoken to Gardner since then. In fact, she says she hasn't even thought of his name in years, until he made national headlines.

"It was shocking. This was a guy I hung out with, I stayed the night on his couch," she said.

She told News 8 on the phone from Indianapolis that John once admitted to her a dark secret.

"He had on one occasion spoken to me about how a male family member had sexually abused him when he was young. He was almost in tears talking about it. I don't even remember how the subject was brought up but it was obviously something he needed to talk about, and I was there to listen," she said.

Gardner is accused of raping and murdering 17-year-old Chelsea King, and a suspect in the murder of 14-year-old Amber Dubois as well.

"It's very painful right now.  We had several very deep conversations," Brandt said of her former friendship with Gardner.

She says Gardner admitted he had major mood swings and claimed his mother once committed him to a mental hospital.

On one occasion, she and her friends watched from a car while Gardner streaked a convenience store, Brandt told News 8.

"He got completely naked and put a bag on his head and ran in the store.  And the thing that was funny was, there was nobody in the store.  The clerk was in the back," she recalled.

Gardner also threatened suicide a couple years after high school when his then girlfriend Jennifer Tripp dumped him, said Brandt.  Tripp is a couple years younger than Gardner and was still in school at the time of the breakup, according to Brandt.

"He missed her and he would cry about it and there was nothing left to live for without her," Brandt recalled Gardner telling her.

Brandt also believes Tripp – the girlfriend who broke Gardner's heart -- resembles both Chelsea King and Amber Dubois.

"From the photos that I see… the blue eyes, the straight hair… they all look like the girl he dated in high school and broke his heart," Brandt said.

[no rose colored glasses]

Oh my how disturbing is that, the old girlfriend has some resemblance to Chelsea and Amber 

[Nut44x4]

LE needs to assign a task force to concentrate on girls/young women who have gone missing throughout the area of the map posted on the previous page and get busy weeding through possiblities of a connection to this pig. If he did kill Amber, I doubt she was his 'first kill'. If he didn't kill Amber, then no way was Chelsea his 'first kill'. He has been a predator in the area for too long to just now start killing. I know 'someone' had to be his first, but I think it was many years ago.

[ChiChi]

do we have the dob for JAG? I don't have it at this moment.... not sure if it has been posted yet.

[ChiChi]

okay, so I'm on the myspace for what we think is JAG.  There are only two friends, one last gf (we think), and then there is another one, is this his gf from high school? says she is 28 and her first name is jennifer, now last name Noyes (married) is this Jennifer Tripp?

[ChiChi]

sorry, here is the link

http://www.myspace.com/tejjd

[ChiChi]

Yes this is her, the pictures of her are the same that were posted next to Chelsea and Ambers.  She also has two friends that are "tripps" as well as Jariah Baker.  Interesting his only friends were his gfs...

[ChiChi]

1 strike and their out. I would be willing to pay the extra taxes it would take too keep them locked up for life.

Ditto

[klaasend]

http://scaredmonkeys.com/2010/03/08/john-albert-gardner-iii-now-linked-to-the-murder-of-amber-dubois-after-being-charged-with-the-rape-and-murder-of-chelsea-king/?preview=true&preview_id=13469&preview_nonce=02b30d9332

Someone who appears to be posting from the San Diego area is threatening me.  Just thought I'd mention it in case I disappear.  They posted the below on the front page of SM.

If You Only Knew
((email and IP removed by me))
Submitted on 2010/03/13 at 3:13pm

So (EDIT), tell me - how do you and (EDIT) like living in (EDIT)? We’re actually neighbors. Perhaps I could come over for a cup of coffee and we could discuss all of this in greater detail. Just a thought
___________________________________________________
SM: This comment prior to edits, the email address and IP used in this threat has been sent to the police.

[no rose colored glasses]

http://scaredmonkeys.com/2010/03/08/john-albert-gardner-iii-now-linked-to-the-murder-of-amber-dubois-after-being-charged-with-the-rape-and-murder-of-chelsea-king/?preview=true&preview_id=13469&preview_nonce=02b30d9332

Someone who appears to be posting from the San Diego area is threatening me.  Just thought I'd mention it in case I disappear.  They posted the below on the front page of SM.

If You Only Knew
((email and IP removed by me))
Submitted on 2010/03/13 at 3:13pm

So (EDIT), tell me - how do you and (EDIT) like living in (EDIT)? We’re actually neighbors. Perhaps I could come over for a cup of coffee and we could discuss all of this in greater detail. Just a thought
___________________________________________________
SM: This comment prior to edits, the email address and IP used in this threat has been sent to the police.

OMG Klaas, I'm so glad you sent it to the police. Please stay safe, what in the world is wrong with people 

[Nut44x4]

  Klaas..... 

[Nut44x4]

I can't find the front page story...the link you posted above opens with

>>
You do not have permission to preview drafts.

[Nut44x4]

found it.never mind
http://scaredmonkeys.com/2010/03/08/john-albert-gardner-iii-now-linked-to-the-murder-of-amber-dubois-after-being-charged-with-the-rape-and-murder-of-chelsea-king/#comments

[Northern Rose]

Co-Workers Upset Over Gardner's Mom's Return To Job (video)

http://www.10news.com/video/22820662/index.html

[Northern Rose]

The memorial is lovely so far.  All the sunflowers look beautiful. 

[Northern Rose]

That was really nice for them to have a moment of silence for Amber.

[Tracygirl]

Yikes! I read over there, glad you sent the police the email, this person sounds unstable to me. He/she is throwing a tantrum such as a young child would do if mommy was threatening to take away their favorite toy.