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

[bananas]

His mother drove him to 7-11 and allowed him to streak? If that is true, i think she can pretty much forget ever receiving mother of the year. WTH?

It seems that he was not getting what he needed as a child if this was the type of "help" mommy gave him, but you know what? He did become an adult and he could have gotten help. We all come to a point in our lives we need to help ourselves and take responsibility for our actions. Nothing I have read about him so far leads me to consider he was so mentally ill he didn't know right from wrong.
 

The way I read it was that they were at his mother's condo and he asked the friend to drive him so he could streak. 

Yes that is how I took it to read as well.

[cookie]

His mother drove him to 7-11 and allowed him to streak? If that is true, i think she can pretty much forget ever receiving mother of the year. WTH?

It seems that he was not getting what he needed as a child if this was the type of "help" mommy gave him, but you know what? He did become an adult and he could have gotten help. We all come to a point in our lives we need to help ourselves and take responsibility for our actions. Nothing I have read about him so far leads me to consider he was so mentally ill he didn't know right from wrong.
 

The way I read it was that they were at his mother's condo and he asked the friend to drive him so he could streak. 

Yes that is how I took it to read as well.

yes..me as well...although it strikes me as his streaking at a 7/11 would be something that his mother might find hilarious...from what I have read about her and her group of pals...jmo...

[Ampersand]

http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-03-11/local-county-news/new-details-reveal-that-john-gardner-fathered-twins

Am I the only one seeing a resemblance to Chelsea and the woman who allegedly is the mother of JAGs twins?

[labubske]

http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-03-11/local-county-news/new-details-reveal-that-john-gardner-fathered-twins

Am I the only one seeing a resemblance to Chelsea and the woman who allegedly is the mother of JAGs twins?

Yes...there seems to be.

[labubske]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/jun/15/bn15attempt-kidnap-girl/

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/may/23/1m23pubsafe234233-public-safety/

http://apps.sdsheriff.net/press/Default.aspx?FileLink=2e53c656-9c35-4aa9-b992-b48de60cd916

http://apps.sdsheriff.net/press/Default.aspx?FileLink=fcb085af-1a0d-43d3-a8a4-144b88e7c3e6

http://apps.sdsheriff.net/press/Default.aspx?FileLink=0009e5b4-0daa-425a-8662-b2d0af159586

As I was looking around for unsolved kidnappings, murders, sexual assaults and so on...I found these links.  It seems that there is another man trying to abduct kids in the area.  Just FYI...

[Missiontoconvict]

His mother drove him to 7-11 and allowed him to streak? If that is true, i think she can pretty much forget ever receiving mother of the year. WTH?

It seems that he was not getting what he needed as a child if this was the type of "help" mommy gave him, but you know what? He did become an adult and he could have gotten help. We all come to a point in our lives we need to help ourselves and take responsibility for our actions. Nothing I have read about him so far leads me to consider he was so mentally ill he didn't know right from wrong.
 

The way I read it was that they were at his mother's condo and he asked the friend to drive him so he could streak. 

Yes that is how I took it to read as well.

yes..me as well...although it strikes me as his streaking at a 7/11 would be something that his mother might find hilarious...from what I have read about her and her group of pals...jmo...

[Northern Rose]

New details reveal that John Gardner fathered twins  (with video)

We’re learning more about John Albert Gardner III.  The man charged with Chelsea King’s murder and rape, and who is being investigated for Amber Dubois’ murder, is a father and the son of a highly-educated mother.

John Gardner’s mother and his stepfather, Cathy Osborne and Kevin O’Neill, are both members of the San Diego Hash House Harriers, a group that describes itself as a “Drinking Club with a Running Problem.”

On Dec. 27, the group hosted a running event on the same day and location where John Gardner is accused of attacking a woman.

Gardner’s stepfather wrote in the group’s newsletter that day, “Disturbing news at the start…when other members…give us word that a girl had been attacked that morning in the trails where we would be running.”

Kevin O’Neill runs a family photo touch up company out of his Rancho Bernardo home while Cathy teaches behavioral health at Scripps.

On her LinkedIn page, Cathy says she cares for “some of the most challenging psychiatric patients.”

Court documents from 2000 show her son, John Gardner, took at least 8 different psychiatric medications while living with Cathy, including Ritalin, Zoloft, and Paxil.

Last week, Chelsea King’s parents told San Diego 6 that they believed Cathy was putting neighbors in danger by allowing her son to stay at her home.  ”Anyone who is a parent cannot in good conscious sit there and say, ‘Yes, it’s okay to let this person live next door.’  You cannot — you cannot tell me.”

Now we’re learning Gardner is a parent of twin boys.  But the convicted sex offender never married his children’s mother.

By 2009, The Enterprise Report says, he was living with Jariah Baker at an apartment not far from Escondido High School where 14-year-old Amber Dubois disappeared.  Sources tell us Baker is now working with authorities on the Dubois murder investigation.

The black Nissan Sentra that Gardner was seen driving is registered to Baker.  The Enterprise Report obtained a ticket John Gardner received while driving the sedan on January 30th in Lake Elsinore.

He was stopped at a DUI check point and ticketed for failing to have registration or proof of insurance.

Last week, San Diego 6 broke the story of a man matching Gardner’s description following another young girl in a black car as she walked home from Bernardo Heights Middle School.  The suspect in that case was eventually scared off.

Sources said the black Sentra was seized by investigators.

http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-03-11/local-county-news/new-details-reveal-that-john-gardner-fathered-twins

[no rose colored glasses]

That is a lot of powerful drugs for someone to have all been on  And especially for a teen 

[Northern Rose]

Is This Gardner's Car?



A car believed to have belonged to the man accused of murdering Chelsea King was towed from an Escondido wrecking yard on Thursday morning and taken to a city holding facility.

As of 1 p.m., Escondido police had not returned a phone call to confirm the car did, in fact, belong to Gardner or the circumstances surrounding the impounding of the vehicle. Earlier this week in San Diego Superior Court, Judge David Danielson issued a gag order in the case involving John Gardner, who, in addition to being a suspect in the King case is also a focus of the investigation in the death of Amber Dubois.
 
The owner of Cardinal Auto Wrecking, however, said detectives asked him not to comment on the vehicle, an indication that there is a possible connection to Gardner.
 
The owner would not say, however, who brought in the vehicle to the salvage yard or confirm when it was brought in. The yard is located exactly three blocks from Gardner's last known residence in Escondido on Rock Springs Road.
 
The car towed from the wrecking yard on Thursday morning is a gold 1999 Grand Prix. That information may be significant. In October, a man bearing a resemblance to Gardner in a composite sketch was being sought in Riverside County for attempting to force a girl into a car at gunpoint as she walked to school. The girl was able to run away. She described the suspect's car at the time as a "'90s era gold four-door sedan, unknown make." That description would seem to match the car that was towed from the wreckage lot on Thursday.
 
The car was at the tow yard since January, sources said. The owner of the wreckage yard would not confirm the date but did say the vehicle identification numbers were forwarded to the DMV and Department of Justice, as is required by law. He also said the car was brought in with "front end damage." When it was towed away Thursday, the car appeared to have other damage as well. However, that could have been because parts of the car had been used as salvage.

Gardner is being held without bail. His preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 4.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/Is-This-Gardners-Car.html

[Tracygirl]

His mother drove him to 7-11 and allowed him to streak? If that is true, i think she can pretty much forget ever receiving mother of the year. WTH?

It seems that he was not getting what he needed as a child if this was the type of "help" mommy gave him, but you know what? He did become an adult and he could have gotten help. We all come to a point in our lives we need to help ourselves and take responsibility for our actions. Nothing I have read about him so far leads me to consider he was so mentally ill he didn't know right from wrong.
 

The way I read it was that they were at his mother's condo and he asked the friend to drive him so he could streak. 

Yes that is how I took it to read as well.

yes..me as well...although it strikes me as his streaking at a 7/11 would be something that his mother might find hilarious...from what I have read about her and her group of pals...jmo...

Maybe this was why I could imagine it and easily misunderstood the article. Thank God I was wrong, I think I would have popped a vein in my head!

[klaasend]

http://www.10news.com/news/22814264/detail.html

Report: Gardner Violated Parole Terms In 2007

POSTED: 2:59 pm PST March 11, 2010
UPDATED: 3:55 pm PST March 11, 2010

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A convicted sex offender charged with murdering one California teenager and under investigation for another killing violated his parole by moving too close to a school but was allowed to remain free, according to records obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

Had John Albert Gardner III been returned to prison in 2007 he would have been evaluated for commitment to a state mental hospital as a sexually violent predator. He also would have qualified for wearing an electronic tracking device for the rest of his life.

"It was just an incompetent decision that didn't protect public safety," said state Sen. George Runner, who wrote Jessica's Law, the sex offender law approved by voters in 2006.

"And now we have, what, two victims and who knows what else is out there?" he said.

The parole records show state officials found Gardner illegally living within a half-mile of a school in September 2007 and decided to keep him on parole. The records show at least five later violations, the last on Sept. 8, 2008, just 18 days before Gardner was let go from parole supervision and his location-tracking GPS bracelet removed from his ankle.

Each time, the decision was "COP:" Continue on Parole.

"All the indications were there saying that this was a very serious situation," said Nancy Kincaid, spokeswoman for the state Department of Mental Health. "A very serious evaluation would have been followed all the way through."

Gardner's attorney, Michael John Popkins, did not return a telephone message left by AP. He is under a court-ordered gag order not to talk about the case.

Gardner, 30, served five years in prison and three years of parole after pleading guilty in 2000 to molesting a 13-year-old neighbor girl.

He pleaded not guilty last week to murdering Chelsea King, 17, whose presumed body was found March 2 buried in a park near her hometown of Poway.

He also is charged with assaulting a woman in the same park in December, and is a suspect but has not been charged in the disappearance of 14-year-old Amber Dubois as she walked to school in Escondido in early 2009.

Her skeletal remains were found Saturday on an Indian reservation.

"There was nothing to indicate then that he would do this, or allegedly do this," said Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "I guess one can always look back, but we don't have the luxury."

In fact, Gardner was considered to be a low- or moderate-risk sex offender, based on the assessment in use at the time, Hidalgo said.

He wasn't sent back to prison in September 2007 because he corrected the residency violation by moving away from a college campus that had a day care center, Hidalgo said.

He had six other technical violations -- one more than shown in the records obtained by the AP, Hidalgo said.

Four involved letting the battery on his ankle bracelet run low, one for missing a meeting with his parole officer, and one for alleged marijuana possession that couldn't be substantiated.

"These are considered minor. Quite frankly if we were to blanket the system of parolees with minor offenses, we would ... overwhelm the system. We'd close the system down," Hidalgo said.

Laura Ahearn, executive director of New York-based Parents for Megan's Law and The Crime Victims Center, said parole agents missed a chance to possibly put Gardner away for years.

"A technical violation is an opportunity to take sexual predators off the street. Most would be looking for that opportunity," she said. "He could have been confined, and this may never have happened."

If officials ruled that Gardner violated his parole, they could have sent him back to prison, though most serve only about four extra months behind bars. However, the new prison term would have extended his parole supervision.

The violation also would have put Gardner under the jurisdiction of Jessica's Law and permitted lifetime electronic monitoring. In addition, it would have permitted Gardner's evaluation as a sexually violent predator, potentially keeping him locked up in a state mental health hospital for years.

Gardner couldn't be committed to a state mental hospital after the 2000 case because the law then required at least two victims. Jessica's Law now allows evaluations after just one.

Kincaid, the mental health spokeswoman, said Gardner might have been committed for having an underlying mental disorder and a likelihood that he would reoffend. However, the law involving commitment generally requires that the victim be a stranger. In this case, his victim was a neighbor who had known and trusted him for a year.

Gardner's 2000 probation report included comments from a psychiatrist who concluded he had "significant predatory traits" and should be kept in prison for as long as possible.

Kincaid said it was unclear from the records if the traits would qualify him as a sexually violent predator under the law.

The AP independently obtained computer-generated portions of Gardner's parole record after the corrections department reported it had routinely destroyed its paper field notes a year after Gardner was released from parole.

The department disclosed Tuesday that portions of the file were transferred to Gardner's central file.

[Northern Rose]

Transcripts: Gardner's 2000 victim feared rape


The young girl John Albert Gardner III molested 10 years ago told a judge in a preliminary court hearing she feared Gardner was going to rape her at the time, according to a transcript The San Diego Union-Tribune obtained Thursday.

“What were you afraid of?” prosecutor David Hendren asked the then 13-year-old girl in court on April 11, 2000.

“I was afraid of what he was going to do with me,” she said.

“What did you think based on your being there that he was going to do?” Hendren asked.

“Probably rape me.”

The 74-page transcript features the testimony of three teenaged girls. Two accused Gardner of molesting them, one in 1999 and the other in 2000. The third was with Gardner and one of the other girls the morning of the later incident.

The transcript provides the most details yet of the March 16, 2000, assault that got Gardner five years in state prison — and the only description of an earlier encounter Gardner had with a then 14-year-old girl at age 20.

Gardner, 30, is accused of raping and murdering Poway teenager Chelsea King, who disappeared Feb. 25 and whose body was found days later. He is also under investigation in the death of Escondido teenager Amber Dubois, who went missing last year and whose remains were found Saturday.

On April 11, Gardner pleaded not guilty to five charges against him, three felony counts of committing a lewd act on a child under the age of 14 and one felony count of false imprisonment related to an incident on March 16, 2000, and one misdemeanor count of child molesting for an incident that occurred in late 1999.

In a plea deal with prosecutors that helped avoid a trial, Gardner pleaded guilty to two charges of committing a lewd act on a child under the age of 14, both of which were less severe than the ones he initially faced, and the charge of false imprisonment. The charge related to the 1999 incident was dropped; the prosecution’s subsequent sentencing report termed the activity consensual.

On April 11, 2000, the girl involved in the 1999 incident said in court that she went with John and two other girls to a secluded spot in Rancho Bernardo and he asked if he could kiss her when the two other girls went on a walk.

“I said, ‘I’m not sure,’, and he kissed me,” she recalled in court. She said she kissed him back, but then pushed his hand away more than once when he started touching her under her bra and down her pants.

“I pushed his hand away and told him I think it is time we left,” she said.

Asked by the prosecutor what happened next, the girl said she looked for her friends for a few minutes, figured they had left and then walked home.

The episode involving Gardner and the 13-year-old girl in 2000 was much more violent. That day, Gardner drove two girls to school in the morning and returned with one to his mother’s townhouse in Rancho Bernardo.

At the school, when the two girls both told Gardner they didn’t want to accompany him to his house, he told the one he would later molest, “Well, I can call you in and pretend to be your dad so you don’t have to go,” according to the testimony in the transcript from the girl who ultimately decided to stay in school that day.

Gardner returned to his house with the 13-year-old and tried to give her a massage over her repeated objections. He later carried her to an upstairs bedroom, telling her “not to open my eyes,” the 13-year-old says in the transcript. “It was like a surprise or something.”

She remembered that she was wearing “kind of sparkly pants and a purple tank top with a white overcoat on.” She said, “He kept telling me to take my white coat off, and I told him I didn’t want to.”

His advances became more physical until, she said, “He hit me in the face, and I didn’t feel anything.” She said he hit her behind the left ear and also gave her a black eye.

She eventually fled from Gardner and ran across the street to the open garage door of a neighbor seeking help.

At that house, she was comforted by Sue Jones, a neighbor who recalled the incident in an interview last week.

In the transcript, Jones said the girl’s face was “really, really swollen and enlarged.” She said, “It hadn’t gotten black and blue yet, but you could tell she had been hit.”

Jones recalled that the girl told her she just wanted to leave and not talk to the police.

“Why didn’t she want to call the police?” Hendren asked.

“She was scared,” Jones answered.

“What was she afraid of?” Hendren asked.

“Having people know what happened,” Jones said.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/mar/11/gardners-2000-victim-feared-rape-transcripts-show/

[Nut44x4]

APNewsBreak: Parole records show San Diego murder suspect could have been returned to prison

A convicted sex offender charged with murdering one California teenager and under investigation for another killing violated his parole by moving too close to a school but was allowed to remain free, according to records obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

Had John Albert Gardner III been returned to prison in 2007 he would have been evaluated for commitment to a state mental hospital as a sexually violent predator. He also would have qualified for wearing an electronic tracking device for the rest of his life.

"It was just an incompetent decision that didn't protect public safety," said state Sen. George Runner, who wrote Jessica's Law, the sex offender law approved by voters in 2006.

"And now we have, what, two victims and who knows what else is out there?" he said.

The parole records show state officials found Gardner illegally living within a half-mile of a school in September 2007 and decided to keep him on parole. The records show at least five later violations, the last on Sept. 8, 2008, just 18 days before Gardner was let go from parole supervision and his location-tracking GPS bracelet removed from his ankle.

Each time, the decision was "COP:" Continue on Parole.

"All the indications were there saying that this was a very serious situation," said Nancy Kincaid, spokeswoman for the state Department of Mental Health. "A very serious evaluation would have been followed all the way through."

Gardner's attorney, Michael John Popkins, did not return a telephone message. He is under a court-ordered gag order not to talk about the case.

Gardner, 30, served five years in prison and three years of parole after pleading guilty in 2000 to molesting a 13-year-old neighbor girl.

He pleaded not guilty last week to murdering Chelsea King, 17, whose presumed body was found March 2 buried in a park near her hometown of Poway north of San Diego.

He also is charged with assaulting a woman in the same park in December, and is a suspect but has not been charged in the disappearance of 14-year-old Amber Dubois as she walked to school in Escondido in early 2009.

Her skeletal remains were found Saturday on an Indian reservation.

"There was nothing to indicate then that he would do this, or allegedly do this," said Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "I guess one can always look back, but we don't have the luxury."

In fact, Gardner was considered to be a low- or moderate-risk sex offender, based on the assessment in use at the time, Hidalgo said.

He wasn't sent back to prison in September 2007 because he corrected the residency violation by moving away from a college campus that had a day care center, Hidalgo said.

He had six other technical violations _ one more than shown in the records obtained by the AP, Hidalgo said.

Four involved letting the battery on his ankle bracelet run low, one for missing a meeting with his parole officer, and one for alleged marijuana possession that couldn't be substantiated.

"These are considered minor. Quite frankly if we were to blanket the system of parolees with minor offenses, we would ... overwhelm the system. We'd close the system down," Hidalgo said.

Laura Ahearn, executive director of New York-based Parents for Megan's Law and The Crime Victims Center, said parole agents missed a chance to possibly put Gardner away for years.

"A technical violation is an opportunity to take sexual predators off the street. Most would be looking for that opportunity," she said. "He could have been confined, and this may never have happened."

If officials ruled that Gardner violated his parole, they could have sent him back to prison, though most serve only about four extra months behind bars. However, the new prison term would have extended his parole supervision.

The violation also would have put Gardner under the jurisdiction of Jessica's Law and permitted lifetime electronic monitoring. In addition, it would have permitted Gardner's evaluation as a sexually violent predator, potentially keeping him locked up in a state mental health hospital for years.

Gardner couldn't be committed to a state mental hospital after the 2000 case because the law then required at least two victims. Jessica's Law now allows evaluations after just one.

Kincaid, the mental health spokeswoman, said Gardner might have been committed for having an underlying mental disorder and a likelihood that he would reoffend. However, the law involving commitment generally requires that the victim be a stranger. In this case, his victim was a neighbor who had known and trusted him for a year.

Gardner's 2000 probation report included comments from a psychiatrist who concluded he had "significant predatory traits" and should be kept in prison for as long as possible.

Kincaid said it was unclear from the records if the traits would qualify him as a sexually violent predator under the law.

The AP independently obtained computer-generated portions of Gardner's parole record after the corrections department reported it had routinely destroyed its paper field notes a year after Gardner was released from parole.

The department disclosed Tuesday that portions of the file were transferred to Gardner's central file.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/apArticle/id/D9ECOBR80/

[no rose colored glasses]

How terribly disturbing to think he could have been taken off the streets again in 2007 

[sebastian]

SAN DIEGO -- 10News learned staff members at Scripps Mercy Hospital are upset about the mother of accused killer John Gardner returning to work.

Sources told 10News Scripps Mercy staff members were summoned to a 3 p.m. meeting Thursday to discuss the issue of Cathy Osborn's return to the hospital. The staff members were asked to dress in street clothes and come in through the front door.

Osborn is a registered nurse and is a supervisor in the behavioral health unit at Scripps Mercy. However, a 10News viewer and co-worker of Osborn sent in the following e-mail:

"Cannot tell you who I am for fear of being harassed, but his mother Cathy Osborn is going back to work at Scripps Mercy Hospital in behavioral health. She let her son live with her and had a key to her house and now is in a position of authority on a psychiatric unit where other sex offenders or psychiatric patients are placed based on her position … She knew he was a danger and never reported him. Her judgment could let other people out of a psychiatric facility that should not be. Staff do not respect her anymore and have to listen to her because she is in a position of authority. This is not right … Staff do not want to work with her and she is coming back to work."

Another co-worker called 10News and said "there's quite a few of us" feeling the same way and that there was a "big sigh of relief" that the word got out. She also said she believed it was in "bad taste" that Osborn continue teaching self-defense classes, and "when she came back Tuesday and walked in ready to teach class as usual, a lot of them walked out."

Scripps Mercy refused to discuss anything regarding the information the anonymous co-workers shared with 10News and said it was "inappropriate … a personnel issue."

10News learned staff members were dismissed from the 3 p.m. meeting at the last minute and told to set up individual meeting sessions.

While it will be five months before her son has his preliminary hearing, Osborn is already being judged at her place of employment.

http://www.10news.com/news/22816642/detail.html

[Shell]

http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-03-11/local-county-news/new-details-reveal-that-john-gardner-fathered-twins

Am I the only one seeing a resemblance to Chelsea and the woman who allegedly is the mother of JAGs twins?

The video at this link says a man has been seen around LR Green school. That is the school that abuts Kit Carson Park. This is so upsetting. 

[mizjay]

SAN DIEGO -- 10News learned staff members at Scripps Mercy Hospital are upset about the mother of accused killer John Gardner returning to work.

Sources told 10News Scripps Mercy staff members were summoned to a 3 p.m. meeting Thursday to discuss the issue of Cathy Osborn's return to the hospital. The staff members were asked to dress in street clothes and come in through the front door.

Osborn is a registered nurse and is a supervisor in the behavioral health unit at Scripps Mercy. However, a 10News viewer and co-worker of Osborn sent in the following e-mail:

"Cannot tell you who I am for fear of being harassed, but his mother Cathy Osborn is going back to work at Scripps Mercy Hospital in behavioral health. She let her son live with her and had a key to her house and now is in a position of authority on a psychiatric unit where other sex offenders or psychiatric patients are placed based on her position … She knew he was a danger and never reported him. Her judgment could let other people out of a psychiatric facility that should not be. Staff do not respect her anymore and have to listen to her because she is in a position of authority. This is not right … Staff do not want to work with her and she is coming back to work."

Another co-worker called 10News and said "there's quite a few of us" feeling the same way and that there was a "big sigh of relief" that the word got out. She also said she believed it was in "bad taste" that Osborn continue teaching self-defense classes, and "when she came back Tuesday and walked in ready to teach class as usual, a lot of them walked out."

Scripps Mercy refused to discuss anything regarding the information the anonymous co-workers shared with 10News and said it was "inappropriate … a personnel issue."

10News learned staff members were dismissed from the 3 p.m. meeting at the last minute and told to set up individual meeting sessions.

While it will be five months before her son has his preliminary hearing, Osborn is already being judged at her place of employment.

http://www.10news.com/news/22816642/detail.html

So, let me get this straight.....CO teaches self defense classes... it IS in bad taste to say the least for her to return to that . Who does she believe women are trying to defend themselves against?   The monster that her son is, is a perfect example.  That takes the cake for unmitigated gall. It's insulting and proves that somewhere in this family's mindset, there is no personal responsibility.  There's a lot broken in that family, IMO

[Northern Rose]

Sex offender violated parole but wasn't sent back to prison
John Albert Gardner III, charged with killing Chelsea King, violated parole in 2007 by living near a school. Officials opted against returning him to prison because he complied with relocation orders.


Reporting from San Diego - The sex offender charged with murdering Chelsea King violated parole in 2007 by living near a school, but state officials opted against sending him back to prison because he complied with orders to relocate, according to a summary released Thursday by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

John Albert Gardner III was barred from residing within a half-mile of an elementary school when his parole officer found him living near a college's day-care center in San Diego County in September 2007.

Gardner moved within two weeks, according to state officials, and avoided a parole hearing process that could have landed him back in prison. He was on parole after serving a five-year sentence for molesting a 13-year-old girl in 2000.

The department's handling of Gardner has come under scrutiny since it was disclosed that officials destroyed his parole file under a policy that has since been reversed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The new disclosures fueled more criticism, with some politicians and victims' rights groups saying that state officials missed an opportunity to keep Gardner from committing more crimes.

Gardner had several potential parole violations, the summary said. He missed a parole meeting, was suspected of marijuana use and had four low-battery alerts from the global positioning system strapped to his body. All were considered minor.

"If we were to return to custody individuals with these types of infractions, the system would not be able to take it," said Oscar Hidalgo, a department spokesman. "We would flood our agents and our parole offices with technical violations that we couldn't sustain. The system itself couldn't sustain it."

The violation of the residency rule could have led to a hearings process with parole officials.

"It never got that far with Gardner," said spokeswoman Terry Thornton, adding that he moved within two weeks of being notified. "If a parole officer gives someone a direct order, move, and the guy moves, there's no reason to revoke him."

Some critics believe other factors were at play. Todd Spitzer, a prosecutor and former state assemblyman from Orange County, said the department has eased up on parole violators because of prison constraints. "They were ignoring public safety with one goal in mind: They were trying to solve the prison overcrowding," Spitzer said.

Gardner, 30, is accused of murdering King, a Poway High School senior, and attempting to rape a woman in December. He is also being investigated in the slaying of 14-year-old Amber Dubois, who disappeared last year and whose skeletal remains were discovered Saturday.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gardner12-2010mar12,0,4643799.story

[Tracygirl]

They have to build new prisons, it is just a cost the tax payers in California will just have to cough up. I hate paying taxes, who doesn't but somethings are for the betterment of society and not releasing criminals into society is in the best interest.
Of course they could always put 4 to a cell, not spend money on cable and internet access, cut their health vision and dental benefits and give them 2 meals rather then 3. But oh for goodness sakes we can't be mean! Makes me crazy

[Northern Rose]

News 8 Investigation: FBI seizes white pickup truck once owned by Gardner
 


The FBI has seized a white pickup truck that sex offender John Gardner may have been driving at the time Amber Dubois went missing. Investigators are looking for DNA inside the truck that could link Amber Dubois to the accused killer. In this News 8 Investigation we learn that vehicles driven by Gardner could become key pieces of evidence.

The 2004 Chevy Silverado was repossessed from Gardner around the same time Amber Dubois went missing in February 2009. It was sold to a new owner last year at used car lot in the Wilmington neighborhood of Los Angeles.  The manager of the car lot remembers buying the truck at auction.

"It's just a standard, white Silverado pickup with four doors. We purchased it on the 9th of March of 2009 at the South Bay Auction, which is in Gardena," Ulises Galvez said.

FBI agents seized the vehicle Wednesday in Los Angeles from its current owner, an immigrant who purchased the truck last year from the Kar Connections lot in Wilmington. Agents told the current owner they needed to impound the truck for several weeks to test it for DNA.

The car lot manager says the truck was cleaned before they sold it.

"We shampoo the carpets and the seats and then wash the windows and the dash," Galvez said.

DMV records show Gardner purchased the truck in 2006. He was driving it in Nov. 2008 when he received a misdemeanor citation for possession of marijuana in Oceanside.

It was repossessed in Feb. 2009, and a short time later Gardner purchased a new vehicle.

The Heller Ford dealership in Escondido confirms Gardner paid cash for a gold, 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix in June 2009. A few months later, a Lake Elsinore girl told deputies a man who looked like Gardner tried to force her into a gold-colored Pontiac, but she got away.

Court records show Gardner has received five traffic tickets and citations since 2008, and each time the citation shows him driving a different vehicle.

In 2008 he was driving a black Hyundai four-door sedan. In 2008 and 2009 he was driving the white Chevy pickup recently seized by the FBI. In April 2009 a traffic ticket shows Gardner was driving his girlfriend's grey Ford Focus. Later in 2009, he was behind the wheel of the gold Pontiac Grand Prix. Finally, in Jan. 2010, a traffic ticket shows him driving a 2002 black Nissan Sentra with a significant amount of damage.

Records show at least two of those cars were registered to Gardner's girlfriend, 28-year-old Jariah Baker. News 8 has confirmed Baker is currently living in a residential drug and alcohol rehab house in Escondido called Serenity House. She did not respond to News 8's emails and phone messages asking for a comment.

http://www.cbs8.com/Global/story.asp?S=12127421