Nine days after they kidnapped Jaycee Lee Dugard, Phillip and Nancy Garrido paid a visit to his parole officer, who indicated things seemed to be going quite well for the convicted rapist and kidnapper.

"No major changes," the federal parole agent wrote on June 19, 1991, adding later, "A lot of complex issue (sic) with this case.

"He talked about the way he met Nancy and their life together. He seems committed to their relationship."

The upbeat assessment is part of Garrido's voluminous federal parole file, made public for the first time Monday through a Freedom of Information Act request that The Bee filed in September 2009.

The file, released as Dugard's memoir goes on sale today, gives the most complete assessment to date of the numerous visits to Garrido's home by federal parole agents who never noticed the 11-year-old kidnap victim being held captive in the backyard.

While partially redacted, the file underscores the agents' lax supervision of Garrido, and demonstrates how easy it was for him to con some officials and co-workers into believing he had reformed himself.

In September 1994, around the time Garrido's sexual assaults resulted in Dugard giving birth to her first daughter at the age of 14, Garrido reported that "everything is going OK," his parole agent noted.

"Still employed. … Says work-home going well. Talks a lot about his past and how far he has come," the agent wrote.

At the time, Garrido was on parole for the 1976 abduction and rape of Katie Callaway-Hall, then a 25-year-old South Lake Tahoe blackjack dealer.

He had been sentenced to 50 years in prison, but was released after 11 years, with one prison official telling parole agents that he thought "very highly of" Garrido.

"He believes (Garrido) has accomplished everything that he possibly could within the institution and he believes subject is now ready to return to the community," notes from a November 1987 parole hearing say. "(He) has such confidence that he would not object to subject residing next door to him as a neighbor in the community."

Garrido, who was released to an Oakland halfway house a short time later, eventually moved in with his wife and mother in Antioch and found a job at a nursing home, where he fit in well, the notes indicate.

"Subject very happy with adjustment at home and on his job," a parole agent wrote Feb. 24, 1989. "He was voted 'King of the Day' by co-workers for Valentine's Day."

Callaway-Hall, who has said Garrido confronted her at her casino shortly after winning release, remained frightened of him. She called federal authorities in November 1988 saying she believed he was hanging around an office building where she worked.

Garrido's parole agent later used Garrido's timecards to decide he could not have been near Callaway-Hall's office, but he did speak with another official who thought Garrido might need to be placed on electronic monitoring, the 351-page parole file says.

The parole officer responded that he "is of the opinion that to subject this individual to electronic monitoring would be too much of a hassle," because the timecards "point to the fact that the subject was no where near the victim's workplace."

Because of the 1976 attack, Garrido's parole restrictions prohibited him from traveling near South Lake Tahoe, the file indicates. This is the area from which he abducted Dugard in 1991.

But he had few other restrictions while under federal supervision. He was permitted to drive to Bakersfield to interview for a job selling plumbing supplies, and he later got a job selling health products door to door, the file notes.

Agents met with Garrido regularly, often when he came to their office, the file says. When they dropped by his home, they often found him not there or just leaving.

"Dropped by subj.'s home," an agent wrote Dec. 13, 1991. "nancy was leaving for work and subj. had to take her so contact was short."

In 1993, Garrido missed several appointments with parole agents and eventually was arrested and jailed on a marijuana violation. He was released within weeks and placed on electronic monitoring for six months.

He continued to miss some parole appointments. Several investigations have focused on how agents could have missed seeing Dugard, who was first handcuffed and held captive in the backyard and later imprisoned in the home.

A May 2, 1995, notation from the file gives a clue to how it happened repeatedly under the watch of federal and, later, state parole agents.

"Subject not home," an agent wrote that day. "When I knocked on the door there was no answer. I went around to the side of the house to see if there was further indication of someone home, and there was not."

Two days later, the agent went back and found Garrido at home. "He appears to be doing well," the agent wrote. "I inspected residence, nothing out of the ordinary."

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