The same police officer who heroically helped save kidnapping victim Jaycee Lee Dugard from her 18-year captivity is now fighting in court for the right to carry a concealed weapon, accusing her former University of California-Berkeley employer of disregarding state law and denying the permit.
California law allows retired officers the right to carry concealed weapons. But former officer Allison “Ally” Jacobs — who was injured in 2010 and took disability pay — has been denied that right by UC Berkeley. Why? The campus force says that since Ms. Jacobs took disability income, she’s not really “retired” and therefore doesn’t meet the standards set forth by state law, Fox News reported.
This is the same police officer whose sixth sense led colleagues to the location of Ms. Dugard, the girl who was kidnapped at the age of 11 from South Lake Tahoe and held against her will for 18 years by a convicted sex offender, Phillip Craig Garrido, and his wife, at their California home. Ms. Jacobs said she met Mr. Garrido and his two daughters when they visited the UC Berkeley campus and red flags rose.
“Something just wasn’t sitting right with me,” she remembers thinking, Fox News reported. “He was on parole for kidnapping and rape. And after that meeting … I decided to call his parole officer and let him know that I think that some investigation is warranted into [his] home life. … And that just opened up an investigation that discovered Jaycee Dugard had been held captive there for 18 years.”
It was the following year that Ms. Jacobs was injured.
“I got medically retired from the University of California Berkeley,” she said, Fox News reported.
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Afterward, she waited for the arrival of her carry-concealed weapons permit — but it never came, she said. UC Berkeley authorities told her that they weren’t by law allowed to give it to her because of her medical disability.
But Ms. Jacobs’ attorney is arguing to the contrary.
“Under state law, all police agencies must give their retired police officers — both those who retire after a full career and those who retire on disability — a permit to carry a concealed weapon,” attorney Michael Morguess told Fox News. He also accused the campus outfit of “revers[ing] course” on policy that’s been standing on the state law books for 20 years.
“They’re denying people like Ally and scores of others those permits,” Mr. Morguess said, Fox News reported. “in effect, the University of California has decided that officers that put their lives in danger in the line of duty — who are injured on duty and are forced to take a disability retirement — are not considered retired under state law and thus not entitled to a permit.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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