CHELSEA KING - 17 yo - Poway/Rancho Bernardo CA

SAN DIEGO - We are learning more about Chelsea King's suspected
murderer, John Albert Gardner III. One of Gardner's relatives phoned
into a Los Angeles radio talk show and gave an in depth talk about the
man now behind bars.

"He was impulsive and prone to violent
outbursts," the unidentified man said in a 26-minute exchange. "I was
in shock I couldn't believe what I was hearing."

The man
poured his heart out on the John and Ken radio show, telling listeners
the FBI interviewed him, and just a couple of weeks ago he and Gardner
got into a very bad argument. The relative said he kicked John out of
his grandmother's Lake Elsinore home where he had been staying.

"There
may be other victims out there. Some of this info needs to be shared
every dot needs to be connected," he said on the air.

Gardner's relative believes he is behind other attempted abductions in
Lake Elsinore and Rancho Bernardo. He even believes it's possible John
has something to do with missing Escondido teen, Amber Dubois.

He said, "I hope not. I hope not. But at this point and time..."

In seven days, the King Family is forever
changed. Holding on to hope through emotionally draining days while
volunteers search for their missing 17 year old daughter, Chelsea, the
emotional toll was far from over once her body was discovered near Lake
Hodges and close to the path where she'd gone for a jog.

"We
want to celebrate how she lived her life and that was take each and
every minute. Live it to its fullest," says Chelsea's Mother, Kelly
King.

The day after her body is discovered, the King's were
face to face with her accused murderer and rapist John Gardner as he
faced the charges in court.

"If you were given the opportunity
to sit in the courtroom and physically watch, you would also understand
the amount of cowardice in that person," says Chelsea's Dad, Brent
King.

Chelsea's parents say they hold Gardner's Mother responsible for their daughter's death as well.

"If you know your child has done something wrong, tell somebody. So, absolutely," says Brent King.

Gardner
was staying at his Mother's house in the days before Chelsea
disappeared. The home is blocks away from where the 17-year-old's body
was found. Gardner is convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old in
the same home a decade ago.

"Anyone who is a parent cannot in
good conscience sit there and say, 'yes, it's okay to let this person
live next door.' You cannot, You cannot tell me," says Chelsea's Dad.

Her parents both want the District Attorney to push for the death penalty in their daughter's case.

"This is not a sickness that can be cured. There is only one way to cure it."

Even
with their loss, the Kings look to the future hoping to change the laws
so other sex offenders don't get a second chance to destroy another
life.

"We've been given an opportunity to do something really
good and she's given that to us in a way we would have never wanted.
But we've got it and we're not gonna let her down," says Chelsea's
Mother.

The memorial service for Chelsea will be on March 13th. The public is invited.



Hope for Memorial Park








SAN DIEGO - Backers of a name change of the park where Chelsea King
began her fateful run are gathering support for the idea.

The
17-year-old Poway High School senior and cross-country runner
disappeared after she parked her BMW at Rancho Bernardo Community Park
last Thursday and ran off along the trails near Lake Hodges, sparking a
massive search that ended five days later.

A body believed to be that of the teen was found in a shallow grave near the water's edge.

Registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III has been charged with murdering the teen.

A
Facebook page and a Web page have been created to request that city
officials rename the grounds as "Chelsea King Memorial Park."

New details about accused murderer John Albert Gardner III emerged
today in the probation case report from his 2000 molestation of a young
girl in Rancho Bernardo.

It describes Gardner as a high school graduate with a 3.2 GPA and a
relatively high IQ who didn’t get along well with his parents and
claimed to have taken 18 different medications. It says he worked a
variety of jobs, including as a seasonal lifeguard at a resort and a
ride operator at Santa’s Village, a now-defunct amusement park.

He aspired to be a math teacher or join law enforcement or the
military, but realized before he was sentenced in his 2000 case that
those dreams were gone.

The report was released in response to a petition from The San Diego Union-Tribune and its news partner, KGTV Channel 10.

Gardner, who appeared in court Tuesday for a status conference, is
accused of raping and killing Poway teenager Chelsea King, who went
missing on a run on Feb. 25 in Rancho Bernardo. He is also the focus of
an investigation in the death of Escondido teenager Amber Dubois, whose
body was recovered Saturday after she went missing 13 months ago.

The report says he was born and lived in Culver City until age 2, and lived in Palmdale until age 6. His parents divorced when he was 5, and then he moved to the Los Angeles area,
Redlands and Running Springs in the San Bernardino Mountains. He lived
there until he was 18, when his mother moved to San Diego. He said he
moved there, too, in 1998 and lived with his mother.

Gardner was 21 when he was sentenced to six years in prison for assaulting a 13-year-old in his mother’s home in 2000.

Gardner brought the girl to his home before school on March 16,
2000, and began giving her a massage as they were watching a movie. His
advances became more physical and occurred on the floor, on the couch,
upstairs in his bedroom and again on the couch, where he hit her
repeatedly in the head.

At one point, the report says, he asked if he was scaring her.
Before she hurried to a neighbor’s house wearing one shoe and with her
pants unzipped, the report says, “the defendant hugged her when it was
over and said that he was sorry; that he didn’t know what he had been
thinking.”

Gardner’s probation report notes that Gardner’s uncle, stepfather
and father “are all alcoholics,” and that his father spanked him with a
belt and Gardner “felt that he went over the line to abusiveness.”

Gardner also said his relationship with his mother “is somewhat
strained at times because they share a small apartment and get on each
other’s nerves.”

Gardner began working at age 15 or 16 with his stepfather in
construction on an off-and-on basis. After that, he worked as a
lifeguard for one season at a the Agua Fria resort in the San
Bernardino Mountains and as a rider operator for about four months at
Santa’s Village until that amusement park went out of business and
closed down.

He later worked at an In-N-Out Burger in Los Angeles for three to
six months and after moving to San Diego in 1998, worked for about a
year and a half at Big 5 Sporting Goods, as previously reported.

As a child, it says, Gardner suffered from attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder and took at various times Ritalin, Sylert,
Zoloft, Paxil, Tegretol, Mellaril, Impripramine and Wellbutrin. It says
he stopped taking medication for the condition as a teenager.

In the report, Dr. Matthew Carroll, a psychiatrist evaluating
Gardner for the county, casts doubt on Gardner’s claim he took so many
medications.

“If this were true, then the person would be severely mentally ill
(which the defendant is not) or, there is a serious behavior problem,”
the report says.

Carroll is said in the probation report to have considered a
diagnosis of pedophilia but found Gardner has not been interested in
pre-pubescent children.

Because Gardner denied ever having sexually touched any underage
girls, Carroll determined that Gardner would not likely be receptive to
treatment, the document says.

“The fact that the defendant takes no responsibility whatsoever for
his actions makes him an extremely poor candidate for any sexual
offender treatment,” Carroll wrote. “There are sex offender treatment
programs available in the community, however, the success rate for
these tends to be low.”

The report also says Gardner was engaged at the time and notes that
Dr. Carroll was disturbed by Gardner’s comments that she had become
pregnant at some point in the recent past and got an abortion “because
she was afraid she could not raise a child by herself.”

Carroll said that statement seemed very odd and found “pervasive oddness” in the case.

The probation officer said that Carroll told him, “The defendant
does not suffer from a psychotic disorder. He is simply a bad guy who
is inordinately interested in young girls. However, his predilection
toward young girls is a problem. He manifests significant predatory
traits and is a danger to the community.”

Carroll was also concerned about the incident that led to Gardner’s
first criminal conviction — trespassing at the Rim of the World High
School where he was a student. “He would like to know why the defendant
would be hanging around a high school. He finds this behavior
disturbing.”

The Union-Tribune petitioned a judge to unseal the 2000 probation
report. A hearing was held Monday afternoon and the petition was
granted.

Gardner’s defense lawyers in the Chelsea King case objected to the
release of the report, saying it could taint the jury pool and prevent
their client from receiving a fair trial in San Diego County.

Citing case law, San Diego Superior Court Judge David Danielsen said
such documents, which are sealed 60 days after a defendant is sentenced
on the original case, can be made public again after the defendant has
been rearrested.

Danielsen ordered the report to be released, but gave defense
lawyers until Wednesday morning to decide if they would file a writ
with the 4th District Court of Appeal in an effort to keep the contents
of the document secret. Gardner's deputy public defender, Mel Epley,
said in court Tuesday that they would not file the appeal.

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.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.Gardner
would absolutely have been evaluated for commitment as a possible
sexually violent predator had he been sent back to prison, said Nancy Kincaid, spokeswoman for the state Department of Mental Health."All
the indications were there saying that this was a very serious
situation," she said. "A very serious evaluation would have been
followed all the way through."Gardner's attorney, Michael John Popkins, did not return a telephone message seeking comment. 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.The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation issued a statement saying it was working to determine if the actions taken regarding Gardner's parole were consistent with policy and law."There was nothing to indicate then that he would do this, or allegedly do this," said Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the department. "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, 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.Runner and former state
Assemblyman Todd Spitzer, who chaired a corrections oversight
committee, said the department made a practice of not sending violators
back to prison in an effort to ease crowding."This is proof they
jeopardized public safety," said Spitzer, now an assistant Orange
County district attorney. "They were simply rejecting what they
considered a technical violation to reduce overcrowding."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."During
his parole, Gardner was required to undergo drug testing, abstain from
alcohol and have no contact with anyone under age 18. He also was
prohibited from possessing pornography, children's games, toys or pets.While
in prison, Gardner had six minor rules violations for problems such as
smoking and being late for class. He was placed in segregation and
later transferred to another prison in 2004 "after he experienced
verbal and physical confrontations from other inmates," the department
said.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.Computer-generated portions of Gardner's
parole record were generated 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.

Two days after turning 21, John Albert Gardner III donned a blue
shirt and tie and sat in a San Diego
courtroom for an hour and a half as two teenage girls testified
that he’d molested them.

Both girls said the encounters began innocently enough, according to
the transcript of an April 11, 2000, preliminary hearing that The San
Diego Union-Tribune obtained Thursday.

The 74-page transcript provides, in a 13-year-old victim’s own words,
the most details yet of the March 16, 2000, assault that sent Gardner
to prison.

It also offers the only description available of an episode involving
Gardner and a 14-year-old girl several months earlier.

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

Gardner was 20 in late 1999 when he complimented a 14-year-old girl
as they sat alone by a waterfall in Rancho
Bernardo, and he asked if he could kiss her.

He leaned in even though she said, “I’m not sure.”

The following March, a month before his 21st birthday, he asked a
13-year-old if she needed a massage as they watched a movie alone at his
mother’s townhouse in Rancho Bernardo.

He gave her one even though she told him she was “okay.”

She said that despite repeated objections, he carried her to an
upstairs bedroom, telling her to close her eyes, as if it were “a
surprise or something.” She would end up being groped and beaten.

In all, three teenage girls testified against Gardner during the
hearing. The third was a friend of the girl Gardner assaulted.

William Halsey, Gardner’s lawyer at the time, said last week he had
difficulty persuading Gardner to accept six years instead of the more
than 30 years in prison he faced on the original charges.

Halsey said the preliminary hearing let Gardner see that the
13-year-old would testify against him in court — a key factor in
Gardner’s possible prison sentence.

The willingness or reluctance to testify in court can greatly affect
the outcome of any case, San Diego criminal defense attorney Christopher
Plourd said.

“Given the nature of the general circumstances, that was a lenient
result,” Plourd said of Gardner’s sentence. “His lawyer did a good job
in that case because people can get many years.”

At the preliminary hearing in 2000, Superior Court Judge Jay Stone
found enough evidence to order a trial on the five counts Gardner faced.

Gardner pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of committing a
lewd act on a child under the age of 14 and one felony count of false
imprisonment in the March 16, 2000, incident, and one misdemeanor count
of child molestation in the incident that occurred in late 1999.

In a deal with prosecutors, 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 first faced, and the charge of false
imprisonment.

The charge related to the 1999 incident was dropped; later, the
prosecution’s sentencing report termed the activity consensual.

In that encounter, the girl pushed Gardner’s hand away when he slid
it under her bra and again when he put it down her pants, she told the
court in 2000.

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

The next episode was much more violent.

That day, Gardner drove two girls to school in the morning and
suggested that they both return with him to his mother’s townhouse. He
offered to “pretend to be your dad so you don’t have to go,” according
to testimony.

In the end, one went with him.

He brought the girl home, began massaging her and then his advances
became more physical.

She said in court he hit her behind the left ear and also gave her a
black eye. She eventually fled to a neighbor’s open garage.

“What were you afraid of?” prosecutor David Hendren asked.

“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.”

Registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III, who is accused of
raping and murdering Poway teen Chelsea King, racked up seven violations
during the three years that he served on parole for attacking a
13-year-old girl in 2000, it was reported today.

The assistant secretary of the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation said Thursday that Gardner's trouble with
parole agents never warranted his being sent back to prison, but that
official's boss later issueda statement saying the case was being reviewed.
Gardner's most serious violation while on parole was in
September 2007, when he lived in an apartment adjacent to Miramar
College and its day-care center, according to the newspaper. The
residence was also within 500 yards of
Scripps Ranch High School and Hourglass Field Community Park.

Gardner had a low battery in his GPS tracking device on four
occasions, he missed a parole meeting one time and he once faced an
allegation of possession of marijuana.
Gardner, who is now 30, served five years of a six-year prison
sentence for attacking a 13-year-old neighbor girl in his mother's
Rancho Bernardo townhouse in 2000.

The District Attorney's Office made a plea deal with Gardner to
spare the victim from testifying at trial despite a psychiatrist's
report that Gardner showed no remorse and should get the maximum
sentence of 30 years in prison.

"He is simply a bad guy who is inordinately interested in young girls. ...He manifests
significant predatory traits and is a danger to the community," Dr.
Matthew Carroll wrote in his report.

Gardner was registered as a sex offender in Lake Elsinore but
was staying with his mother in her townhouse when he was arrested in
Chelsea's death Feb. 28. The townhouse is about a mile from Rancho
Bernardo Community Park, where Chelsea's car was found Feb. 25.


Chelsea, a runner and musician at Poway High, parked her car
there before going for an after-school training run alongside Lake
Hodges. Her disappearance spurred a massive search effort by thousands
of volunteers and several law enforcement agencies. Law enforcement
found her body March 2 on the water's edge.


In addition to Chelsea's death, Gardner is charged with
attacking a young female jogger in the same area in late December. In
that case, the jogger elbowed her attacker and ran away.

Gardner is also a focal point of the investigation into the
February 2009 slaying of Amber Dubois, according to Escondido police.
The Escondido teen was 14 when she disappeared while walking to school.
Her body was found earlierthis month.


Escondido police said someone compelled by Chelsea's death came
forward

with a tip that led to the discovery of Amber's body in the Pala
area.

Gardner could face the death penalty if convicted of Chelsea's
death.
A preliminary hearing is set for Aug. 4.

A Rancho Bernardo High School junior has penned a song called “Angel
Forever” to help ease peoples’ grief over the loss of slain teenager
Chelsea King.

Kristi Krause, 16, is offering the song on her MySpace music page for
free download beginning Thursday afternoon. The title of the song is
inspired by the words of Chelsea’s parents, who called their daughter
their “angel forever.”

While Kristi didn’t personally know Chelsea, she heard about the pain
felt by several friends at neighboring Poway High School who knew
Chelsea well. Chelsea, 17, was a senior there.

“It was a way for me to express my feelings about Chelsea and the
wonderful person she was,” Kristi said in a statement. “I just wanted to
find a way to keep her in our hearts.”

(chorus)

You’re an angel forever

You’ve brought us all together

To be strong

We will be strong

It’s those sweet memories

And your smile is the reason

When we think of you, we know it’s true

Angel forever……

Kristi’s father, Bob Krause, said he hopes the song helps Kristi and
other young people cope with the tragedy.

“With Kristi being around the same age, there’s this feeling that ‘It
could have been me,’” Krause said. “It’s been hard on these young
girls.”

Kristi plans to give a copy of the song to Chelsea’s family. To
download the song, visit myspace.com/kristinekrausemusic.

Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger ordered a review Friday of the way the state handled
a molestation case involving a man who is now charged with murdering
one California teenager and under investigation in another killing. The order came a day after records disclosed John Albert
Gardner III could have been sent back to prison in 2007 for parole
violations and evaluated for possible commitment to a state mental
hospital as a sexually violent predator.


''We must learn from what happened in this case to make sure the public
is protected from sexual predators,'' Schwarzenegger said in a statement
detailing his order to the state Sex Offender Management Board. Gardner, 30, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 17-year-old Chelsea
King in San Diego County. He also is a suspect but has not been charged
in the killing of 14-year-old Amber Dubois, who disappeared as she
walked to school in Escondido in early 2009. The 17-member board includes law enforcement officials, crime victims,
treatment experts and others who advise the governor and Legislature on
sex offender policies. Gardner pleaded guilty in 2000 to molesting a 13-year-old neighbor. He
spent five years in prison and three years on parole before being
released from supervision in September 2008. Parole records independently obtained by the AP showed Gardner could
have been sent back to prison in 2007 and 2008 for violations that
included living too close to a college daycare center. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has said it
was trying to determine if actions regarding Gardner's parole were
consistent with policy and law. ''We are taking every appropriate step to review these case factors to
determine if these potential infractions warranted a return to prison on
their merits,'' Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate said in a statement.
Oscar Hidalgo, spokesman for the department, previously said Gardner was
considered to be a low- or moderate-risk sex offender, based on the
assessment in use at the time. He wasn't sent back to prison in September 2007 because he corrected the
residency violation by moving away from the daycare center, Hidalgo
said. Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego, called for an investigation of
the department and intends to hold public hearings before proposing
legislation to increase penalties and oversight of sex offenders. Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, said he would amend one of his
existing bills now in the state Senate to increase the penalty for a
first offense of raping a minor to a mandatory 25 years to life in
prison. The current punishment is 15 years to life and also depends on the age
of the victim. Nava is a former prosecutor who is running for attorney
general. Nava's bill also proposes creating a system to call the cell phones of
residents in a specific area letting them know when a sex crime has been
committed in their neighborhood.

Students have wrapped ribbons around 8,000 sunflowers to hand out at a
memorial service for Chelsea King, the 17-year-old girl whose murder has
shaken her community and spurred calls for legal changes in how child
sex offenders are treated.
"A lot of people are getting ready to bring closure to it," said Evan
Shirley, 17, a friend of Chelsea's. "I hope to see everyone come out to
support the family and honor their friend in whatever way they see
fit."The service Saturday comes 11 days after Chelsea's
body was discovered in a shallow, lakeside grave near Lake Hodges,
ending a massive five-day search. Organizers were issuing passes to
limit seating at Poway High School stadium, which holds about 6,000
people.Chelsea was a straight-A student ran on the
cross-country team, played French horn in the San Diego Youth Symphony
and was active in her school's peer counseling program. She was a
tireless volunteer in school and community activities, whether working
at a prom for special education students or packaging food for needy
families in Africa.She had applied to 11 colleges and
aspired to a career that would combine her interests in writing and the
environment.Chelsea was last seen Feb. 25 wearing running
clothes in Rancho Bernardo Park in San Diego, where her car was found
locked with her belongings inside.John Gardner, 30, was
arrested three days later and pleaded not guilty to the murder and to
the attempted rape of another woman in December. He also is a suspect
but has not been charged in the killing of 14-year-old Amber Dubois, who
disappeared as she walked to school in nearby Escondido in early 2009.Gardner
served five years of a six-year sentence for molesting a 13-year-old
neighbor in 2000 to molesting a 13-year-old neighbor. He was on parole
for three years, until September 2008.On Friday, Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered a review of the way the state handled the
2000 case.

More than 6,000 mourners held sunflowers tied with blue ribbons as they
said goodbye to Chelsea King, the straight-A student and
cross-country runner who was known for her kindness and compassion.



"She was a person who brought sunshine and light to school every day,"
said Dakota Douglas, Chelsea's friend and cross-country teammate. "She
was an incredible person, was nice to everyone. I just can't believe
that she's gone. School's not the same without her."
King, known for her gentle spirit, helped plan a prom for
developmentally disabled kids, packed relief boxes for those in need in
Africa and served as a peer counselor at her school.
During the memorial, a giant monitor over the high school football field
reminisced of happier days -- Chelsea laughing with her friends, loving
life. The school band filled the air with music; Chelsea had played
the French horn in the band.
As everyone grieved, there was a message of hope. This strongly Christian community praying
together that something good would ultimately come from something
tragic, that laws would change, eyes would be opened and accountability
would be had.
Chelsea went missing while running in a Rancho Bernardo park last month,
just outside of San Diego. Thousands in this close-knit community
turned out to search for her. Volunteers passed out flyers by the
thousands and tied blue ribbons on trees across the city to remind
people she was missing.
This community is now turning that same energy into
demands for change -- outraged that a paroled sex offender may have
slipped through bureaucratic cracks.
"This is just an assault to everybody's child," said Christy Georgedes,
as she choked back tears. "I've got three daughters and she's my fourth
daughter, and this is going to stop! So we're going to show our love
today but after that, beware. You just watch how powerful things are
going to get."Parents say they will do anything within their power to
change the laws if necessary, but most of all they will demand
accountability from those whose job it is to track the whereabouts of
convicted predators.
Police arrested convicted sex offender John Gardner three days after Chelsea's
disappearance. Two days later, her body was discovered in a shallow
grave.
Terri Francy, who has kids at Poway High School, said the community
won't stop until families have the protection they deserve.
"Seven times that he [Gardner] violated parole and had they got him, had
they put him behind bars where he should have been, then he wouldn't
have been out there to commit this crime," Francy said. "I hate to live
in the 'what ifs' and 'it shouldn't have happened,' but it's true. It
shouldn't have happened. We want to stop it now."
It is unclear whether Gardner violated his parole or whether the state
didn't properly track him. But enough questions have been raised that
on Friday, Gov. Schwarzenegger ordered a probe into the way the state
handled Gardner's case.
Officials say that Gardner, who's now charged in Chelsea's death, is
also the focus in the murder investigation of 14-year-old Amber DuBois,
whose body was found in a neighboring community last Saturday.
Gardner was released early from prison in 2005, after molesting a
13-year-old girl.

Unless they come out in court or legal filings, there will be no
official statements about the criminal case against registered sex
offender John Albert Gardner III.

A court-issued gag order has seen to that.

Gardner, 30, was charged with murder on March 3, a day after
searchers found Chelsea King's body in a shallow grave along a
tributary to Lake Hodges. The 17-year-old Poway High School senior
went missing in the same area on Feb. 25.

The gag order in Gardner's case was requested Tuesday by his
attorneys and signed by a judge the same day. It bars attorneys and
their agents ---- including investigators and police ---- involved
in his criminal prosecution from talking to the media or the public
about the case.

The general purpose of a gag order is to ensure the defendant
gets a fair trial, that the jury pool is not influenced by
potentially inflammatory statements from attorneys or authorities
close to the investigation.

But it limits what the public will learn about a case.

Escondido police say it also limits what they can share about
any links they might find between Gardner and missing teen Amber
Dubois. Her remains were found in Pala on March 6, nearly 13 months
after she disappeared while walking to Escondido High School. No
one has been charged in Amber's case.

Gag orders have been used in some of San Diego County's most
infamous cases, including that of David Westerfield, who was
convicted and sent to death row for the 2002 slaying of 7-year-old
Danielle van Dam of Sabre Springs.

The Westerfield case received an extraordinary amount of media
attention.

"At the end of the day, I was convinced that the media had
significantly impaired our ability to get a fair trial,"
Westerfield's trial attorney, Steven Feldman, said last week.

Feldman is not involved in Gardner's case, but said he sees the
media "driving a frenzy of hysteria around this case." And that, he
said, runs the risk of tainting Gardner's jury pool.

"This whole case is being tried in the media," Feldman said.
"Every single day, we see photos that tend to incriminate Mr.
Gardner. In every newspaper I look at, there is a story" that
implies his guilt, he said.

Details guarded

Nearly daily since Gardner's arrest, local and national media
outlets have uncovered details about him, including reports that
link him to cars similar to those used in attempted abductions of
girls in recent months, both in San Diego and Riverside
counties.

Then came Gardner's arrest and the subsequent gag order signed
by San Diego Superior Court Judge David Danielsen. Authorities now
closely guard any details, large or small.

One example: Sheriff Bill Gore said at a press conference on the
day of the grim shoreline discovery that it appeared the body was
Chelsea's. The King family held a public memorial service Saturday.
And prosecutors have charged Gardner with murder in Chelsea's
slaying and possible rape.

Still, even given all of those events, the San Diego County
Medical Examiner's Office cites the gag order in its refusal to
publicly confirm that the body was, in fact, Chelsea's.

Gardner's March 3 arraignment on murder charges provided little
information, other than a statement by Deputy District Attorney
Kristen Spieler that Gardner is linked to Chelsea through DNA
evidence.

Gardner is charged with murder and a special allegation that he
killed Chelsea during the commission or attempted commission of
rape.

He also is charged with assault with the intent to commit rape
in the Dec. 27 attack on a 22-year-old Colorado woman at Rancho
Bernardo Community Park, near the site where Chelsea's body was
found. That victim fought off her attacker.

'Obligation to do justice'

The gag order in Gardner's case is "quite typical," said Terry
Francke, the cofounder and general counsel of Californians Aware, a
free speech and open government advocacy group.

"I think that, generally, they are regarded as effective at
least in dampening a climate of prejudice against defendants,"
Francke said Friday.

And in high-profile "sensational" slayings, like those involving
sex crimes or serial killers, gag orders are commonly sought, he
said.

Gag orders trace their origin back to the 1960s and the infamous
case of Ohio physician Sam Sheppard, who was accused of killing his
wife, Francke said. He was convicted at trial.

The U.S. Supreme Court found that the Sheppard jury probably had
been poisoned by out-of-court statements by authorities and massive
pretrial publicity, much of it sensational. Sheppard was given a
new trial and was acquitted.

"The Supreme Court said trial courts have a responsibility to
maintain control over what law enforcement are putting out about a
suspect, particularly in a murder case where the information is
open to being sensationalized," Francke said.

The finding in the Sheppard case basically "authorized the kind
of court order that is now referred to as a gag order," Francke
said.

It appears probable that the first opportunity for details about
the case to come out is Gardner's preliminary hearing, which is set
for Aug. 4.

A preliminary hearing is a key pretrial proceeding at which
prosecutors lay out their evidence against the accused, and a judge
must decide whether the evidence provides a strong suspicion that
the defendant committed the crime.

"There is an obligation to do justice," Feldman said, "not to
taint the jury."

SAN DIEGO - For the first time since his arrest, a close friend of
convicted sex offender John Gardner is talking about the man she has
known since high school -- a man she says she trusts with her own
children.

"There's nothing he wouldn't do for a friend," the
woman proclaimed.

She says Gardner gave her money to
buy a prom dress and pictures when she couldn't afford it. Now 28, she
says the man she knows is different from the one accused of murdering
and raping Chelsea King and the focus of an investigation for the murder
of Amber DuBois.

"I really want to not believe it. I want to
believe it's not him, but I don't know what evidence they have. I just
know the John I knew and grew up with in that capacity would not hurt
anybody."

She says she spoke with Gardner in February and he was
sad and going back to counseling. "He lost his job. He lost his
car...he had to shuffle from one place to another to live and... was
really getting back on some of the pills he'd been taking previously."

According
to court records, Gardner was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder
as a child.

"He could go from just sitting around playing cards
to scraping him off the ceiling and then back to playing cards," says
his friend.

She is adamant that Gardner is innocent of sexually
assaulting the 13-year-old a decade ago in a case in which Gardner plead
guilty for a lighter sentence.

Despite evidence that Gardner's
DNA was found at the crime scene in Chelsea's murder, she believes he is
just a scapegoat.

"If he is the one that is convicted of the
crime, then he should be punished for it. We both hope he is innocent."

The family of slain Poway teen Chelsea King announced Monday the
formation of a nonprofit corporation dubbed Chelsea's Light
Foundation.

"We will reach past our grief and focus our rage to bring about
changes that will make our communities safer," Chelsea's parents
Brent and Kelly King said in a press release. "Establishing the
Chelsea’s Light Foundation is our first positive step in that
direction."

At a public memorial service for their daughter on Saturday,
Chelsea's parents said they and local leaders will push for
stronger sex offender laws.

The family's spokeswoman, Sara Muller Fraunces, said the
foundation's specific plan of action will be defined over the
coming weeks and months.

Updates on the Chelsea’s Light Foundation will be posted on the
Chelsea's Light Facebook page.

Registered sex offender John Albert Gardner III is charged with
killing 17-year-old Chelsea King during a rape or attempted rape.
The Poway High School senior disappeared Feb. 25 while jogging on
the trails south of Lake Hodges; her body was found near the
shoreline five days later.

Gardner also is under investigation in the death of Amber
Dubois, the 14-year-old Escondido girl who went missing in February
2009. Her remains were found March 6 near Pala.

Organizers of a 3-mile jog planned for Saturday want to honor Chelsea
King, even though most of them never knew the slain Poway High School
senior who vanished after heading out for a run at Rancho Bernardo
Community Park.

Finish Chelsea’s Run will start at 9 a.m. and wind through the
popular open space park south of Lake Hodges.

At least a thousand people are expected, and participants are
encouraged to park at Westfield North County shopping mall, off
Interstate 15 on Via Rancho Parkway in Escondido. Free shuttles will
take runners to the event, said Tommy Sablan, one of the organizers.

Participants are invited to run or walk the route, and children and
pets are welcome.

The city has issued an event permit and businesses are donating
insurance coverage, shuttles, cleanup services and portable toilets.

The event started as an idea among some running clubs to finish the
route Chelsea probably planned to take, said Todd Velazquez, another
organizer.

The idea quickly spread online via bloggers and Facebook.

“We really wanted to send a message that those are our parks and our
trails and we’re going to run. We’re not going to let anyone scare us
away from them,” said Velazquez, who graduated from Poway High School in
1999 and was on the cross-country team.

Chelsea was a member of the cross-country team and had gone for a run
at the park on Feb. 25. Her body was found five days later in a
tributary to Lake Hodges. Convicted sex offender John Albert Gardner III
has pleaded not guilty to charges of rape and murder.

Chelsea’s parents, Brent and Kelly King, are not involved in
organizing the event, but they have endorsed it on their Facebook page,
Chelsea’s Light.

A convicted sex offender charged with murdering a California teenager
lived near a preschool for at least 16 months before parole agents
forced him to move, according to state corrections records released
Wednesday. A regional administrator let John Albert Gardner III continue living
within 126 yards of the San Diego County preschool until his lease
expired in 2006, a top corrections official told The Associated Press.
But no one noticed he was still living there until a year later. Assistant Secretary Oscar Hidalgo said there was confusion in part
because of a change in parole agents. Gardner pleaded not guilty earlier this month to murdering 17-year-old
Chelsea King, whose presumed body was found in a park near her hometown
of Poway north of San Diego. He also is charged with assaulting a woman
in the same park last year and is under investigation in the death of
14-year-old Amber Dubois in Escondido in early 2009. Parole and prison records released to the AP under a records request and
made public Wednesday show Gardner was living little more than a
football field's length from the preschool on the Miramar College campus
after he was paroled from prison in 2005 after serving five years for
molesting a 13-year-old girl. That violated a condition of his parole that prohibited him from living
within a half-mile of a school. On May 2, 2006, the district administrator authorized Gardner to remain
there until his lease expired on Aug. 1, 2006. However, Gardner was never told he had to move, according to the parole
records. A parole agent noticed he was still living there in September
2007, and he was moved to a sober living program within days. ''The supervisor gave him some time to finish the lease out,'' Hidalgo
said. ''A new agent said he's out of compliance and he had to move.'' The new agent referred Gardner to the parole board for a violation that
could have sent him back to prison. However, the board continued him on
parole, where he had six other less serious potential violations before
he was released from supervision in September 2008. If Gardner had been sent back to prison, officials say 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. Hidalgo said the department is reviewing its parole agents' actions, and
Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger has asked for a review by an advisory panel made up
of law enforcement, victims and treatment experts. Hidalgo said there is a question whether Gardner violated state law by
living near the preschool. State law at the time set the half-mile
restriction for high-risk sex offenders, while Gardner was considered
low- to moderate-risk. Regardless, records show his parole conditions
specified the half-mile residency restriction.