Former captive Dugard gets $20M settlement

California lawmakers have approved a $20-million US settlement with the family of Jaycee Dugard, who was kidnapped as a girl and held captive for 18 years by a paroled sex offender.

Lawmakers approved the settlement Thursday with a 30-1 vote in the Senate and a 62-0 vote in the state legislature.

Dugard, now 30, resurfaced last August with two daughters she bore with Phillip Garrido.

Garrido and his wife, Nancy, have pleaded not guilty to charges that they kidnapped and raped the young woman.

Dugard, her mother and daughters filed a claim saying state corrections officials failed to do their jobs. They claimed psychological, physical and emotional damages.

Prosecutors said Dugard and her daughters lived in a ramshackle backyard compound in the northern California city of Antioch.

Dugard resurfaced after Phillip Garrido, a convicted rapist, took her and the girls with him to a meeting with his parole officer, who did not know he had a young woman and two girls living at his home.

Before then, the daughters were raised to think Dugard was their older sister, according to court documents.