The parents of Chelsea King have filed a claim blaming the California Department of Corrections for their daughter's murder. The Kings say the state had numerous reasons to send John Gardner back to prison before he killed their daughter in February.
In the claim, the Kings outline Gardner's numerous parole violations after he served a sentence for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl. Gardner violated curfew 158 times, and he lived near a school.
The Kings say those and other violations should have prompted the Department of Corrections to return Gardner to prison. The state's own inspector general found that both Chelsea and Escondido teen Amber Dubois would be alive today if the corrections system had done a better job monitoring and punishing Gardner.
Local defense attorney Gerry Blank says that report strengthens potential lawsuits.
"It does bolster their chances of receiving an eventual award in the case," Blank said. "Whether that award comes from settlement as a result of filing the claim or whether that award comes through the litigation process."
The state denied a claim filed by Dubois' parents earlier this month.
