Nancy Garrido: Was Jaycee Dugard's Female Abductor a Victim Too or an Accomplice?

Sept. 3, 2009— -- According to prosecutors, Nancy Garrido is every bit as responsible as her husband in the alleged abduction, rape and 18-year imprisonment of Jaycee Dugard.

But Garrido's case raises a number of questions as disturbing as the ramshackle conditions in which Dugard was allegedly held captive: Was she a willing co-conspirator with her husband, Phillip Garrido, a convicted sex offender? Or was she, like Dugard, a victim of a predator whose life was at stake if she tried to escape?

Garrido is not the first woman accused of helping a man abduct and abuse a child, but the extreme nature and length of the case augments the arguments both for and against her culpability.

"I don't cut her a lot of slack. She should be judged on the basis of her involvement and the things she did," said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

"The reality is she is an adult and is accountable and responsible for her own activity. There is no question [Nancy Garrido] played some role in [Dugard's] captivity, and when [Phillip Garrido] was in prison she played a significant role," he said.

Nancy faces the same 29 felony counts as her husband, including committing a forcible lewd act on a child. One of the most disturbing facets of her case, and a potential problem in her defense, is that she served as the girl's sole captor for a five-month period while her husband went to prison for violating his parole.

"If she's being controlled, he doesn't have to be there physically. If she's being controlled, she's being controlled," Nancy Garrido's attorney Gilbert Maines told "Good Morning America" today.

"I guess I would say she's a victim," he said.