Klaas’ Father Assails Deputies for Aiding Suspect

The father of Polly Klaas lashed out Wednesday at the two deputies who unwittingly helped her accused killer on his way the night of the kidnapping, calling them the “Laurel and Hardy of tragedy.”

“It seems to me that the deputies really dropped the ball on this,” Marc Klaas said. “The Keystone Kops were more professional than these gentlemen.”

Klaas’ comments, made on the courthouse steps, came moments after one of the deputies, Thomas Howard, testified about his encounter with defendant Richard Allen Davis on Oct. 1, 1993.

Howard and another deputy, Mike Rankin, went to a remote part of Sonoma County to investigate a trespassing report. They found Davis standing near his car, which was stuck on an embankment on a private road.

At the time, the deputies did not know that Polly had been kidnapped from her bedroom in Petaluma, about 20 miles away, because that information was not broadcast on their radio channel.

Davis has told police he was high that night on beer and a marijuana joint he believes was laced with PCP. But Howard said Davis did not appear to be under the influence, although the deputy said he did notice a slight odor of alcohol on Davis’ breath.

He said he shone a light in Davis’ eyes, noticed nothing unusual and did not think field sobriety tests were needed.

Under cross-examination, Howard admitted that he did not mention in his report that Davis opened a can of beer and started to sip it in front of the deputies, who told him to pour it out.

Howard also said there was nothing unusual about a paper bag containing clothes he found in Davis’ car. But defense attorney Barry Collins showed him the transcript of a Dec. 14, 1993, interview with police in which Howard described the bag as containing torn pieces of clothing.

Outside the courthouse, prosecutor Greg Jacobs downplayed the inconsistencies, saying the events happened 2 1/2 years ago.

On the night of the kidnapping, the deputies spent about 40 minutes helping Davis get his car on the road and, after checking to see that he had no outstanding warrants, sent him on his way.

Howard said that as he was leaving the area, he saw Davis pulled over to the side of the road.

In the weeks that followed, the hunt for Polly reached national proportions, and fliers showing her picture and that of the bearded intruder suspected of taking her were posted throughout Northern California.

Howard was not asked why he never made the connection between the stranger he encountered and the kidnapping.

He said he began to realize the significance of the encounter Nov. 28, after a detective called him at home and asked him to write a report about it.

Davis was arrested Nov. 30 after the woman who made the trespassing report Oct. 1 called the sheriff’s office again to report that she had found some clothing on her property that seemed suspicious.

Four days later, after learning that police had found his palm print in Polly’s bedroom, Davis led police to her body.

In a statement he gave to police, Davis said Polly was alive when he was stopped by the deputies. He said she was untied and sitting on a hillside and after being escorted off the property, he went back and retrieved her. He said he killed her at the place where he left the body.

Klaas said he does not hold the two deputies responsible for what happened. “Richard Allen Davis killed Polly,” he said.