The California Board of Parole Hearings voted on Wednesday to reevaluate an elder parole grant for a convicted child predator from Sacramento.
Gregory Vogelsang, 57, was sentenced back in 1999 to 355 years to life for sexually assaulting kids, some as young as three years old.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabiitation
In both 2022 and 2024, Vogelsang was found not suitable for parole. But last year, on November 4, a small parole board preliminarily granted it. The case was sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office for review, and he referred it back to the larger parole board for what was expected to be a final decision during Wednesday’s hearing.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said the board instead voted to refer the grant of elder parole to a rescission hearing in four to six months. That hearing is meant to determine “if a fundamental error was committed by the granting panel that may indicate that a grant of parole was improper,” according to the CDCR.
That rescission hearing will determine whether the original parole grant for Vogelsang should stand or be reversed.
Under California’s elder parole law, inmates age 50 and older who have served at least 20 consecutive years in prison are eligible for release.
This is not the first child predator to possibly be released in the Sacramento region under the state’s elder parole law.
Just last month, David Allen Funston was expected to be released under California’s elder parole law but was kept behind bars after new charges were filed in nearby Placer County.
Funston, 64, was convicted back in 1999 of 16 counts of kidnapping and child molestation and later sentenced to three consecutive sentences of 25 years to life in prison.
Some state Republicans are calling on Gov. Newsom and the California Board of Parole to do more and stop possible releases of this nature.
“We should be strengthening protections, not weakening them. We should be standing with survivors, not retraumatizing them. We should be ensuring that those who commit most heinous crimes, especially against children, are held fully accountable,” Assemblymember Jeff Gonzelez said during a press conference in Sacramento ahead of Vogelsang’s hearing. “This is not about politics. This is about right and wrong.”
Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho issued a statement Wednesday afternoon thanking community members “for the overwhelming response” to oppose Vogelsang’s release at the hearing.
“Hundreds of you showed up, emailed, and called the Board of Parole—you put people before predators, public safety above politics and children before criminals who preyed upon the most vulnerable,” Ho said.
