California's elderly parole law frees a serial child predator who admits the urges never go away

A three-person California parole board heard Gregory Lee Vogelsang admit that his sexual attraction to young boys is "always going to be there." Then they released him anyway.

Vogelsang, sentenced to over 300 years in prison for sexually abusing multiple children between the ages of 5 and 11 in the 1990s, was granted early release under a controversial law signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom. He admitted during his parole hearing that his sexual desires for young boys "are always going to be there," but the three-person parole board still approved his release.

Vogelsang was convicted of almost 30 counts of kidnapping and sex crimes against multiple children between the ages of 5 and 11. He has served 27 years of his 355-year sentence. The release is pending a final board review on March 18.

What he did, and what he said

In one case, a child said Vogelsang persuaded him to get into his vehicle under the pretense of helping pick out a gift. The child was driven to a home and repeatedly assaulted despite crying and asking him to stop, as New York Post reports.

When investigators found boys' underwear in Vogelsang's possession, he admitted they belonged to his victims and said he kept them for sexual stimulation.

He was convicted on dozens of felony counts, including lewd acts on children, kidnapping a child to commit a lewd act, and lewd acts on a child with force or violence. The board's decision came despite Vogelsang having a risk assessment for future crimes that was "above average."

At his parole hearing, Vogelsang spoke at length about his attraction to children. His own words are the most damning evidence against his release:

"And, like I said before, when I don't view a child as a sex object, I don't want to become aroused, but I know it's always going to be there."

He also attempted to explain his crimes by referencing abuse he suffered as a child:

"It wasn't until I had dealt with my own childhood abuse of the pain, the harm, the guilt and the shame that I felt as a child, that today I can sit there and say that I honestly understand the psychological and the emotional damage that I was doing."

Understanding the damage you inflicted on children is not the same as not inflicting it again. The board apparently could not tell the difference.

The law that made this possible

Vogelsang has been granted early release thanks to a 2020 law that offers parole to "elderly" convicts 50 and older who have served 20 or more years in prison.

The current Elderly Parole program was quietly expanded through a last-minute, gut-and-amend budget bill, Assembly Bill 3234, which lowered the age threshold for elderly parole from 60 years of age to 50 years of age. A loophole in that bill allows violent sex offenders to be eligible for elderly parole after serving only 20 years.

Fifty-seven years old. Twenty-seven years served. "Elderly." That is the fiction California's legislature wrote into law, and Gavin Newsom signed it.

Let that sink in: a man convicted of kidnapping children as young as five years old, who admitted in a parole hearing that his attraction to those children has never left him, qualified for the "elderly" exemption at 57. The law did exactly what its critics warned it would do.

Law enforcement says what the parole board wouldn't

The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office wrote in a Facebook post: "The California Board of Parole Hearings is at it again. They have granted early release via the Elderly Parole program to sexually violent predator Gregory Vogelsang, who molested more than five children in Citrus Heights and was sentenced to over 300 years in prison for his crimes. And he is headed to a neighborhood near you."

Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho did not soften his assessment:

"This inmate will molest again. And yet, this parole board is letting him out."

Ho invoked the Golden State Killer to make his point about predators and age: "I prosecuted the East Area rapist, the Golden State killer, and we caught him when he was 72 years old. I have video of him in his jail cell looking at a female worker, and he is masturbating to her." The Golden State Killer received consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole.

Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper was equally direct: "He is a predator, and a lot of folks don't realize that. You don't rehabilitate sex offenders. Mr. Vogelsang belongs in prison for the rest of his life."

This is not an isolated case

Vogelsang is not the first serial child predator California's parole board has tried to push back into society under this law. He is the second in recent months.

California's parole system has come under fire after commissioners recommended the early release of another serial child sex predator. David Allen Funston, 64, was slated to walk free last month but was taken into custody after a warrant was issued for his arrest in Placer County for a separate offense.

Two convicted child predators. Two parole recommendations. One law. A pattern is not a coincidence.

Republicans have blamed Newsom and Democratic lawmakers for soft-on-crime policies they say put the public at risk. "Once again, Gavin Newsom's hand-picked parole board has decided that a monster who preyed on young children deserves freedom after decades behind bars," said Corrin Rankin, the chairwoman of the California Republican Party.

Former Sacramento District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert connected the dots plainly:

"The latest grant of parole to another serial child sexual predator reveals the insanity of the elderly parole law that Governor Newsom signed. It's time to put the safety of victims and everyday citizens over serial sex offenders."

The response from Sacramento and what comes next

State Assemblyman Tom Lackey, a Republican, called the parole board's decision "outrageous" and said he and other lawmakers were introducing a bill on "elderly parole" to keep offenders in prison longer.

The Senate Public Safety Committee has also unanimously approved Senate Bill 286, also known as Mary Bella's Law, to close the dangerous loophole in California's Elderly Parole program that allows violent sex offenders to be released early. The bill is authored by Senate Minority Leader Brian W. Jones and coauthored by Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen.

Following the lowering of eligibility age, there have been multiple efforts from state lawmakers to add sexually violent offenses as exemptions for elderly parole. However, each attempt has failed in the legislature. The Democratic supermajority has blocked every fix. They passed the law, they've resisted reforming it, and now their parole board is acting exactly as critics predicted.

Newsom's office, when asked about the Funston case, offered a carefully worded deflection: "The Governor sent this case to the larger Board of Parole Hearings for another review, as is his only legal remedy in cases such as these." He signed the law. He appointed the board. Now he'd like you to believe his hands are tied.

Under state law, the Governor may only reverse a parole grant in murder cases. In cases involving non-murder offenses, the governor's only options are to allow the person to be released on parole or refer the decision back to the Board of Parole Hearings for review. That legal constraint is real. But it was Newsom's own signature that created the conditions for this outcome. The law he signed is the mechanism delivering convicted child predators to Sacramento-area neighborhoods. Referring the case back to a board that has already shown its hand is not a solution. It is a delay.

The children Vogelsang targeted were between five and eleven years old. They didn't get a review process. They didn't get a second chance. The parole board gave one to the man who violated them, and California's governor built the door he's about to walk through.