California GOP launches petition targeting Newsom parole board over sex offenders
EXCLUSIVE: The California Republican Party has launched a new petition dubbed "Stop Gavin’s Predators," aiming to highlight cases of convicted sex offenders granted parole in the state and the governor-appointed Board of Parole Hearings members involved in those decisions.
The website, StopGavinsPredators.com, includes the petition along with information about parole board members and several offenders released during Gov. Gavin Newsom's tenure as California’s chief executive.
The Board of Parole Hearings includes 21 commissioners who were appointed by Newsom and confirmed by the state Senate. The current commissioners were each appointed between 2021 and 2024. Newsom, who is term-limited and set to leave office in January 2027, has served as governor since 2019.
"The Board of Parole Hearings is composed of 21 full-time commissioners who are appointed by the Governor and subject to confirmation by the California Senate. Commissioners are appointed to staggered three-year terms," the website reads.
"The commissioners conduct parole suitability hearings and associated parole reconsideration and rescission hearings for adult persons under the jurisdiction of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation," it continues. "They also conduct consultations with persons who are eligible for parole suitability hearings."
The website also features a clip showing California Republican lawmakers calling for the removal of parole board members, arguing that certain release decisions threaten public safety.
The commissioners are Robert Barton, Patricia Cassady, Kevin Chappell, Dianne Dobbs, Julie Garland, Gilbert Infante, Teal Kozel, David Long, Michele Minor, William Muniz, David Ndudim, Kathleen O’Meara, Catherine Purcell, Michael Ruff, Rosalind Sargent-Burns, Neil Schneider, Excel Sharrieff, Emily Sheffield, Troy Taira, Mary Thornton and Jack Weiss.
The petition highlights three offenders who were granted parole: Gregory Lee Vogelsang, David Allen Funston and Roberto Antonio Detrinidad.
Vogelsang, 57, and Funston, 64, were granted release under the state’s Elderly Parole Program, which requires an inmate to be at least 50 years old and served 20 continuous years, or at least 60 years old and served 25 continuous years. Funston remains in custody on newly filed charges in Placer County related to a 1996 child sexual assault, preventing his immediate release.
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The petition says Vogelsang is a "convicted sexually violent predator who molested at least six boys between the ages of 5 and 11 in Citrus Heights."
"He was convicted on nearly 30 counts of kidnapping and lewd acts with children," it reads. "Investigators found he kept items belonging to his victims for sexual stimulation. At his parole hearing, Vogelsang admitted he is still primarily attracted to boys aged 5 to 11 and that as recently as 2020, he continued to masturbate to fantasies about young boys. Psychological evaluations showed he poses a greater risk to the public than 80% of other sexual offenders."
The website said Funston would lure children into his vehicle using candy and Barbie dolls. It said he kidnapped a 5-year-old Russian immigrant with limited English, sexually assaulted her and abandoned her 50 miles from her home, and he beat a 7-year-old girl, stuffed her underwear down her throat when she began to scream and continued to rape her.
"Funston is a serial child predator convicted of 16 counts, including the kidnapping, rape, and sexual assault of multiple children in the Sacramento area," the petition reads. "Funston specifically switched to targeting young children—some as young as 4 and 5—after a previous conviction for sexually assaulting an adult woman in Colorado, calculating that children would be less likely to identify him."
"The judge at his sentencing condemned the sheer terror he inflicted, calling Funston 'the monster parents fear the most,'" it adds. "During a September 2025 parole hearing, Funston openly admitted to commissioners that he is still sexually attracted to female children and had pedophilic fantasies about an 8-year-old girl as recently as 2021."
Detrinidad, 39, is scheduled to be released as early as May after serving 11 years of a life sentence, according to the petition.
He "is an HIV-positive felon who committed a horrific home invasion rape in San Francisco," the petition reads. "He spotted a woman through her window, targeted her, and broke into her apartment building using a piece of plastic to jiggle the lock. In the middle of the night, he entered the home of the sleeping woman, pulled down her pajamas and underwear, and sodomized her in her own bed."
"Detrinidad bragged at his parole hearing that the horrific assault was his 'Super Bowl of crime' and the act that was 'gonna be the thing that made me finally feel like a man,'" it adds. "He later admitted he lied during his trial by initially claiming the victim had consented."