Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho, center, speaks during a news conference Thursday, March 12, 2026, at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Headquarters. Ho and Sheriff Jim Cooper, left; Assistant Sheriff Salvador Robles, center right; and Undersheriff Mike Ziegler, far right; gathered to call for reform to California’s Elderly Parole Program in response to the planned release of Gregory Vogelsang, pictured on the poster.
Kate Wolffe
kwolffe@sacbee.com
Hours after an emotional hearing Wednesday, California’s Board of Parole Hearings voted to reconsider whether a man convicted of molesting children in the 1990s should be granted parole.
Gregory Lee Vogelsang was granted parole in November 2025 after serving 27 years of a 355-years-to-life sentence. The 57-year-old became eligible under the state’s Elderly Parole Program, which has drawn criticism from law enforcement and Republican legislators for being too lenient.
According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, a rescission hearing is expected to be scheduled between July and September.
“The purpose of a rescission hearing is to evaluate if a fundamental error was committed by the granting panel that may indicate that a grant of parole was improper,” CDCR spokesperson Emily Humpal wrote in an email.
The board could also have affirmed the original decision or vacated it and ordered a new hearing.
Vogelsang was convicted in August 1999 of more than two dozen counts of child molestation and kidnapping involving five boys in the Sacramento area. Several victims were family friends or relatives.
Related Stories from Sacramento Bee
The Sacramento Bee
Kate Wolffe covers the California Legislature for The Sacramento Bee. Previously, she reported on health care for Capital Public Radio in Sacramento and daily news for KQED-FM in San Francisco. She is a graduate of UC Berkeley.