{"id":236699,"date":"2026-03-26T00:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T00:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/236699\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T00:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T00:37:07","slug":"sacramento-county-sheriff-pushes-ballot-measure-targeting-elderly-parole-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/236699\/","title":{"rendered":"Sacramento County sheriff pushes ballot measure targeting elderly parole law"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper spearheads a ballot initiative to reform California’s Proposition 57.<\/p>\n

SACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper<\/a> is pushing for changes to California\u2019s Proposition 57, launching a ballot initiative Wednesday aimed at preventing sexually violent predators from being released under elderly parole laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m fed up, I\u2019m frustrated. It has to change. We have to put victims first,\u201d Cooper said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The proposal, titled \u201cProtect Our Kids, Reform Prop 57,\u201d would block certain offenders from early release consideration, a move Cooper says is necessary after recent cases in Sacramento involving convicted predators being considered for parole.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real damage of 57 that it gave the parole board way too much unfettered power,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cEvery member of the parole board is appointed, not elected. They cannot even be told what to do by the governor. They routinely release violent inmates early, even after a jury trial and judicial sentencing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cooper said voters did not fully understand Proposition 57 when it passed and believes the issue should return to the ballot.<\/p>\n

The push follows cases involving individuals identified by the sheriff as David Alan Funston and Gregory Vogelsang, both convicted of crimes against children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat makes it so ironic in Sacramento, we have David Alan Funston<\/a>, Mr. Vogelsang,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cHe molested 7 girls and 1 boy, and I’m sure there are many more. Mr. Vogelsang molested 6 boys. That is the issue. What is the moral compass of this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Detectives with the Sacramento County Sheriff\u2019s Office said the number of victims in such cases is often higher than reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can’t help but wonder, how many of you may have been a victim in your childhood because, unfortunately, not all these cases, the vast majority don’t get reported,\u201d said Detective Ted Voudouris. \u201cSo, scars are forever. And I hope the public will understand what Sheriff Cooper is trying to do here.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cooper and his team also raised concerns about the potential release of other sexually violent predators and questioned whether rehabilitation is possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Funston said I can control it. I don’t think so. Once a pedophile, always a pedophile,\u201d said detective Richard Aromando.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The campaign will now shift to raising money and gathering signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you’re against the proposition to protect our kids, that means you stand with pedophiles and predators. There’s no in between. Period. Bottom line,\u201d Cooper said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cooper said the effort is not political and is focused on protecting children. If enough signatures are collected, the measure could appear on the 2028 ballot.<\/p>\n

Madera County man accused of secretly recording guests, possessing illicit files<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper spearheads a ballot initiative to reform California’s Proposition 57. SACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 Sacramento…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-236699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}