Gov. Newsom Facing Calls to Resign Over Release of ‘Monster’ Convicted Serial Child Abuser

Sacramento Sheriff Jim Cooper slammed California Governor Gavin Newsom’s “elderly parole program” Monday, which is allowing David Funston, a serial child rapist to be released from prison. Funston terrorized Sacramento neighborhoods by luring very young children with candy. He kidnapped, brutalized and raped children as young as age 3, then would toss them to the side of the road when he was done.

A judge called him “the monster parents fear the most.”

Thanks to Gov. Gavin Newsom, Funston will be on the streets again.

Now, Gavin Newsom is facing calls to resign his office because his elderly parole program is about to dump another violent convicted child abuser into the community.

🇺🇸 Sacramento Sheriff's Office torched Newsom’s “elderly parole program” because it’s about to dump a convicted serial child abuser back onto the streets.

David Funston targeted kids as young as FOUR, using candy and toys to lure them before assaulting them. A judge literally… pic.twitter.com/rSoiZcvAqA

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) February 24, 2026

David Funston terrorized Sacramento neighborhoods in 1995. Sheriff Cooper said Funston is 64 years old; Cooper is 62, and in no way “elderly.”

California allows “elderly prisoners” out if they are 50, and have served at least 20 years of their sentence to be considered for parole, and considered no longer a threat. This “law” was a gut-and-amend bill passed in 2020 entirely on party lines without a hearing or notice to the public.

Perhaps ironically, today there are 2,790 registered sex offender pedophiles living very near the State Capitol in downtown Sacramento according to MegansLaw.ca.gov. In 2022, there were 201 registered sex offender pedophiles living very near the State Capitol. Newsom’s sex-offender early release program has let out thousands of convicted pedophiles.

There are 2,728 sex offenders living in my own downtown Sacramento neighborhood, and in 2022, there were 194 registered sex offender pedophiles living in my neighborhood, which at the time, we thought was appalling.

No wonder the governor and First Partner moved back to Kentfield in Marin County, where there are only 184 sex offenders living.

Gavin Newsom has emptied the prisons of these violent convicted criminal pedophiles into your neighborhoods. Sheriff Jim Cooper is right to be furious.

How did this happen?

A last minute gut-and-amend bill in 2020 by Assemblyman Phil Ting, Assembly Bill 3234, lowered the age threshold for “elderly parole” from age 60 to 50, creating a loophole that allows violent sex offenders to be eligible for “elderly parole” after serving only 20 years, the Globe reported. Despite the significant societal and fiscal impacts of the bill, AB 3234 was was passed entirely on party lines without a hearing or notice to the public.

In 2022, we found out that more than 7,000 sex offenders convicted of “lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age” were released the same year they were convicted, the DailyMail.com reported in an excellent exposé. “The most common offense in the database was ‘lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age’, committed 19,441 times. Despite its severity, the average time served for this crime was just two years and 11 months.”

But this goes back even further than just Assemblyman Ting’s wicked bill.

In 2017 California legislators passed the Elderly Parole Program for the claimed purpose of reviewing the parole suitability of inmates who are 60 years of age or older and who have served a minimum of 25 years on their sentence. But apparently that wasn’t a good enough gimme, because by 2020, AB 3234 by Asm. Ting amended Penal Code section 3055 and allowed every person who is over 50 years old who has served more than 20 years in prison to get a parole hearing. So, serial child molesters, serial rapists, serial murders who are over 50 years old get a parole hearing after only 20 years in custody, because they are ostensibly “elderly.”

Democrats knew exactly what they were doing.

Sen. Brian Jones sought to correct this egregious law with SB 445, which would have eliminated the loophole allowing violent sex offenders, who reach their 50th birthday while in prison, from automatically being eligible for early release from prison, had it been passed. But SB 445 “landed flat on its face,” according to Sen. Jones, when Democrats in the California Legislature killed it.

“Violent sex offense victims, and the families of victims, should not have to wonder if their attacker will suddenly get out of prison long before they finish their sentence,” Senator Jones said when he introduced SB 445. Right now the law is rigged and forces the Board of Parole Hearings to justify why the violent sex offender shouldn’t get out of prison early. This is backwards and wrong. Law-abiding Californians, not violent criminals, should be protected by the law.

How did this even happen? What precipitated these evil bills?

• Proposition 47 (2014) downgraded many felonies to misdemeanors.
• Proposition 57  was passed in 2016 enabled early-release of “non-violent” crimes, and sex offenses were reclassified under Prop 57.
• Assembly Bill 109, Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature 2011 “prison realignment” scheme, shifted detainees from state prisons to local jails, overwhelming county jails.

Proposition 57 reduced prison sentences and reclassified violent crimes as “non-violent.” These new laws eroded the Three Strikes law, and have been a disaster for public safety, taking away the tools courts need to rehabilitate drug offenders, opening the door for rampant retail theft, and reclassifying violent crimes and sex crimes as “non-violent.”

And remember, State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), who is now running for Congress, authored SB 145, which Gov. Newsom signed into law, to protect Sex Offenders who have homosexual sex with minors.

How can this bill be legal when California’s age of consent is still 18?

As the Globe explained, SB 145 in effect allows a 24 year old to have sex with a 14 year old, relaxing the penalties for having “non-forcible sodomy, oral copulation, and sexual penetration with a minor.”

The offenders would not have to automatically register as sex offenders if the offenders are within 10 years of age of the minor.

Sen. Wiener is the same Senator who holds an annual Halloween Pumpkin Carving Event for children with Celebrity Drag Queen Judges. I wonder how that will play with anyone outside of San Francisco?