Why Are Violent Predators Are Walking Free in California?

For more than 15 years, I have worked with groups such as the Golden State Bail Agents Association and Crime Victims United. Their mission is simple: make sure victims are not forgotten. In California today, that mission feels like an uphill fight.

Two recent cases should alarm every parent in this state.

The first is David Allen Funston.

Funston was not a minor offender who simply made a mistake. He was a calculated child predator. He drove through Sacramento neighborhoods in his van, carrying dolls, candy, and toys to attract young children. When the children came closer, he kidnapped, molested, and raped them.

Some of his victims were as young as three years old.

A judge sentenced Funston in 1999 to three life terms in prison. The court recognized exactly what he was: a predator who hunted children.

At sentencing, the judge called Funston exactly what he was: “the monster every parent fears.”

But under California’s so-called Elderly Parole Program, Funston became eligible for release after turning just 50 years old and serving 20 years. The Board of Parole Hearings granted him parole.

Let that sink in.

A man who kidnapped children using toys and candy as bait and sexually assaulted them was about to walk free.

The only reason that didn’t happen is because the Placer County District Attorney stepped in at the last moment. Prosecutors revived an unfiled 1996 child molestation case just as Funston was about to be released, keeping him behind bars.

Without that intervention, he would already be back on the streets. 

Now, another case is bringing the same nightmare to light.

Roberto Detrinidad broke into a San Francisco apartment in the middle of the night and raped a woman while she was sleeping in her own bed. He admitted that he targeted her after seeing her through a window and believed he could get away with it.

Prosecutors warned the parole board that he had not completed meaningful treatment for sexual violence.

The Board of Parole Hearings released him anyway.

Unless Governor Gavin Newsom intervenes, Detrinidad will be released from San Quentin by May.

These are not isolated mistakes. They result directly from policies enacted in the California State Legislature over the past decade.

Many Californians go through their days unaware that decisions made during legislative hearings and signed by the governor have real consequences. These decisions are now causing violent predators and sexual offenders to be pushed back into our communities.

The government has one fundamental duty: to protect its citizens.

In California today, the system too often protects criminals instead.

Victims already live with the trauma of what happened to them. When the state releases the person responsible, it makes those victims relive it all over again.

The recent cases involving Funston and Detrinidad should serve as a wake-up call. A justice system that forgets victims is not justice at all.