California’s progressives must really hate children. I don’t know how else to explain this one.
One of the dumber laws passed in California (and that’s saying something) over the past decade is one designed to give parole hearings to elderly convicts. Initially, anyone who has served more than 25 years and was over 60 years old was given a second chance at freedom whether they deserved it or not. And the law led to absurd results like this one from way back in 2019:
Victims of the notorious “Ski Mask Rapist” thought they could close the book on him after he was sentenced to more than 400 years in prison for ambushing and raping 25 women in the Bay Area during the 1980s.
But on Wednesday their nightmare will be revived when a parole board conducts a hearing to determine whether the rapist, George Anthony Sanchez, should be released. Under a law passed two years ago, certain inmates who have spent decades in prison and have gotten so old and infirm they are deemed no longer dangerous can be considered for parole.
Sentenced to 406 years! But this stupid law meant he was up for parole in 2019. He didn’t get it, thankfully, but he’s up for another parole hearing this year.
A few years later, California decided the Elderly Parole program was too stringent and loosened the requirements so that now you only have to serve 20 years and be aged 50 to get a new parole hearing, regardless of your crimes.
And that brings us to this guy, David Allen Funston.
His most recent photo from prison… pic.twitter.com/poehAItSAW
— Sacramento Sheriff (@sacsheriff) February 23, 2026
If the creepy smile didn’t give it away, this guy is a repeated child molester. A judge described him as “the monster parents fear the most.” In the 1990s he would drive around Sacramento in a van offering kids as young as four candy and toys so he could lure them away and rape them.
Funston used a Barbie doll to lure the victim who spoke with The Times into his vehicle in Foothill Farms in 1995. He then took her to a house, bathed with her, put her on a bed, held a knife to her throat and threatened to kill her if she told her family, prosecutors said. He performed multiple sex acts on her, causing her to bleed.
“He’s one sick individual,” the victim said…
Eight children — seven girls and one boy, all of whom were under the age of 7 when they were victimized — testified in the case against Funston, according to reporting from the Sacramento Bee. Before these offenses, he had also been convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in Colorado.
In one incident in 1995, prosecutors said Funston used candy to lure a 5-year-old girl into his car in Highland Hills, took her up into the hills and assaulted her…
Afterward, Schubert said, he dumped the girl on the side of Highway 50, where she was found crying and walking barefoot.
The word that comes up over and over again with regard to Funston is “monster.” The prosecutor said it was the worst case of child molestation she’d ever seen. Funston is literally the worst of the worst.
Last September the parole board agreed he was eligible for a parole despite the three life sentences he’s serving. Gov Newsom sent the decision back and asked them to reconsider. Last week they took a second look and agreed he was eligible. He is now set to be released.
Yesterday, Sacramento’s Sheriff gave a press conference denouncing the California Parole Board for allowing this to happen.
A furious Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper condemned the parole decision at a news conference at the Sheriff’s Office headquarters in Old Foothill Farms.
“He lured them with candy and Barbie dolls. He stole their childhoods. I’ve seen the reports. They’re horrific. To let him out? It doesn’t make sense,” Cooper said.
“The things he did to these kids cannot be undone. Victims come first, especially children. I’m pissed,” Cooper said. He also blasted lawmakers for failing, in his words, to enact legislation to better protect California children from sex predators.
“Protect our children,” Cooper said. “Where’s the compassion for victims? We have to stand up and fight for our kids.”
Because his victims were all children, they are all still in their 20s and now seeing him released.
“He shouldn’t be breathing the same air that we’re breathing at all,” one victim, who was kidnapped and assaulted when she was just 4 years old, told The Times in an interview. “I disagree with him getting paroled out because he’s a horrible person. That man is a monster.”
Funston is a violent child rapist, literally the worst of the worst. The parole board is taking a gamble that he won’t do it again to some other poor kid. I wonder if the members of the parole board have children or grandchildren. Would they release Funston into their neighborhood? Are they really certain he’s reformed?
Last year there was an attempt in the California Senate to exclude child molesters from the elderly parole program. It eventually stalled and Democrats never gave it a vote. Democrats want guys like Funston to be released. I can’t understand it and neither can Sacramento’s Sheriff.
SENTENCED TO THREE LIFE TERMS: WHY WAS SERIAL CHILD MOLESTER DAVID FUNSTON GRANTED EARLY RELEASE?
The people of Sacramento, and every parent across California, deserve answers.
The California Parole Board has granted parole to David Allen Funston, a serial child molester who… pic.twitter.com/HzvOORZXw5
— Sacramento Sheriff (@sacsheriff) February 23, 2026
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