(The Center Square) – A convicted child molester who was scheduled to be released from prison on elderly parole is pleading not guilty to new child molestation charges in Placer County, according to the county District Attorney’s Office.
David Allen Funston, 64, who was previously convicted of child molestation charges in Sacramento County, was serving three life sentences in prison for his crimes. Because he was expected to be in prison for the rest of his life, the Placer County District Attorney’s Office never pursued a separate charge related to alleged child molestation in Placer County in 1996.
He was found by the state’s Board of Parole Hearings to qualify for elderly parole late last year.
He was handed over to authorities in Placer County to face the new charges, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
“Given elder parole and other potential releases based upon good behavior, it’s got to make prosecutors and judges wonder if they should even put a sentence on a particular crime,” Sen. Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, told The Center Square in an exclusive interview on Monday. “You have to ask why. We have all these other allowances that people can get out regardless of what their sentence is, and that’s what’s frustrating.”
Recent changes to California’s elderly parole laws enabled Funston to qualify for elderly parole after reaching at least age 60 and serving at least 25 years in prison. The state’s laws also allow those who are at least 50 years old to qualify for elderly parole after being incarcerated for 20 years, according to the California Board of Parole Hearings.
Officials from the Board of Parole Hearings and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation were not available for interviews on Monday.
According to multiple news reports, the Placer County charges from 1996 were also not pursued at the time to spare the child in question from testifying in court. Today, that child is an adult and is expected to testify against Funston.
According to data from law firm UnCommon Law, the prison system in California costs the state's taxpayers $17.5 billion, which the organization says is driven largely by an aging prison population who poses little or no risk to public safety. The costs of keeping elderly offenders incarcerated increase by 10% a year, the data show, and many of those elderly inmates have at least three health conditions simultaneously.
“With the new charges from 30 years ago, they have nothing to do with the determination that he’s not the person today that he was then,” Keith Wattley, founder and executive director of UnCommon Law, told The Center Square on Monday morning. “The parole consideration is really based on one’s capacity for change, regardless of how reprehensible we find their crimes to have been.”
In many cases, Wattley added, those who perpetrate these crimes were previously victims of the same acts.
“Miraculous transformation really can happen when they have the opportunity to heal from that harm,” Wattley told The Center Square. “The elderly parole process recognizes that capacity for change and involves a thorough examination, evaluation and determination that that person is no longer a risk to public safety.”
Assembly members with knowledge of the case have publicly said Funston should not be released. They've called for Gov. Gavin Newsom to replace the members of the Board of Parole Hearings with new members who will prioritize public safety and victims' rights.
"The governor should hold those parole board members accountable, 100%," Assemblymember Joe Patterson, R-Rocklin, told The Center Square during the floor session. "If you go back to the purpose of this law, it was really intended for the elderly who are never a threat to society because they're too old to be a threat to anybody."
Patterson continued, "This guy is a pervert, perfectly able-bodied and should not have been released from prison."
Funston is next scheduled to appear in court on April 6.
