WATCH: Convicted child molester not granted elderly parole

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(The Center Square) – A convicted child molester will not walk free after a California board decided against granting him elderly parole.

Gregory Lee Vogelsang, 57, was the subject of a hearing Friday in which the Board of Parole Hearings ruled against giving him parole. Vogelsang was convicted on dozens of counts of child molestation in 1999, according to previous reporting by The Center Square. He was found guilty of kidnapping and sexually assaulting five boys. He was sentenced to serve 355 years in prison for his crimes and is incarcerated at Valley State Prison in Chowchilla in central California.

“On June 26, 2026, Gregory L. Vogelsang’s grant of parole was rescinded at his rescission hearing,” Kyle Buis, a spokesperson for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, wrote to The Center Square via email on Friday afternoon. “Vogelsang will not be released, and a new parole hearing will be scheduled within 18 months.”

As of March, Vogelsang had served 27 years of his term before becoming eligible for elderly parole. A hearing during the same month resulted in the California Board of Parole Hearings postponing its decision to release Vogelsang.

A Republican legislator immediately welcomed the news about the rescission of the parole.

“That’s absolutely the result that we hope to hear,” Assemblymember Josh Hoover, R-Folsom, told The Center Square on Friday afternoon. “That’s the result that we’ve advocated for. Our office has opposed his release, and we have urged the community to oppose his release as well.”

The amount of time Vogelsang has already served is not enough time considering the severity of his crimes, Hoover continued. He added he wants to see the entire system reformed so that those convicted of serious crimes are not able to be considered for parole.

“There’s a lot that needs to be fixed here,” Hoover said. “We need to reform the elderly parole program to exclude the most violent sexual crimes and many of the other serious crimes as well.”

According to data from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Board of Parole Hearings grants parole to less than 11% of inmates who are eligible.

About 1.8% of those granted elderly parole re-commit a criminal act after being released on parole, according to the department. None of those re-offenses were sex offenses, the department said.

Under state law in California, inmates serving time for serious crimes – including sex crimes against children – can qualify for elderly parole if they are at least 50 years old and have served at least 20 years of their sentence. Sen. Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, introduced a bill this year with Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-Santee, that would raise the minimum eligible age for elderly parole from 50 to 65. That bill ultimately did not pass during a hearing before the Senate Public Safety Committee.

“He shouldn’t be up for elderly parole,” Niello told The Center Square in an exclusive interview on Thursday. “I don’t know how anyone can defend that, particularly since he was asked in a previous hearing whether he still had feelings for young boys, and he said yes.”

Another bill introduced by Assemblymember Stephanie Nguyen, D-Elk Grove, as well as one by Assemblymember Tom Lackey, R-Palmdale, and Hoover, had similar aims. Lackey’s and Hoover’s bill was scheduled for a bill hearing in April, but the hearing was canceled at the authors’ request, according to the state’s bill tracker.

Nguyen’s bill passed the Assembly in May and is currently being reviewed by Senate committees.

Nguyen declined to comment for this story through her communications director, Carol Nguyen. Lackey did not respond directly to The Center Square before press time.

Sen. Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, said through her communications director Brooke Lackey that she was not available to comment on Vogelsang’s hearing before press time on Friday. The Capitol director for Jones, Jake Donohue, declined an interview on the Senate minority leader's behalf on Friday afternoon. 

Grove, along with Assemblymember David Tangipa, R-Fresno, represents a district that Vogelsang applied to live in if he was granted elderly parole. Tangipa did not comment on the parole hearing before publication time on Friday.