Los Angeles and Culver City police unions express outrage over parolee who murdered

LOS ANGELES, July 29, 2011 – Sadly, and as the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) predicted, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) ill-conceived non-revocable parole program claimed innocent lives. Zachariah Timothy Lehnen, 31, should have been behind bars until November 2013. Instead, he was free on an early prison release when he murdered 89-year-old Lucien Bergez and 27-year-old Erica Evelyn Escobar on May 3, 2011.

Lehnen gained his early release from an ill-conceived CDCR program known as “non-revocable parole.” The program’s goal is to get “low-level, non-violent offenders” out of state custody through early releases with no parole supervision. Despite a history of arrests for robbery, domestic violence and drugs, Lehnen was selected by CDCR for inclusion in the program.

“We’ve documented the flaws of the non-revocable parole program numerous times, from CDCR’s misclassification of inmates, to its failure to include all relevant criminal history in the computer model that determines which inmates are ‘low level, nonviolent.’ At the heart of the program is this model, called the Parole Violation Decision Making Instruments (PVDMI) system. CDCR claims it can predict which inmates are ‘low risk’ and ‘non-violent.’ Those selected by CDCR’s model are treated to an early release from prison with no parole supervision or notification to local law enforcement, and with the ironclad assurance that they will not be returned to prison unless convicted of a new crime,” said LAPPL President Paul M. Weber.

“Non-revocable parole is a dangerous contradiction that places the public at risk. In the past, offenders who were released back into society, many of them before serving a full prison term for their crime, were at least expected to comply with basic conditions of their supervised release under conditional parole. With non-revocable parole, our law enforcement officers are unable to re-incarcerate parolees who violate their parole by continuing to engage in criminal behavior, be it using drugs, associating with gang members or committing other CDCR parole violations that, in the past, would have returned them to prison before an innocent person became their next victim,” said Adam Treanor, president of the Culver City Police Officers’ Association.

Treanor added, “In our jurisdiction, a convicted felon recently released from state prison under non-revocable parole has been charged with a double homicide. The Culver City Police Officers’ Association believes the public deserves a supervised release system that is realistic and makes community safety a top priority. We need a system that empowers law enforcement officers with the ability to re-incarcerate any and all parolees who view their release from prison not as an opportunity to begin a new life as a productive member of society, but merely as a means to return to the very same criminal, predatory behavior that led to their incarceration in the first place.”

“The reality is that the goal of the program and its vaunted computer model is to save money by ensuring that inmates released early cannot be sent back to prison absent a new criminal conviction. The guise of selecting ‘low-level, non violent’ inmates is just a cover to have the public believe their safety is kept in mind during this program’s course,” added Paul M. Weber.

It was not for a lack of trying that one of these “non-violent, low risk” offenders did not kill sooner:

• In July 2010, a parolee who had been dumped on our streets under CDCR non-revocable parole policies attempted to murder two LAPD officers. Javier Joseph Rueda, a hardcore gang member misclassified as “low-level, non-violent,” opened fire on two officers attempting to stop him on a suspicion of driving while under the influence. Rueda was killed in the resulting exchange of gunfire.
• In September 2010, LAPD officers shot and killed a parolee-at-large who fired at them with a high-powered assault rifle. Moments before the deadly encounter, a check of the license plate revealed that the car had been reported stolen. As the three officers prepared to make the stop, Jack Schlesinger, 28, stopped suddenly and attempted to kill the officers with the assault rifle. The officers immediately fired their weapons, striking and killing Schlesinger.
• In October 2010, 36-year-old non-revocable parolee Alexander Diaz deliberately hit Fremont motorcycle Officer Patrick Brower with a stolen delivery truck. Officer Brower and his motorcycle were pushed across two lanes of traffic before he was pinned against a light pole. Diaz was later arrested in Los Angeles.

The non-revocable parole program has been problematic from its inception. In a surprising admission, in May 2010 CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate, who spearheads the program and its faulty PVDMI model, admitted that 656 inmates were mistakenly released and did indeed pose a danger to public safety. Worse still, since these inmates were freed without supervision, CDCR was forced to admit it didn’t know where the vast majority of them were living.

Weber notes that, “In one of the most ridiculous comments in history by a public official, on March 10, 2010, CDCR spokesman Oscar Hidalgo claimed that the early release program would ‘incentivize’ local police and prosecutors to arrest and convict these felons. However, neither the public nor local law enforcement needed such an incentive. Public safety is better served with a parole system that swiftly returns criminals back to prison on a parole violation if they fail to strictly follow their conditions of parole.

“Unfortunately, in an effort to save money and with scant regard for public safety, CDCR rammed through their new system. Now, Lucien Bergez and Erica Escobar are Lehnen’s newest crime victims. This tragedy should not have happened. The few dollars saved by Lehnen’s early release are not worth the pain and suffering that CDCR has let be inflicted on the families of Lucien and Erica. I can assure Oscar Hidalgo and the administrators at CDCR that Culver City homicide detectives could have done without this incentive to catch Erica's killer, Zachariah Timothy Lehnen, as could the L.A. County Deputy District Attorneys now assigned to prosecute this case.”

“The question now for Secretary Cate: What is the number of innocent victims who must die before you end this program? Parole agents, who are seasoned in evaluating inmates and parolees, need to make these determinations, not computer programs. And, just as importantly, real parole agents need to be supervising these inmates once they return to our communities,” said Weber.

“We call on the Department of Corrections to let the public know how many early releases have been granted so far, and what percentage of the prisoners released are considered dangerous. In addition, we renew our call on the state to stop the early release program today, and we ask the legislature to step in on this clear failure of the parol¬¬e system before any new early releases occur. Public safety must trump all other concerns – economic or political,” Weber concluded.

About the LAPPL: Formed in 1923, the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) represents the more than 9,900 dedicated and professional sworn members of the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPPL serves to advance the interests of LAPD officers through legislative and legal advocacy, political action and education. The LAPPL can be found on the Web at www.LAPD.com.

Contact:
Eric Rose (805) 624-0572
Paul Haney (626) 755-4759