Rally For Erica Evelyn Escobar, Allegedly Killed by Man Released by California on 'Non-Revocable Parole'

By Dennis Romero Thu., Jul. 28 2011 at 8:05 AM

Patrick Healy

The victims.

The family of 27-year-old Culver City murder victim Erica Evelyn Escobar will protest a controversial policy that put her alleged killer under minimal supervision after he was released from prison last year.

Thirty-one-year-old Zachariah Lehnen is accused in the early May double murder of Escobar and 89-year-old World War II vet Lucien Bergez at the latter's Culver City home.

He was in prison late last on a drug charge and was eligible to be released on non-revocable parole. So he was. The program ...

... is designed to reduce the number of prisoners who end up back behind bars for small violations of their parole (smoking a joint or hanging out with a gang member, for example). California's prisons are grossly overcrowded, so every little thing helps.

Normally, a parolee can be "violated" back to prison for any little thing, and the burden of proof isn't like it is in a court of law: If a parole officer says you did it, that's about it.

In the case of Lehnen, family members allege ...

... Erica Evelyn Escobar and Lucien Bergez were beaten, tortured and murdered by Lehnen Zachariah, a recently released parolee classified as a low level, non-violent criminal offender who had been placed on non-revocable parole.

Lehnen was picked up in a West Hollywood alley days after the killings. He's charged with two counts of murder with special circumstances (the slayings were allegedly committed during the course of a robbery).

The rally, with State Sen. Ted Lieu scheduled to attend, happens Friday at 11 a.m. at the Ronald Reagan State Building, 300 S. Spring St.

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]

Tags:

California prison, Culver City, homicide, murder, non-revocable parole, NRP, Zachariah Lehnen

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Andrew

I am just finding out about this now. i knew Erica in High School.i love Erica. She didn't deserve to die like this. I miss you Erica.and who stabs a blind man..insane!

Guy Impound

"California's prisons are grossly overcrowded, so every little thing helps"....and look at the taxpayer money we saved by the "early release" of this NON violent offender...of course it was at the expense of someone else's life but I guess that's of little consequence by those who signed the release papers.

Rwelsh_legal

These decent citizens were murdered by a system that finds any excuse it can to turn miscreants loose on our communities. Every single politician who supported these mass releases is responsible for atrocities such as these. They should be held responsible for their decisions, period. It must stop and the only way that will happen is if we hold politicians and lawmakers accountable for their reckless decisions.

Eco Fem13

In the case of marijuana I agree with you, However robberies such as this are often committed by those looking for something to sell for their next high- they are addicts and will kill for a drug= therefore they must be behind bars

SmackMacDougal

It doesn't matter what motivates someone to rob. The crime of robbery is the robbery itself. We don't excuse persons from robbery because someone claims he or she hasrobbed for a noble cause.

Precisely because drugs are illegal, a black market for drugs arises which imposes higher prices upon customers for drugs. For some, these higher prices are beyond their ability to secure income so they turn to robbery.

Take government out of the drug business and you end your bogey man "addicts become killers" faux argument.

Drugs are products like anything else -- surfboards, car stereos, beer, condoms, LCD TVs, checking accounts, airline tickets to Hawai'i, movie tickets, Dodgers tickets, more. Through the years, many people choose to steal to gain such products rather than earn income to pay for such.

There are many stories of persons murdering other persons for a pair of Nike sneakers. Do we say ban Nike sneakers because such a product leads to stealing and murder?

That you single out a product like drugs and excuse marijuana (presumably a drug you like) says more about your consumer preferences and mental prejudices than anything else.

Addiction is a force in the brain that arises because of the inherent design of the brain. Addiction is tied to action of the nucleus accumbens. For anyone, there can be positive addiction and negative addiction.

SmackMacDougal

There would be plenty of room in California prisons for all violent criminals and at manageable expense with no need to release such violent criminals early, if at all, if California government ended the War on Liberty and thus persons who possess and use so-called "illegal" drugs.

Like the nationwide policy, the War on Liberty, often mistakenly called the War on Drugs, has enriched many -- prison guards, institutional food and clothing suppliers, policemen, criminal defense lawyers, criminal prosecution lawyers, court clerks, judges. Yet, the War on Liberty wrongly called the War on Drugs has done nothing to stop the manufacture, distribution, sale and use of so called "illegal" drugs by the persons who demand them. In fact, more drugs by tonnage get sold today than in the entire history of drug production and consumption.

Already, Californians pay more than a sufficient sum of money in taxes to fund all the prisons and all the prison cells, none of which need to be crowded, to incarcerate those that need to be incarcerated -- murderers, child molesters, rapists, arsonists, car thieves, robbers.