Small Town News

Convicted killer to be set free in Lassen

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If the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has its way, a man some believe is one of California's most notorious serial killers will arrive Thursday, Sept. 16, at the California Correctional Center in Susanville. The following day, he will exit through the lethal fence and concertina wire as a free man in Lassen County on three years' parole.

But, if Lassen County officials, including Lassen County Sheriff Steve Warren, have their way, Lassen will join San Joaquin, Modoc and Tehama counties in refusing to allow Loren Herzog, 44, to be released on parole in its jurisdiction.

After the news of Herzog's release in Lassen County broke last Friday, Lassen County District 2 Supervisor Jim Chapman added the issue to the agenda for Tuesday's meeting.

Warren said the CDCR announced Herzog's release in Lassen County last Friday without notifying him in advance.

Warren discussed the issue with several CDCR officials during several conference calls Monday morning and asked them to explore other options.

"We're just at an absolute no," Warren said. "We don't want this guy, and I don't appreciate that we were given no notice."

Warren was concerned about a public perception fueled by speculation and stories on the Internet that Lassen County law enforcement officials did not respond to CDCR's plans to release Herzog in Lassen County.

"There was no lead time," Warren said. "There was no notice, and they had to pick (a county for Herzog's release). They're going to get back to me. Hopefully, this thing's not set in stone."

According to Chapman, Rocky Deal, district director of Congressman Tom McClin-tock's office in Granite Bay, has contracted state assemblymen Dan Logue and Ted Gaines seeking their support in blocking Herzog's release in Lassen County.

Logue said he has scheduled a Tuesday afternoon meeting in his office with Matthew Cate, Secretary of the California Department of Corrections, to discuss Herzog's planned release.

"I want to know why they're so determined to release this gentleman into the Susanville area," Logue said. "This is outrageous. I don't have a problem with this guy being released early as long as they put him next door to the judge that let him out early. There's no reason why the people of Susanville and Lassen County have to live in fear. There are no guarantees, but I'm going to do everything I can to make sure this doesn't happen."

Logue said it would help him if the people of Lassen County started a petition drive against Herzog's release.

Sheena Crawford, a West-wood resident, is way ahead of the assemblyman.

Crawford said she has collected more than 100 signatures on a petition at Captain Andy's opposing Herzog's release. She hopes to circulate the petition at all the gas stations in West-wood and deliver them to the Board of Supervisors at Tuesday's meeting.

"Public opinion can make a difference," Chapman said. "Whatever case Lassen County makes to the state to change (its) consideration, we're going to have to do it by Tuesday or Wednesday at the latest because I think otherwise they'll be shipping that guy up here on Thursday and cutting him loose on Friday."

According to reporting on the trials, Herzog and codefendant Wesley Sher-mantine -- childhood friends the media dubbed the "Speed Freak Killers" -- each fingered the other as the perpetrator of several murders in California's Central Valley during the mid-1990s.

Shermantine, convicted of four counts of murder, awaits execution on death row.

According to a press release from the CDCR, in December 2001, a Santa Clara jury convicted Herzog on three counts of murder and sentenced him to 78 years in prison after a change of venue from San Joaquin County.

But in 2004, a California appeals court overturned his conviction and much of the evidence used against him after it determined his statements to law enforcement officers had been coerced.

Rather than face a new trial, Herzog pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the 1998 murder of Cyndi Vanderheiden, 25, three counts of being an accessory to a felony and one count of transportation of a controlled substance.

According to the Associated Press, Herzog and Shermantine lured Vanderheiden "to a cemetery with the promise of methampheta-mine. Herzog testified that he hid in the back seat of Shermantine's car while his friend attacked Vanderheiden. Herzog also testified that he helped load the body in the trunk, but doesn't know what Shermantine did after that. Her body hasn't been found."

On Dec. 8, 2004, Herzog began serving a 14-year prison sentence -- with credit for the time he already had served in county jail and state prison.

Chapman said despite the concerns expressed by the San Joaquin county residents, Herzog should be paroled in a county with the resources and personnel to adequately supervise him. ?

"It's like a designed-to-fail type thing," Chapman said. "Maybe that's what they want -- to put the individual in an environment knowing full well this thing is guaranteed for failure, and one of two things is going to happen. Either he's going to kill somebody or somebody's going to kill him. Or he will transgress so they can slap him back in a prison where he belongs. If that is indeed the intent behind this maneuver, that's really sick -- to put a community in that kind of a position of jeopardy because the criminal justice system or the judicial system wasn't able to do what needed to be done in the first place."

Chapman said he expects these issues will be "hotly debated" at Tuesday's meeting.

"The attitude that Lassen County doesn't care or is going to roll over and play dead, knowing the folks I know, I doubt seriously that's what the response is going to be," Chapman said.

"The bottom line," Chapman said, "is the law can do what it has to do, but public opinion can make a difference."

The supervisor acknowledged the story is evolving quickly, and he said time is of the essence.



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© 2011 The Chester Progressive Chester, California. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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