Andrew Luster, sentenced to 124 years for drugging and raping three women, is free after about 20 years, and Glendora officials are outraged.
Fox News Digital reported that the Max Factor cosmetics heir was released from California state prison earlier this month and is now living in Glendora. He was convicted on 86 felony counts for using GHB to drug and sexually assault unconscious women at his Ventura County beachfront home.
Glendora Mayor David Fredendall did not mince words. His city, he said, is being asked to absorb the public-safety fallout of a state decision that cut a once-massive sentence down to two decades behind bars.
Local leaders now want answers from Sacramento on how a man once facing 124 years walked out while his calculated term had been expected to run into October 2026.
Fredendall framed the release as a breach of trust with victims and with the people who live near schools, parks, and playgrounds.
He said:
"The City of Glendora is beyond disappointed. We are outraged. Andrew Luster was convicted of 86 felony counts stemming from the drugging and sexual assault of unconscious women. He was originally sentenced to 124 years in prison. He has now been released from State prison and is reportedly residing in our community. This is unacceptable."
The mayor tied the outcome to Proposition 57, the 2016 ballot measure that expanded parole consideration for certain offenders. Voters, he argued, were sold a different promise.
Fredendall said:
"When California voters approved Proposition 57 in 2016, they were assured by Governor Jerry Brown and his administration that dangerous offenders would remain behind bars."
He also rejected the state’s likely paperwork defense before it could settle the argument.
In his words:
"The State may argue that this was not technically an early release. It can point to sentencing credits, legal calculations, and administrative requirements. However, those technical explanations do not address the larger concern: how an individual originally sentenced to 124 years in prison for heinous crimes is able to walk out of a secured facility after only 20 years."
Glendora police, he said, will coordinate with state parole authorities on every lawful condition of supervision. The city is also demanding more information from state officials. Fredendall’s closing line left little room for spin: the victims deserve better, Glendora deserves better, and California must do better.
Luster’s path to prison started with a trial he tried to outrun.
In January 2003, while free on $1 million bail during proceedings in Ventura County Superior Court, he fled to Mexico. He was convicted in his absence on the 86 felony counts tied to the three women. Prosecutors said he used GHB. They later described the crimes as "cruel, vicious and callous."
Celebrity bounty hunter Duane “Dog” Chapman captured him in Puerto Vallarta. On June 19, 2003, authorities brought Luster back through Los Angeles International Airport to begin what was then a 124-year term.
That original number did not hold.
In March 2013, a California judge set aside the 124-year sentence after finding the trial court had failed to adequately explain consecutive sentences. Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz rejected Luster’s bid to overturn the convictions but granted a new sentencing hearing.
In April 2013, Stoltz resentenced him to 50 years. Prosecutors opposed the reduction. The Associated Press covered that resentencing at the time, and KTLA later tracked the parole fight that followed.
Proposition 57 passed in 2016 and widened parole consideration. Luster was denied parole in 2022. He won a parole grant in 2024, but Ventura County prosecutors successfully challenged it. He was denied parole again in April 2025.
Even after that denial, reporting held that his calculated prison term had been expected to run until October 2026. He is out anyway, after the credit and calculation path state officials can recite and local leaders say still fails the basic test of justice.
Fox News Digital reached out to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for confirmation of the release date, the sentencing math, and parole supervision details.
California Assemblywoman Blanca E. Rubio, who represents the 48th Assembly District, joined the mayor in condemning the outcome and said she is working with local officials and law enforcement on the release circumstances and supervision conditions.
Rubio said:
"I am outraged and deeply disturbed by the decision to grant parole to convicted serial rapist Andrew Luster. It is incomprehensible that an individual originally sentenced to 124 years in prison for such horrific crimes could be granted parole after serving approximately 20 years."
She added that the justice system is supposed to protect the innocent, hold violent criminals accountable, and give victims a sense of justice. Decisions like this one, she said, undermine public confidence and send a devastating message to survivors of sexual assault.
KTLA reported the release earlier this month and the claim that Luster is residing in Glendora. City leaders have flagged the obvious worry that follows any high-risk placement near everyday community spaces. What remains unclear in public answers is the full list of supervision terms and how tightly the state will own the risk it created.
Strip away the credits language and the sequence is plain. A man convicted on 86 felony counts for drugging and assaulting three women received 124 years, saw that cut to 50, moved through a parole system reshaped by Proposition 57, and is free after roughly 20 years.
Prosecutors fought the softer outcomes. A mayor and a state assemblywoman are left explaining to residents why the file closed early enough for Luster to unpack in their city. Local government, Fredendall warned, should not have to carry the public-safety consequences of Sacramento decisions made without adequate transparency and accountability.
That is the live wire in this case. When the state shortens the distance between a historic sentence and a residential street, the people who live on that street inherit the gamble.
Victims were promised a system that finishes the job. California’s process handed them a calculator instead.
