Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday blocked the parole of a convicted double-killer whose early release under California’s Elderly Parole Program had drawn fierce backlash from victims’ families.
Joseph Tidwell, 57, will remain behind bars after the governor reversed a June 30 decision by the state parole board that would have freed him after just 22 years of a 45-year sentence. Tidwell was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder for a 2004 head-on crash that killed San Gorgonio Search and Rescue volunteers Scott Johnston, 29, and Phil Calvert, 58, while Tidwell was driving under the influence of methamphetamine and heroin.
Bob Blanck, a San Bernardino County school teacher who was Johnston’s best friend and survived the wreck with critical injuries, had waged a public campaign against Tidwell’s release. He published an op-ed in The California Post opposing the parole and later called Newsom’s intervention “a rare act of common sense.”
“It was definitely a great surprise,” Blanck told The Post of the governor’s decision.
Blanck was trapped in the back seat of the rescue crew’s Suburban on the night of July 17, 2004, forced to watch as medical workers performed CPR on Johnston. After a few minutes, he realized his friend was gone. Calvert suffered smashed legs and later died from complications. Blanck himself spent three months hospitalized, enduring five surgeries including repair of a torn artery, spinal fusion, and insertion of a rod and screws in his leg.
“Even though I watched my best friend die right in front of me, and I was told about Phil’s passing, their deaths didn’t really hit me until I was home,” Blanck wrote in his op-ed for The Post.
Newsom detailed his reasoning in a letter shared with Blanck on Monday. “I acknowledge that Mr. Tidwell has made efforts to improve himself during the 22 years he has been in prison. He has completed a vocation, participated in self-help programming, and is enrolled in college courses,” the governor wrote.
“However, these factors are outweighed by negative factors that demonstrate he remains unsuitable for parole at this time.”
The governor cited Tidwell’s history of substance abuse and institutional misconduct as grounds for keeping him incarcerated. Tidwell had been convicted of a DUI and arrested for a second DUI that triggered a parole violation before the fatal 2004 crash. During his time at Soledad State Prison, he used drugs and engaged in financial misconduct, Newsom noted.
“In light of his relatively recent misconduct in prison, as well as his past record of parole violations in the community, I have concluded that Mr. Tidwell must do additional work to address his risk factors before he can be safely released,” the governor wrote.
California’s Elderly Parole Program allows inmates who are 50 or older and have served at least 20 continuous years to seek special parole consideration, a significant expansion from the original requirements of age 60 and 25 years served. The program was broadened in 2021 as part of ongoing efforts to reduce prison overcrowding. Death row inmates and those serving life without parole remain ineligible.
The program has generated statewide outrage over violent offenders gaining release eligibility. In February, state corrections officials granted parole to David Allen Funston, one of Sacramento County’s most notorious child predators, who kidnapped and molested at least eight children in the mid-1990s. Public protest preceded fresh charges against Funston just hours before his scheduled release.
Tidwell, who was 35 and unhurt in the 2004 collision, had first applied for elderly parole in December 2024 at age 55 after serving 20 years. That request was denied based on infractions during his incarceration. He reapplied just 18 months later and succeeded before the board, only to have Newsom exercise his authority to reverse the grant.
The law permits eligible inmates to reapply every 18 months even after a gubernatorial rejection, meaning Tidwell could seek release again in 2028.
That prospect haunts Johnston’s mother, Beth Greenwood. “I’m very happy with the outcome of this particular decision, but this is going to come up again in 18 months,” she told The Post through tears. “[Tidwell] can get out and be just as dangerous now as he was then.”
Tidwell may reapply for elderly parole in 2028.