SAN LUIS OBISPO, Dec. 10 — Parole officials denied a ninth bid for freedom from a 40-year-old inmate who has spent 17 years in prison after admitting his role in the first of a string of murders linked to Charles Manson and his “family.”

A state Board of Prison Terms panel voted 2-1 Wednesday to reject Bobby Beausoleil’s bid for freedom after 20 minutes of deliberation. The vote followed a three-hour hearing at the California Men’s Colony.

Panelist Al Leddy called Beausoleil “a continuing danger to society.”

But Beausoleil, wearing prison blue jeans and work shirt and sporting a neatly trimmed beard, argued that he shouldn’t be judged by his previous connection to Manson.

“I feel like every time I come to one of these hearings I have Mr. Manson sitting next to me,” he said. “I despise what the man represents…If I had known about what the man was about then, I wouldn’t have been associated with him.”