The previous warden of a federal girls’s jail in California so stricken by sexual abuse it was referred to as the “rape membership” was discovered responsible Thursday of eight counts of sexually abusing girls behind bars, forcing them to pose bare in cells and mendacity to the FBI about it.
In simply over 14 hours, a federal jury in Oakland convicted Ray J. Garcia, the previous warden of Federal Correctional Establishment Dublin, of three counts of intercourse with an incarcerated individual, 4 counts of abusive sexual contact and one depend of mendacity to the FBI.
Garcia retired in shame after an FBI search uncovered bare images of feminine inmates on his government-issued cellphone. He was subsequently charged with fondling and groping three girls imprisoned at FCI Dublin amid allegations he had them pose bare for images.
He’s amongst 5 jail staff charged with abusing inmates contained in the East Bay facility in what has develop into one of many worst documented circumstances of widespread sexual abuse by workers in a girls’s federal jail. Garcia faces 15 years in jail for every of essentially the most severe counts.
Jurors heard proof of how, throughout a span from December 2019 to July 2021, Garcia repeatedly sexually assaulted one girl in a jail toilet and a warehouse, confirmed her images of his penis and compelled her to pose in a pornographic method in a jail cell.
Garcia additionally touched one other inmate’s breasts inside her cell and had her contact his penis within the laundry room, prosecutors mentioned.
Court docket paperwork confirmed he grabbed a 3rd sufferer’s buttocks, kissed her repeatedly and took images of her throughout video intercourse chats in 2021 from a San Diego midway home managed by the U.S. Bureau of prisons. An incarcerated individual can’t consent to sexual exercise with a jail employee.
Amid the abuse, Garcia was promoted from affiliate warden to warden in November 2020, based on federal prosecutors. The Bureau of Prisons defended his promotion, saying it was unaware of Garcia’s conduct on the time.
Garcia was accused of ordering feminine inmates to strip bare for him as he made his rounds, although when confronted by the FBI, he denied such allegations. He has continued to keep up his innocence.
Through the trial, James Reilly, Garcia’s lawyer, argued that there was no surveillance video capturing any alleged intercourse acts, and identified that the accusers are convicted felons. He mentioned Garcia took the pictures the FBI discovered as a result of he needed to doc that the ladies had been breaching jail coverage by standing round bare.
One of many girls who testified towards Garcia mentioned he first flattered her and acted very candy, however then turned vulgar and bragged that he knew of areas that wouldn’t be captured by surveillance cameras.
She informed jurors that in their first sexual encounter, within the toilet of the visitation room, he groped her breasts, digitally penetrated her and grabbed her hand and rubbed it over his garments towards his crotch.
“I couldn’t imagine it was occurring, however I felt like he cherished me and he cared about me and I needed to make him joyful,” she mentioned.
He tried to maintain his victims quiet with guarantees of early launch in addition to warnings that his buddies investigated workers misconduct claims and he couldn’t be fired.
Garcia dedicated the abuse whereas in control of workers and inmate coaching that required allegations be reported below the federal Jail Rape Elimination Act, based on prosecutors.
4 different FCI Dublin staff have been charged with abusing inmates. Three have pleaded responsible, whereas one other — James Theodore Highhouse, the previous jail chaplain — is interesting his seven-year sentence as extreme as a result of it was greater than double the really useful punishment in federal sentencing pointers.
The jail, positioned about 21 miles east of Oakland, opened in 1974. It was transformed in 2012 to considered one of six women-only amenities within the federal jail system. Actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman each served time there for his or her involvement within the school admissions bribery scandal.
The Related Press contributed to this story.
