Ex-jail warden convicted of sexually abusing inmates

The former warden of a federal women’s jail in California the place inmates stated they were subjected to rampant sexual abuse was convicted on Thursday of molesting inmates and forcing them to pose naked in their cells.

Ray Garcia was located responsible of all 8 charges and faces up to 15 many years in jail. He was between 5 employees billed with abusing inmates at the federal correctional institution in Dublin, California, and the very first to go to demo.

Garcia, 55, retired from his post last yr soon after the FBI identified nude images of inmates on his governing administration-issued telephone. Garcia was billed with abusing three inmates between December 2019 and July 2021.

Jurors deliberated above components of a few times adhering to a 7 days of testimony, like from a number of of Garcia’s accusers and the former warden himself.

“Instead of making sure the right functioning of FCI Dublin, he employed his authority to sexually prey upon numerous woman inmates less than his manage,” U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds claimed, contacting Garcia’s crimes a betrayal of the community trust and his obligations as a warden.

Prosecutors argued at demo that Garcia’s abusive conduct followed a sample that started out with compliments, flattery and claims of transfers to reduced safety prisons, and escalated to sexual assault.

Testifying on his personal behalf, Garcia conceded that he experienced built blunders but claimed that some of his alleged wrongdoing — like using photographs of bare inmates — was accomplished as aspect of his formal obligations to document violations of prison coverage. Prosecutors countered by calling a jail lieutenant who claimed he is hardly ever viewed a situation where by it was suitable for an employee to just take pics of a nude inmate.

An Connected Press investigation in February discovered a lifestyle of abuse and protect-up that had persisted for a long time at the prison, about 21 miles (34 kilometers) east of Oakland. That reporting led to enhanced scrutiny from Congress and pledges from the federal Bureau of Prisons that it would repair problems and change the culture at the prison.

Tale proceeds

The trial has called into question the Bureau of Prisons’ handling of sexual abuse complaints from inmates from employees and the vetting procedure for the persons it chooses to run its prisons.

All sexual exercise among a prison worker and an inmate is illegal. Correctional staff members appreciate sizeable power above inmates, managing each and every facet of their lives from mealtime to lights out, and there is no scenario in which an inmate can give consent.

Garcia was in demand of staff and inmate teaching on reporting abuse and complying with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act at the exact same time he was committing abuse, prosecutors say, and some inmates say they had been despatched to solitary confinement or other prisons for accusing workers of abuse.

Prosecutors say Garcia tried out to hold his victims silent with guarantees that he’d assistance them get early release. He allegedly told one particular sufferer he was “close friends” with the prison official responsible for investigating employees misconduct and couldn’t be fired. According to an indictment, he stated he liked to cavort with inmates because, offered their deficiency of electrical power, they could not “ruin him.”

Garcia was also accused of purchasing inmates to strip bare for him as he created his rounds and of lying to federal agents who requested him if he had at any time requested inmates to undress for him or experienced inappropriately touched a female inmate.

“We see inmates dressing and stuff … and if they’re undressing, I have already looked,” Garcia told the FBI in July 2021, according to courtroom documents. “I do not, like, timetable a time like, ‘You be undressed, and I’ll be there.’”

Garcia was placed on administrative go away prior to retiring. He was arrested in September 2021.

Very last month, Deputy Lawyer Normal Lisa Monaco directed federal prosecutors across the U.S. to “consider the complete array of statutes,” including the federal Violence Against Ladies Act in cases involving Bureau of Prisons staff who are accused of sexual misconduct.

In those instances, Monaco explained prosecutors must take into consideration asking judges for sentences that go past the federal recommendations if the sentence advisable in the recommendations is not “fair and proportional to the seriousness of the offenses.”

Of the four other Dublin workers billed with abusing inmates, 3 have pleaded responsible and one particular is scheduled to stand trial future calendar year. James Theodore Highhouse, the prison’s chaplain, is appealing his seven-calendar year prison sentence, arguing that it was abnormal for the reason that it was much more than double the suggested punishment in federal sentencing tips.