WASHINGTON (AP) — The former warden of a California women’s prison who is already facing federal charges alleging he sexually abused inmates and forced them to pose nude for him was charged Tuesday with abuse sexually with two other female inmates, the Justice Department said.
Ray Garcia, 55, was a warden at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California. An Associated Press investigation uncovered a culture of abuse and cover-ups that had been going on for years at the prisona women-only facility dubbed the “rape club” by many who know it.
The Justice Department announced a superseding indictment against Garcia on Tuesday charging him with a total of seven counts of sexually abusive conduct involving three female victims serving prison terms at a federal prison in Dublin, California, and one count of making statements fake in government. the agents.
The former guard, arrested last September, is accused of harassing an inmate as she tried to remove him. Garcia made him and another inmate strip naked while he made rounds and took pictures that were found on his personal laptop computer and government-issued cellphone when the FBI raided his office and home last summer, prosecutors said. The abuse occurred on multiple occasions between December 2019 and March 2020 and ended when the pandemic broke out and the women were locked in their cells, the Justice Department said.
“If they’re stripping, I’ve already seen,” Garcia, 54, told the FBI in July 2021, according to court records. “I don’t like to plan a time like ‘undress, and I’ll be there’.”
Garcia, who retired a month after his arrest, is also accused of using his authority to intimidate one of his victims, telling her he was “close friends” with the person in charge of investigating her conduct. bad staff and boasting that he could not be fired. prosecutors said.
Garcia pleaded not guilty to the original charges against him, and his attorney has declined repeated AP requests for an interview. A message seeking comment was left with Garcia’s attorney Tuesday.
The new indictment also alleges that Garcia sexually abused two other female inmates between March 2020 and July 2021. The Justice Department alleges that Garcia touched the three women “sexually” and that he “asked several inmates to to undress for him at a specific time.”
The indictment alleges that he sexually abused one of the women in a prison bathroom near the visiting room and in the prison storage room. Prosecutors say Garcia forced another woman to touch her genitals in the laundry room and grabbed a third woman’s bottom in the prison’s electrical store.
The indictment also alleges that Garcia lied to federal agents who asked him if he had ever asked inmates to undress for him or inappropriately touched a female inmate.
Four more Dublin workers have been accused of sexually abusing prisoners since June 2021. Others include a food service manager and a prison chaplain. Two of the arrested workers have pleaded guilty. One is scheduled to be sentenced next week.
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