Authorities recently broadened their case against a former FCI Dublin correctional officer who is accused of sexually assaulting several women under his guard beginning in summer 2016.
Federal prosecutors filed three new charges last week against Darrell Wayne Smith, amid claims that the former guard at the now-defunct federal women’s prison in Dublin abused two more inmates than previously known. The new charges — including two counts alleging sexual abuse and a third alleging civil rights violations — brings the total number of charges against Smith to 15.
In a series of statements, federal authorities decried Smith’s alleged actions, while vowing to hold guards who mistreat inmates at prisons across the country to account.
“Federal prison guards must treat prisoners humanely,” said U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey, in a statement. “Victimizing inmates sexually and denying them basic civil rights must end.”
Smith was arrested in Florida last year, after having been charged with a dozen felonies tied to his tenure at the prison.
He ranks among at least eight current or former employees at the women’s federal prison charged with sexual abuse in a scandal that rocked the institution and ultimately led to its closure earlier this year. For years numerous inmates complained of sexual assaults and misconduct by the prison’s staff, along with retaliatory behavior by its leaders against women who tried to speak up about the alleged abuses. Its reputation became so notorious that inmates there referred to the prison as the “Rape Club.”
The alleged abuse led to a sprawling class-action lawsuit last year accusing prison managers of ignoring decades of warning signs and providing insufficient mental and physical health care. In 2024, a federal judge ordered a special master to oversee operations at the prison — an unprecedented step for a federal prison, and one that was followed weeks later with the decision by the Bureau of Prisons to close the facility.
Meanwhile, federal prosecutors filed numerous charges against several staff members. Among them was former warden, Ray J. Garcia, who was sentenced to six years in federal prison after prosecutors said he showed inmates pictures of his penis, forced them to pose nude for pictures and then lied about it to the FBI.
In Smith’s case, prosecutors now say he abused five women at the prison, including at least one person back in August 2016. He faces up to life in prison if convicted at trial, which is set to begin in spring 2025.
Source: www.mercurynews.com