Key Factors
- Enrique Chavez is the fifth Bureau of Prisons worker on the high-profile Northern California jail in Dublin to be indicted on the facility since spring 2021.
- Members of Congress have urged extra scrutiny and investigations into allegations of systemic sexual abuse of inmates.
- The jail is without doubt one of the nation’s few all-female federal prisons.
A fifth worker at a federal girls’s jail in California has been indicted on costs stemming from sexual abuse of an inmate. The high-profile Dublin jail in Northern California, previously house to well-known actors and one of many nation’s few all-female federal prisons, has come underneath scrutiny in current months for alleged systemic abuse.
Enrique Chavez, 49, who labored as a prepare dinner supervisor, turned the fifth Bureau of Prisons worker to be indicted on the facility since spring 2021. The jail’s former warden, jail security administrator and recycling technician had been all indicted on comparable costs final yr, and its chaplain – whose workplace was sealed off by authorities since previous to the pandemic – was indicted earlier this yr.
The costs in opposition to Chavez had been unsealed Wednesday as members of Congress have urged extra scrutiny and investigations into allegations of systemic sexual abuse of inmates by these in energy on the jail. The Bureau of Prisons has suffered from low staffing and morale, particularly because of the pandemic, and its Trump-era director Michael Carvajal will probably be resigning as quickly as a successor is in place.
Actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin each did time on the Dublin jail for his or her involvement within the school admissions bribery scandal. Dublin is one of many nation’s 122 federal prisons and considered one of 5 all-women prisons within the federal system.
The felony grand jury indictment, filed March 10 within the U.S. District Courtroom Northern District of California, costs Chavez with two counts of abusive sexual contact round October 2020. Chavez allegedly touched an inmate’s vagina, “breasts and buttocks with an intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, degrade, or arouse or gratify the sexual want of any individual,” the costs state. Chavez was arrested in Arizona and is awaiting switch to Oakland to face these costs. In line with court docket paperwork, the warrant was issued with no bail.
“The federal government is at the moment investigating extra suspects for associated crimes,” prosecutors wrote in its movement to unseal the indictment. “In reference to these investigations, the federal government plans to execute a number of search warrants.”
An lawyer for Chavez couldn’t instantly be decided for remark.
“Holding a place of energy comes with nice accountability. Chavez decided to abuse his authority and victimize inmates he was chargeable for overseeing,” FBI Particular Agent in Cost Craig D. Honest mentioned in a press release. “Let this ship a transparent message that the FBI will examine and maintain accountable any and each particular person who commits an act like this, no matter your title or authority.”
The Dublin jail has been underneath scrutiny by members of Congress who wrote a letter earlier this month to the Justice Division’s Inspector Common Michael Horowitz urging him to analyze the jail and retaliation in opposition to employees and inmates for submitting complaints or serving to within the investigation of complaints.
Horowitz mentioned in a press release Wednesday that his workplace would “proceed to aggressively pursue allegations of abuse at FCI Dublin and throughout the BOP.”
In a prison grievance filed in opposition to the jail’s then-Warden Ray J. Garcia, 54, on Sept. 23 that accused him of sexual abuse of an inmate, a particular agent for the FBI mentioned in an affidavit that Garcia led Jail Rape Elimination Act coaching for workers in 2019 and 2020 and instructed inmates on the right way to report allegations.
The grievance accused Garcia of penetrating a sufferer’s vagina along with his finger on a number of events, asking inmates to strip bare for him when he did his rounds, and taking photographs and saving them to his private laptop computer. Investigators additionally discovered a “giant quantity of sexually graphic pictures” of each female and male genitalia and nude photographs of Garcia on his work cellphone issued by the Bureau of Prisons.
In an effort to stop an inmate from reporting abuse, Garcia allegedly informed the inmate he was a detailed good friend with the top of the “Particular Investigative Companies,” which investigates allegations of misconduct by inmates and guards within the jail.
In line with the agent’s affidavit: “Garcia informed her that he favored convicts as a result of they don’t go to the cops, that he couldn’t be fired, and that she couldn’t ‘wreck him.’”
An lawyer for Garcia declined to remark. Garcia has since retired.
The chaplain, James Theodore Highhouse, 49, pleaded responsible as a part of a plea settlement in February in federal court docket to 5 felonies for sexually abusing a feminine inmate who got here to him for non secular steering, after which mendacity to federal brokers through the ensuing investigation. He faces as much as 39 years in jail.
Attorneys for Highhouse didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
When reached by USA TODAY final fall, Highhouse mentioned inmates come to him for “totally different causes” however wouldn’t present particulars. He denied any allegations of misconduct and mentioned he didn’t “recall anybody saying something about” the allegations that Garcia or Ross Klinger, the recycling technician, sexually abused inmates. Klinger, 37, pleaded responsible to a few counts in February.
In line with the grievance in opposition to Klinger, who was accused of 1 depend of intercourse abuse of a ward, he had intercourse with two inmates and informed each he wished to father their youngsters and made plans to marry them. The grievance alleges that Klinger repeatedly had intercourse with the primary sufferer in a storage warehouse and continued to be in contact along with her after he was transferred to a unique jail, utilizing the alias “Juan Garcia” and in addition communicated along with her by means of electronic mail and video visits.
Klinger additionally allegedly had intercourse with one other inmate in a cargo container whereas one other inmate acted as a lookout. After the inmate was launched to a midway home, Klinger stayed involved along with her by textual content message and Snapchat. He visited her at a midway home, the place they’d intercourse and he proposed to her with a diamond ring.
The protection supervisor, John Russell Bellhouse, 39, has pleaded not responsible to participating in sexual acts throughout 2000 with an inmate he referred to as his “girlfriend.” He allegedly offered the inmate with earrings, let her use his workplace telephone and engaged in oral intercourse along with her twice, a kind of instances within the security workplace. One other inmate acted as a “lookout” on no less than one of many encounters, in accordance with the grievance.
His lawyer didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The Bureau of Prisons didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Tami Abdollah is a USA TODAY nationwide correspondent masking inequities within the prison justice system. Ship suggestions through direct message @latams or electronic mail tami(at)usatoday.com
