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California women's prison rocked by 'rape club' abuse scandals to be closed

Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times on

Published in News & Features

U.S. Rep Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) said “the FBI investigation of the facility shed light on a toxic culture enabling years of sexual misconduct by employees with five pleading guilty to associated charges and two convicted by juries of everyday Californians.”

Dulgov was the third new leader of the low-security prison since Warden Ray J. Garcia, who, along with more than half a dozen employees, was convicted of sexually assaulting multiple women serving time there.

Dulgov and staff are accused of retaliating against an inmate who testified in January in the class-action lawsuit that alleges “horrific abuse and exploitation” at the prison, with rampant sexual assault of incarcerated persons, according to a court filing.

Last month, a correctional officer who worked at FCI Dublin was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison. Nakie Nunley pleaded guilty to sexually abusing five female inmates and admitted to engaging in sex acts with two other women being held at the facility. All of his victims worked at a call center operated by Federal Prison Industries at the prison, where he supervised them.

Last year, Warden Garcia was sentenced to 70 months in prison for sexually abusing incarcerated women and lying to the FBI as part of a cover-up.

The FBI raid came after the then-warden transferred an inmate who was a witness in a lawsuit against the prison, violating a judge’s court order that witnesses not be moved without the court’s approval.

 

In the wake of the raid, Nancy T. McKinney, a top regional Bureau of Prisons supervisor, was appointed interim warden of Dublin. She is the fourth person to hold the office since Garcia was removed from the position.

FBI spokeswoman Cameron Polan told The Times that the FBI raid involved a “court-authorized law enforcement activity at that location.” In addition to paperwork, computers were removed from the prison, according to a source familiar with the ongoing investigation.

The raid was conducted as the number of women who have come forward in lawsuits against guards and staff alleging sexual abuse and retaliation has climbed beyond 63. That number, according to attorneys, is expected to surpass 100.

It is a crime for any prison employee to engage in sexual activity with an incarcerated person, and someone behind bars cannot consent.

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