Ex-warden who allegedly ran California prison ‘rape club’ goes on trial

First, the prison's male warden would flatter the incarcerated women under his charge who attracted him, shower them with compliments and promise them early releases or transfers to lower-security facilities, according to authorities.

Eventually, he would allegedly take them to places in his lockup that he knew weren't watched by surveillance cameras, force sex on them and take nude photos of them.

But then some of the women spoke out, exposing the horrors they endured at the federal prison that came to be known as the "rape club". Now the warden is potentially looking at serving his own sentence as his trial has begun in a case that has shocked America and shone a terrible spotlight at the abuses and crimes committed in its sprawling penal system.

Ray J Garcia - who ran the federal correctional institution in Dublin, California, near Oakland - retired after FBI agents investigating reports that he was preying on women serving time in his prison found nude photos of some of them on his government-issued phone last year. He and four other workers at the facility have been charged with abusing women at the embattled complex, accused of breaking a law that prohibits sexual contact between prison workers and inmates.

Garcia, 55, has pleaded not guilty and this week became the first to go to trial before a judge at Oakland's federal courthouse.

His attorney, James Reilly, maintains that a lack of video depicting any of Garcia's purported abuses means he cannot be convicted. And Garcia took the witness stand in his own defense, denying that he had any inappropriate contact with anyone under his power and saying he snapped the nude photos because he thought the prisoners might have had drugs, the Oakland news outlet KTVU-TV reported.

Three others have pleaded guilty, and another is scheduled to be tried next year.

The case against the retired warden stands out because he was the highest-ranking federal prison official arrested in more than 10 years, charged with abusing at least three women under his purview between December 2019 and July 2021.

It has also drawn attention because the prison he once ran briefly housed actors Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman over their roles in the 2019 national college admissions scandal. There is no indication that either celebrity met Garcia while they served their relatively short sentences.

After opening arguments and testimony began on Monday, one of Garcia's accusers recounted how he stoked romantic interest in her and initiated a sexual encounter with her in the bathroom of a visitor's area which she cleaned as part of her responsibilities at the facility.

The woman said there were similar encounters in the visitation room itself and in a warehouse where others were nearby, with Garcia confident that he knew where the prison surveillance cameras' blind spots were.

"I felt like he loved me and he cared about me and I wanted to make him happy," the woman said as her voice broke at points during her testimony, according to the Associated Press.

Garcia's initially "sweet" disposition later turned "pornographic", and he once convinced her to insert a half-eaten candy cane into herself, that woman testified, according to KTVU-TV. The woman ultimately realized that Garcia was carrying on similarly with other women at the prison before reporting him to the FBI and getting transferred to another facility, where she described being scorned as a "snitch" for speaking up.

Another woman testified on Wednesday that Garcia showed her two cellphone photos of his genitals and kissed her. Then, when she was later living at a halfway house, he took nude photos of her during video calls - something to which she didn't consent and initially didn't know about, she testified.

The woman said she learned of the photos Garcia had furtively snapped after federal authorities subpoenaed her to testify against him.

Media have not published the women's identities, citing a policy against naming victims of sexual violence.

Garcia preferred to target the women in his prison over others elsewhere because he perceived them to lack the power necessary to "ruin him", and he would order them to disrobe for him.

Once his behavior drew attention from federal authorities, Garcia lied to agents who asked him if he ever touched any of the women at his prison inappropriately or coerced them into undressing, prosecutors contended.

In an interview with the FBI two months before his September 2021 arrest, Garcia acknowledged seeing the women held at the Dublin prison undress but claimed he would stumble upon the sight during the normal course of business.

During his testimony, he denied sexually touching anyone housed at the prison, conceding only that he had some naked video chat pictures on his personal laptop, KTVU-TV added.

Garcia accepted a promotion to the Dublin prison's top administrative post from an assistant warden position in November 2020. That was during the time that he was suspected of actively abusing women housed at the facility, whose lives - from when they eat to what time they go to sleep - are controlled by prison officials.

He ultimately retired after first being suspended over the allegations against him.

Legal observers anticipated that Garcia's trial would be a scathing indictment of the federal prison system's handling of sexual abuse complaints against its officials and how those who run its facilities are chosen.

As part of his workload, Garcia trained officials and prisoners on how to report abuse and comply with a federal law aimed at eliminating rape, which has become endemic in lock-ups and - according to research from the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network - is mostly carried out by staffers. Women at the prison reported being sent to solitary confinement or transferred out if they spoke up about abuse, prosecutors alleged.

A KTVU-TV journalist covering Garcia's trial reported that at least two prosecutors' witnesses tried to avoid testifying, fearing retaliation. A clinical psychologist who worked at the Dublin prison took the witness stand and discussed being worried that one of the women at the prison who called Garcia a "bad man" would be made to deal with consequences by administrators, KTVU-TV added.

An AP investigation from February found that complaints like the ones against Garcia dated back at least five years, though it is not clear that any of them sparked meaningful action. In fact, the AP reported, one of the women at the prison recalled that a staffer taunted her with the phrase "let the games begin" before leaving her with a colleague who raped her.

If convicted, Garcia could face up to 15 years in prison. One of the other Dublin prison officials who have pleaded guilty - the chaplain James Theodore Highhouse - received a seven-year sentence, though he is appealing, saying it is excessive because it was more than double what was recommended by federal guidelines.

Garcia's trial is expected to last at least until next week.

The Associated Press contributed reporting