2 FCI Dublin Officers Plead Guilty to Federal Sex Abuse Charges

Two former correctional officers at a now-shuttered East Bay women’s prison pleaded guilty to federal sexual misconduct charges on Thursday.

They are the eighth and ninth employees to be convicted of related crimes at the scandal-plagued Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin, dubbed the “Rape Club” for the prevalence of abuse, cover-up and retaliation by employees.

Former FCI Dublin employees Jeffrey Wilson and Lawrence Gacad told the court that in 2022, they committed acts of abuse alleged by federal prosecutors earlier this year.

They are among ten former officials — including the former warden — who have been charged with related crimes. Nine have been convicted.

Wilson, 34, who said he worked as a health technician and paramedic, pleaded guilty to five counts of sexual abuse and one count of supplying a false statement to federal agents. Shortly after leaving Dublin in August of 2022, he said he told federal officials that he had no sexual conduct with the victim in the complaint and had never given her contraband.

Wilson admitted to flirting with a woman incarcerated at FCI Dublin and watching her family visits. With his encouragement, he said, she transferred from one wing of the prison to the other, the lower security “camp,” where he said there would be less oversight and “they could have a little fun.”

He told the court that in March 2022, when she transferred, he provided her with a cell phone, which he used to communicate with her, and which she used to send him naked photos of herself. Over the next six months, he would bring her into a medical room in the prison, where he touched and kissed her, and where, on multiple occasions, she performed oral sex on him, Wilson said.

On another occasion, he said, he penetrated her with his fingers.

Earlier Thursday, Wilson pleaded not guilty to the charges and waived his right to a grand jury indictment.

Gacad, 33, a correctional officer, also previously pleaded not guilty to one count of sexual abuse against a woman at the prison during 2022. He changed his plea to guilty on Thursday afternoon as well.

He told the court that beginning in February 2022, he exchanged sexually explicit notes and emails with a woman incarcerated at FCI Dublin and, on multiple occasions, kissed her and touched her buttocks.

Judge Yvonne Rogers, who has presided over nine of the ten criminal FCI Dublin cases, will sentence Wilson and Gacad in November.

Since the culture of abuse at Dublin came to light in 2021, more than 100 women have come forward, including multiple who claim Wilson assaulted them, though their allegations were not included in the complaint filed against him.

A class action suit settled with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons awarded those women a total of $116 million, and a second such suit set special protections for the roughly 300 women formerly incarcerated at Dublin who remained in custody at other facilities after it closed.

With Wilson and Gacad’s convictions, the fate of just one former FCI Dublin official accused of abuse remains outstanding.

Former correctional officer Darrell Wayne Smith, who was indicted on charges alleging he assaulted at least five women between 2017 and 2021, will begin a new trial in September after his first ended in a mistrial this spring.

Members of the jury in that case appeared swayed by his attorneys’ argument that he was falsely accused amid the scandal in an effort for the women to receive early release and other incentives, like legal status in the U.S.

Smith’s new trial, which will be based on a new superseding indictment that excludes the allegation of one of the five women he was originally tried for abusing, is currently set to begin September 17.