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FBI EXECUTES SEARCH WARRANT AT FCI DUBLIN
And you thought your Monday mornings were lousy.
Art Dulgov, the warden selected by the Federal Bureau of Prisons Central Office to clean up the sexual abuse cesspool that is FCI Dublin, started his week with over a dozen FBI agents armed with a search warrant swarming over his prison, seizing computers, documents and other evidence and seeking to interview employees, according to an Associated Press report.
The FBI said its agents were conducting “court-authorized law enforcement activity.” But it looked a lot like one agency of the Dept of Justice was raiding another agency of the Dept of Justice. As Rodney Dangerfield might have put it, ‘a tiger eating its young.’
Before the day ended, Warden Dulgov, Associate Warden Patrick Deveney, a captain and the executive assistant who oversaw the prison’s minimum-security satellite camp, were all unceremoniously walked off the compound by their employer.
Dulgov, only three months into his warden gig at Dublin, was the third leader of the low-security female prison since Warden Ray J. Garcia and a half dozen of his underlings were convicted of sexually assaulting multiple prisoners at the institution, which was known by BOP employees and prisoners there as the “rape club.”
Garcia was sentenced to 70 months. BOP records suggest that he is being housed in a non-BOP prison, with a release date set for 2028.
Dulgov and staff are not accused of sexual abuse, but rather of retaliating against an inmate who testified in January in a class-action lawsuit that alleges “horrific abuse and exploitation” at the prison, with rampant sexual assault of incarcerated persons, according to a court filing. However, it is not clear that this was the basis for the FBI search. That search warrant and the affidavit supporting it have not been made public.
After inmate Rhonda Fleming, herself a storied and frequent pro se litigator, accused a BOP lieutenant of retaliation in January testimony before US District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the prisoner was transferred to MDC Los Angeles despite the Court’s order that none of the inmate witnesses be removed from Dublin.
Judge Gonzalez Rogers later admonished an Assistant US Attorney representing the BOP for the transfer in defiance of her order, but accepting the excuse that the BOP misunderstood her directive. The Judge said she would have levied sanctions against the attorney earlier in her career as a federal judge, but settled on the warning instead: “I’ve been around long enough to know that lawyers make mistakes,” Gonzalez Rogers told the AUSA, who apologized for the transfer. “The point is: You need to follow my orders.”
I feel for the AUSA, who didn’t ask for the BOP as a client and probably was as shocked to learn Fleming had been transferred as was the Judge. After the Court learned of the transfer, the BOP got Fleming back to Dublin in record time.
After a January hearing at which Dublin inmates were among the witnesses, Judge Gonzalez Rogers made an unannounced inspection of FCI Dublin on Valentine’s Day. During this inspection, she spoke to about 100 inmates outside of the presence of BOP minders. Later, in an order, she said that the “first-hand communication will prove critical to resolving the pending motions (which will be done after full briefing).”
(The visit also resulted in a virtually unprecedented court order requiring that some physical conditions of the facility – including lack of hot water and the presence of mold and asbestos – be resolved “IMMEDIATELY,” with the Court itself employing the word “immediately” in all capital letters. The Court undoubtedly means it and is not to be trifled with).
The FBI search and management massacre are the latest developments in what the Los Angeles Times calls a “years-long scandal “ surrounding the facility:
Legal experts say what has happened at the federal prison is indicative of the worst aspects of institutions with abusers in their midst.
“There is no accountability with some public entities, and the sexual abuse keeps festering and festering until it blows up,” said attorney David Ring, who has handled high-profile sexual assault litigation involving schools, facilities and Hollywood studios.
“They tend to shuffle the offenders,” he said. “Officials in prisons can be the worst because they are so jaded that all the complaints fall on deaf ears about the guards.”
The Times reported that “a dozen new lawsuits” were filed against the BOP in Oakland federal court last week “alleging more mistreatment and sexual misconduct by staff.”
A BOP statement issued Monday characterized the removal of top Dublin staff as being “consistent with unprecedented and ongoing actions” to reform Dublin’s culture, and said that recent unspecified developments “have necessitated new executive employees be installed at the institution.” BOP Regional Director Nancy T. McKinney was installed on Monday as interim warden.
Kara Janssen, an attorney representing some Dublin inmates, said that the leadership changes at Dublin prison haven’t changed much. “This is not a proactive change in leadership,” said Janssen. “The only changes in leadership seem to come through criminal investigations.”
Associated Press, Warden ousted as FBI again searches California federal women’s prison plagued by sexual abuse (March 11, 2024)
Los Angeles Times, Warden is ousted as FBI raids California women’s prison known as the ‘rape club’ (March 12, 2014)
San Jose Mercury News, Warden ousted amid FBI raid at scandal-plagued FCI Dublin women’s prison (March 12, 2024)
KGO-TV, FBI raids Dublin prison plagued by sex abuse; pattern of immigrant women being targeted, lawyer says (March 12, 2024)
SFist, FBI Raids Dublin Women’s Prison, Warden and Three Others Ousted (March 11, 2024)
Forbes, Troubled Women’s Federal Prison Raided By FBI (March 12, 2024)
– Thomas L. Root