A former corrections officer at California's largest women's jail has been arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting at least 13 female inmates over the past nine years, the Madera County District Attorney's Office said Wednesday.
Gregory Rodriguez, who worked at the Central California Women's Center, faces 96 charges, including rape, sodomy and sexual assault, according to the statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
He is being held on $7.8 million bail. If convicted, he could be sentenced to more than 300 years in prison.
Gregory RodriguezAP
The alleged assaults date back to 2014, but most occurred within the past two years, according to prosecutors. The prison where Rodriguez worked for 12 years is in Chowchilla, a small town about 120 miles southeast of San Francisco.
The man retired last August after being questioned about the alleged assaults as part of an internal investigation, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in December.
The investigation, according to which Rodriguez may have abused at least 22 prisoners, was handed over to prosecutors earlier this year.
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"These allegations are in no way a reflection of the vast majority of prison officers who act in a professional manner and do everything possible to ensure that prisoners serve their sentence safely," the prosecution said.
"We hope that the dismissal and detention of the accused will encourage them to continue in their honorable profession defending the law," he added.
Two inmates, whose identities were not released, filed lawsuits in December accusing Rodriguez of sexual assault at the prison, which houses about 2,100 inmates.
A 2003 federal law known as the Prison Rape Elimination Act created a zero-tolerance policy for sexual assaults on inmates. But California prison officials have been accused of sexual misconduct in recent years. That includes Israel Trevino, who was fired in 2018 from the Central California Women's Center after being accused of groping and making harassing comments to inmates.
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An investigation by The Associated Press found that a senior federal Bureau of Prisons official, who previously worked at a women's jail in the San Francisco Bay Area, was repeatedly promoted after allegations that he assaulted female inmates.
Another investigation revealed a pattern of sexual abuse by prison officers at the women's center. These kinds of allegations extend beyond California. Former Kentucky and New Jersey prison officials have recently been accused of sexually abusing or assaulting female inmates.