Sign at the former FCI Dublin women’s prison. Photo courtesy of Jesstess87.
10th at now closed FCI Dublin to plead guilty or be convicted to date
By William Elwood, Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of California
OAKLAND – Former Bureau of Prisons (BOP) correctional officer David Perez pleaded guilty Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, to sexually abusing two female inmates at the Federal Correction Institution (FCI) in Dublin, Calif., a low- and minimum-security federal prison for females. Perez also admitted to making false statements to federal investigators.
Perez was charged by Information on September 16, 2026. He is the tenth correctional officer to have either pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial as part of an ongoing federal investigation into sexual abuse of inmates at FCI Dublin.
According to the plea agreement, Perez was employed at BOP from September 1994 to August 2019. From approximately October 2014 until August 2019, Perez served as a Discipline Hearing Officer (DHO) at FCI Dublin. In that role, he was responsible for adjudicating disciplinary actions against inmates who allegedly engaged in misconduct while in prison and issuing punishment if he found them guilty.
Between 2014 and 2015, Perez served as the DHO for four disciplinary hearings for a female inmate. Each time, he found her guilty and assessed various sanctions, which sometimes included time in the Special Housing Unit (SHU) and loss of good time. Between August 2015 and September 2016, Perez repeatedly met with that inmate alone in a room in the Captain’s Complex. During several of those meetings, Perez kissed the inmate and touched her breasts over and under her clothing.
In July 2016, Perez served as the DHO for another female inmate. He found her guilty and sentenced her to a little over two weeks in the SHU, among other things. After her release from the SHU, Perez began calling her to meet with him alone in the Captain’s Complex. During those meetings, Perez complimented her looks, asked her to show him her breasts, and on one occasion told her that he had the power to add or subtract time from her sentence. On two occasions when he was alone with this inmate, Perez kissed her and grabbed her breasts and buttocks. On another occasion, Perez digitally penetrated the inmate’s vulva.
On October 8, 2024, Perez spoke with special agents with the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (DOJ OIG) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). During that interview, Perez falsely stated that the only time he had ever touched any female inmate was when he escorted them to and from discipline hearings.
Perez was released on bond. He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 25, 2027, before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.
Perez faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for the count of sexual abuse of a ward in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2243(b), two years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count of abusive sexual contact in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2244(a)(4), and eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the count of false statements to a government agency in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2). Any sentence will be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
Scandal Investigation Leads to Prison’s Closure
The investigation of the sexual misconduct scandal led to the facility’s closure.
According to a website about federal women’s prisons, the facility has been “closed since April 2024. It no longer houses anyone and is not a current federal designation.” It was a “low-security women’s FCI with an adjacent minimum-security satellite camp.”
“In January 2024, a 60 Minutes report and FBI activity at the prison brought a new wave of scrutiny. In a class-action lawsuit brought by women held at Dublin, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers moved in March 2024 to appoint a special master to oversee conditions at the prison. Legal advocates described it as the first time a special master had been ordered over a federal prison. Within weeks, on April 15, 2024, the Bureau of Prisons announced it was closing FCI Dublin.”
FCI Dublin Investigation
As part of the Department of Justice’s ongoing investigation into FCI Dublin, 11 FCI Dublin correctional officers have been charged with crimes related to the sexual abuse of the female prisoners at the facility. The status of these cases is below:
| Defendant | Case Number | Status |
| Warden Ray J. Garcia | 4:21-cr-00429-YGR | Convicted on all counts by jury on Dec. 8, 2022; sentenced to 70 months in prison |
| CO John Bellhouse | 4:22-cr-00066-YGR | Convicted on all counts by jury on Jun. 5, 2023; sentenced to 63 months in prison |
| CO Darrell Smith (a/k/a “Dirty Dick Smith”) | 4:23-cr-00110-YGR | Indicted on Apr. 13, 2023; charges dismissed on Dec. 22, 2025, following two hung juries |
| Chaplain James Highhouse | 4:22-cr-00016-HSG | Pleaded guilty on Feb. 24, 2022; sentenced to 84 months in prison |
| CO Ross Klinger | 4:22-cr-00031-YGR | Pleaded guilty on Feb. 10, 2022; sentenced to one year of home confinement |
| CO Enrique Chavez | 4:22-cr-00104-YGR | Pleaded guilty on Oct. 27, 2022; sentenced to 20 months in prison |
| CO Andrew Jones | 4:23-cr-00212-YGR | Pleaded guilty on Aug.17, 2023; sentenced to 96 months in prison |
| CO Nakie Nunley | 4:23-cr-00213-YGR | Pleaded guilty on Sept. 5, 2023; sentenced to 72 months in prison |
| CO Jeffrey Wilson | 4:25-cr-00180-YGR | Pleaded guilty on Aug. 7, 2025; sentenced to 52 months in prison |
| CO Lawrence Gacad | 4:25-cr-00181-YGR | Pleaded guilty on Aug. 7, 2025; sentenced to one year of home confinement |
| DHO David Perez | 4:26-cr-00464-YGR | Pleaded guilty on Oct. 28, 2026; sentencing scheduled for March 25, 2027 |
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Paulson, Sailaja Paidipaty, and Molly Priedeman are prosecuting these cases with the assistance of Amala James, Analisse Iniguez, and Aryan Sawant. The prosecutions are the result of an investigation by the DOJ OIG and the FBI.
Case No. 4:26-CR-00464-YGR
Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
Allen D. Payton contributed to this report.
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