FCI Dublin Officer Pleads Not Guilty After Facing New Sex Abuse Charges

A former correctional officer at the now-shuttered East Bay women’s prison FCI Dublin pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 15 counts of sexual abuse of incarcerated women, including three new charges.

Darrell Wayne Smith appeared in federal court via Zoom with his attorney, Naomi Chung, for arraignment on a superseding indictment detailing his alleged encounters with five women in their cells, a laundry area and a janitor’s closet.

Smith was initially charged last year with 12 counts of sexual abuse involving three women in his custody between 2019 and 2021. In July, a federal grand jury issued a superseding indictment that included two new allegations of sexual assault against two additional women dating back to as early as 2016. It also alleged a federal civil rights violation stemming from Smith’s aggravated sexual abuse of one of the women.

The superseding indictment describes 14 incidents during which Smith allegedly engaged in illegal sexual contact with inmates, including digitally penetrating a victim’s anus without her consent, resulting in bodily injury.

Smith allegedly “engaged in appalling criminal acts when he sexually abused those in his care and custody,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. “This superseding indictment is the latest product of the Department’s ongoing work to seek justice for victims of sexual assault at FCI Dublin. We remain steadfast in our commitment to root out sexual assault within the [Bureau of Prisons] and hold to account those who so egregiously violate their duty.”

Smith is set to go to trial in March. If convicted, he faces a potential life sentence.

Smith was arrested in Florida in May 2023. He is one of eight former FCI Dublin correctional officers to be charged with sexual abuse. Seven other officers have already been sentenced.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons announced it was closing FCI Dublin in April following years of sexual misconduct allegations and scandals. Within weeks, thousands of inmates were transferred to other facilities throughout the country.

A class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of women incarcerated at the facility is scheduled to go to trial next year. Dozens of individual damages lawsuits have also been filed against the agency and its current and former staff.

Last month, a federal judge unsealed a report on FCI Dublin that provided a scathing picture of conditions inside the facility.

“Management’s failure to ensure staff adhered to [the Bureau of Prisons] policy put the health, safety and liberty of [adults in custody] at great risk for many years,” the report from Wendy Still, who was appointed special master in April, reads.

“It is unconscionable that any correctional agency could allow incarcerated individuals under their control and responsibility to be subject to the conditions that existed at FCI-Dublin for such an extended period of time without correction.”