Defense Casts Victims as ‘Manipulative’ in East Bay Prison Sex Abuse Trial, With More Ahead

The final criminal trial for a former FCI Dublin prison official charged with sexual abuse will take more than a weeklong break, as the defense tries to paint a positive picture of former correctional officer Darrell Wayne Smith.

On Wednesday, six witnesses testifying in defense of Smith — who faces 15 charges relating to alleged sexual misconduct — described him as “professional” and said that after the prison’s former warden was charged with abuse, they worried that false allegations could be made against officers.

The defense’s final witness, Ed Canales, was an inspector at the prison tasked with investigating those abuse allegations. He won’t testify until next Thursday for medical reasons, prompting a pause in the weekslong trial.

Smith is accused of sexually abusing five women who were incarcerated at FCI Dublin between 2016 and 2021, while he worked as a counselor, and later, a correctional officer. He is one of eight former officials who were charged with abuse amid a sprawling federal investigation into the prison, which revealed a culture of sexual misconduct, retaliation and cover-ups. The other seven have been convicted.

The five women who are named in his suit — and a handful of others who were incarcerated around the same time — testified during the first six days of the trial that Smith made sexual comments toward them, forced them to lift up their tops in front of him and penetrated them with his fingers. One woman said he forced her to have sex with him.

But the defense has tried to cast doubt on the veracity of the women’s allegations.

Former colleagues and three other formerly incarcerated women who knew him primarily as a counselor, called to court by Smith’s attorneys, described his demeanor as fairly typical — a stark contrast to the casual, underdressed and flirty behavior described by victims.

Defense attorney Joanna Sheridan also asked Rachel Reyes, who has worked at FCI Dublin for 17 years as a secretary in the housing units and occasionally covered officers’ shifts, about two of the victims’ “trustworthiness.”

Reyes testified that one of the women seemed “very dishonest and manipulative.”

Then, she described the other, whose disciplinary committee Reyes sat on after an unrelated incident, as disrespectful and said the witness didn’t seem to want to tell the truth.

Reyes also testified that after the prison’s former warden, Ray Garcia, was initially charged with sexually abusing incarcerated women in 2021, she was worried she could be falsely accused of similar crimes.

After “the case with Warden Garcia and other statements, [incarcerated women] were starting to be released and get money,” she said. “That’s when I felt we [the employees] lost control.”

Reyes told the jury that it felt like “anyone could say anything.”

The defense also repeatedly questioned two other Dublin officials about whether there was an increase in mail from lawyers soliciting abuse allegations after Garcia’s arrest.

Armando Sandoval, who worked in the mailroom at Dublin, first said that after Garcia was charged, the flow of legal mail “remained constant.” After further questioning, he said that the prison “would receive hundreds of solicitation mail from different law groups trying to solicit cases” around that time.

After Canales takes the stand next week, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers will decide whether the prosecution has grounds for a rebuttal.

Smith is not expected to testify.