Former California Guard Convicted On 64 Counts of Sexually Abusing Prisoners
Former California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) guard Gregory Rodriguez, 56, was convicted on January 14, 2025, of raping nearly two dozen prisoners at California Women’s Prison in Chowchilla between 2014 and 2022.
Though reports of his abuse began to surface in 2014, the CDCR didn’t begin to investigate Rodriguez until July 2022. He was allowed to retire a month later, concluding a 27-year career with the prison system. His victims began to file lawsuits in December 2022, and the CDCR settled six of those for $3.7 million in October 2023; meanwhile, Rodriguez was charged and arrested in May 2023 for raping 22 prisoners, prompting the federal Department of Justice to open an investigation in September 2024, as PLN reported. [See: PLN, Nov. 2024, p.60.]
During Rodriguez’s four-month trial, the state Superior Court for Madera County heard testimony from 13 prisoners that he victimized, describing a pattern of abuse that began with sexually explicit comments and verbal harassment. It then escalated to sexual assault after Rodriguez lured his victims to phony “appointments” that stranded them in areas of the prison not covered by surveillance cameras. After raping them, they said, he coerced their silence with threats of discipline or a combination of rewards, including cigarettes and chewing gum.
One of the guard’s first victims recounted how she was thrown into solitary confinement after reporting the abuse in 2014. Absolutely nothing happened to Rodriguez for another eight years, during which he assaulted dozens of additional prisoners. Nevertheless, CDCR spokesperson Terri Hardy crowed that his conviction showed how “the department resolutely condemns any staff member—especially a peace officer who is entrusted to enforce the law—who violates their oath and shatters public trust.”
Rodriguez was found guilty on five misdemeanor counts of sexual battery and 59 felony counts of rape, rape under color of authority, oral copulation, sexual penetration and sodomy, which he perpetrated on nine prisoners.
“This is not a one-officer problem,” said one victim, who wished to remain anonymous. “From my experience, Rodriguez is one bad apple on a tree that’s rotten to its core.”
At sentencing, he faces up to 75 years in prison.
Sources: The Guardian, KQED
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