Former prison chef sentenced to 20 months in sex abuse case

OAKLAND >> In a rebuke of both the prosecution and the defense, who asked for lesser prison terms, a federal judge sentenced a former cook at FCI Dublin to 20 months behind bars for sexually abusing women at the prison rife with rape and sexual assaults by staff.

Enrique Chavez pleaded guilty last year to sexual abuse of a ward at FCI Dublin and faced a maximum of two years. Prosecutors asked for 16 months, and the defense wanted a sixmonth term, court records show.

U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers — the same judge who oversaw the trial and conviction of a former FCI Dublin warden for similar charges — said the proposals were too lenient and seemed reluctant to even impose the 20-month term, the news station KTVU reported.

“It is not clear to me that even 24 months is enough,” Gonzalez Rogers said. “What is happening in Dublin is an extraordinary breach of trust.”

Chavez offered a tearful apology before he was sentenced, KTVU reported.

Chavez is one of five corrections officers charged with sexually abusing incarcerated women at FCI Dublin, which had an informal nickname among staff and inmates as the “rape club,” according to court records. Three have pleaded guilty, and one of those received seven years in federal prison.

Prosecutors said Chavez used his supervisory role in the prison's kitchen to sexually abuse “several women,” including one who was also abused by former Warden Ray J. Garcia. In one instance, he told a woman to be naked when he entered her tier, explaining “You did it for (Garcia), so you can do it for me,” according to the prosecution sentencing memo.

At his trial last year, Garcia was convicted of multiple felonies for sexually abusing three women. He is awaiting sentencing and faces more than a decade in federal prison.

In his sentencing memo, Steven Kalar — the former chief federal public defender in Northern California who is representing Chavez as a private attorney — revealed that there's at least one other staff member who admitted to sexual abuse but was not charged because he offered to cooperate with the FBI and name others. He said Chavez's crimes weren't as serious as the unnamed government informant.

“Mr. Chavez does not attempt to minimize his crime or shirk his responsibility for his conduct. It is objectively true, however, that Mr. Chavez's conduct was far less pervasive and egregious than others charged in the FCI Dublin debacle — officials and officers who have flatly denied responsibility,” Kalar wrote.