Yet another correctional officer from a now-shuttered women’s prison in Dublin has been charged with sexually abusing inmates. On Wednesday, federal prosecutors filed five felony charges against David Perez, who was working as a disciplinary hearing officer at the notorious Federal Correctional Institution, Dublin. According to court filings, Perez allegedly abused two women, identified as R.M. and S.M., between August 2015 and December 2017. Using his authority as a prison official, Perez allegedly was able to get each woman alone with him in the prison’s “Captain’s Complex,” where he is accused of touching their breasts and buttocks and, on one occasion, “digitally penetrating” R.M.’s genitals, according to prosecutors. Perez is facing three counts of abusive sexual contact, one count of sexual abuse of a ward and one count of lying to federal investigators. If convicted of all charges, he could be sentenced to a maximum of 29 years in prison and could be on the hook for more than $1.2 million in fines. Perez has not been arrested and no lawyer is listed for him in court documents. He has not yet entered a plea or filed a response to the charges. In a related civil lawsuit filed on March 11 in federal court, R.M. says Perez allegedly routinely subjected her to sexual abuse and harassment. “In 2016, while she was housed in the SHU punishment cell following an altercation with another inmate, David Perez … began singling her out,” according to the suit. “Under the guise of addressing her disciplinary status, he summoned her alone, isolated her from others, pressed his body against hers, grabbed her by the hips, and groped her breasts and buttocks without her consent.” Perez allegedly engaged in similar behavior on at least four separate occasions, according to the suit. R.M. says she felt “frozen, terrified, and powerless to resist” because of Perez’s authority over her and she didn’t report the abuse because she feared retaliation, including the possible extension of her sentence. “The institutional culture within FCI Dublin created an environment of intimidation and coercion,” according to the lawsuit, which adds that the prison is “known for its culture of tolerating sexual misconduct.” In fact, Perez is the 11th official from the prison to be charged with sex-related offenses, including former warden Ray Garcia, who was convicted in 2022 and sentenced to nearly six years in prison. The former low-security prison closed in April 2024 in the wake of investigations into predatory sexual abuse of female inmates. ...read more read less