1st day of sex crime trial for former FCI Dublin guard 'Dirty Dick' Smith

OAKLAND, Calif. - The first day of trial began Monday in a federal courthouse in Oakland for a former correctional officer nicknamed Darrel "Dirty Dick" Smith – the last of the FCI Dublin guards to answer formally to criminal charges that he sexually abused multiple women while they were incarcerated. 

Shayla's testimony

A woman named Shayla, who was at FCI Dublin from 2017 to 2022 and is now out of custody, testified that Smith asked her to get naked on her bed so he could look at her, requested to see her feet and told her that he liked small breasts. He also asked her personal questions about her Native American heritage, she said. 

Shayla testified that one time, Smith came close to her and whispered that he wanted to "lick me from my belly button to my butt-hole."

Speaking in a quiet voice because she said she was scared to testify, Shayla said she was "disgusted" at what Smith said. 

Sex crime charges

Smith is charged with the most counts of the seven other former guards to be convicted of sex crimes at the now-shuttered prison, which closed in April 2024 after the Bureau of Prisons said it couldn't fix the problems or the culture there. 

He faces a 15-count indictment, accusing him of abusing five women. The exact charges are abusive sexual contact, sexual abuse of a ward, aggravated sexual abuse and deprivation of rights under color of law. 

Of the eight correctional officers charged with similar sex crimes at FCI Dublin – the most of any other prison in the country – five have pleaded guilty and two were found guilty by a jury, including former Warden Ray Garcia, who is serving a nearly six-year prison sentence. Smith is the last to be charged and go to trial. 

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Paulson and Sailaja Paidipaty anticipate the trial will last 12 days, and they have produced a witness list that includes 15 women who will testify. The jury comprises 10 men and two women. 

Three of those women are in BOP custody, and since FCI Dublin is now closed, they are being held in county jails in San Francisco, Contra Costa County, and Marin, according to the Dublin Solidarity Group. 

Specific anecdotes 

Some of those women are expected to testify that Smith asked them to flash him their private parts, pinned them against the wall, fingered their buttocks and vaginas, watched them shower, bribed them with cellphones in exchange for sex, served as lookouts for him when he had sex with others, and entered their cells while they were naked and showering.

When she testified, Shayla said that Smith's nickname was openly "Dirty Dick," which some called to his face, and he sometimes came dressed to work as a cowboy. 

She said he often came into her cell to touch or to "do something," like to show him a part of her body or kiss her. Shayla recounted a time when he put a TV remote control near his groin and when she asked if she could have it, Smith responded, "I'll give it to you all right." 

The thought that ran through Shayla's mind when he entered was always, "What does he want now?" 

Shayla said she didn't report what happened to her because she feared being retaliated against by being placed in the Special Housing Unit, or the SHU. 

KTVU has interviewed at least four other women who said Smith targeted and terrorized them, sometimes while he sat in the dark, eating bananas and watching them undress. These women were not formally named in the indictment.

BOP procedures 

Before Shayla, the first witness to testify was Joshua Brown, special agent of Internal Affairs for the BOP.

His testimony was dry, explaining mostly bureaucratic procedures and duties of correctional officers, such as not being allowed to touch incarcerated women under their clothing. 

Who was in attendance

The courtroom of U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers was full during the first day of trial. 

There were attorneys, FBI agents, witness advocates and about a half dozen members of the group, Dublin Prison Solidarity Coalition.

Smith's wife accompanied him, but both declined to comment. 

And one woman, Rachel Powell, who used to be incarcerated at FCI Dublin until 2022 on gun and drug charges, came from Texas to declare the trial a "tragedy for all parties."

She acknowledged that there were "horrible" things that went on at the prison, but she also said that these charges and lawsuits against the prison guards signify a "massive prostitution payout" in some cases.

She said she also has empathy for Smith and many other officers who retire from the military, have non-treated PTSD symptoms and poor training on how to supervise incarcerated women.

"I'm not coming out against the women," Powell said. "But I think there's more context here." 

Smith's demeanor 

Throughout the testimony, Smith sat at a table with his attorneys, Naomi Chung and Joanna Privratsky Sheridan, who revealed their defense for the first time in opening statements: There is no video or physical evidence of the crimes and that the women testifying aren't to be believed because they are convicted felons.

These are essentially the same arguments Garcia's defense used at his trial, and they didn't work for the former warden.  In December 2022, a jury found him guilty on eight counts of sexual abuse. 

He occasionally looked back at a TV screen behind him that showed pictures of prison showers, a phone booth and surveillance cameras. 

Smith was originally charged in May 2023, and then prosecutors added more charges in July 2024.

His last day of work was 2021, when he was placed on leave, and he had worked at FCI Dublin since 2015. He had worked at FCC Coleman in Florida from 2003 to 2010. 

Smith has been living in Florida out of custody ever since and was given permission to drive to Northern California for his trial. 

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