The most significant thing concerning the conviction of Luis Rubiales just isn’t whether he’ll go to prison or what number of hundreds of euros he has to pay to look at the World Cup winner football player, whom he kissed without consent, in the course of the world.

The most significant thing is that it’s an end to impunity of this powerful man, who was above the law.

The condemnation of Rubiales reminds that the law is and must be the identical for everybody.

Many will remember Hermoso because he “was the one who was kissed”, and never as one of the best striker who ever had the Spanish women's national team. As a legendary player who scored more goals for her country than some other woman in history and who also played a crucial role from the sphere to alter women's football in Spain.

The superstar who won his country on the age of 33 and at the tip of her profession to her country.

She was humiliated by Rubiales in front of the commentary world when the previous head of Spain Football Federation (RFEF) kissed her after handing over to the medal of her World Cup winner on August 20, 2023. She could have to live with this life ceaselessly.

“My life has been on standby since that day,” said Hermoso in early February during her certificate in ruby's technique of Spain High Court in Madrid.

Rubiales denied her one of the best day of her life and took her freedom away.

The attempt lasted two weeks. The judge issued his judgment in lower than one.

The 47-year-old ruby ​​was acquitted of coercion as a result of sexual attacks. The public prosecutor claimed that they’d forced the Hermoso to agree with Rubial 'version of events. They denied any misconduct.

In the written reasons for the judgment, the judge Hermosos gave certificate of religion. The declaration of judgment states: “There was no reason or the motive that in their narrative of the facts with the sole purpose of harming ruby ​​things, they are untrue.”

Rubiales was occupied with a positive of greater than 10,000 euros (£ 8,289; $ 11,400), and the choice from Spain's high court forbids him to go to Hermoso inside 200 meters and to speak along with her for a yr. He was also instructed to pay one other 3,000 euros for moral damage and half of the legal costs of Hermoso.

In 2022, laws was adopted in Spain, which is known as “solo si si” erat (“only yes means yes”), and sexual consent have to be affirmed by actions that “clearly express the will of the person” And that it can’t be accepted by default or by silence.

The latest law not distinguishes between “abuse” or “sexual assault”, but distinguishes between quite a lot of crimes, as additionally it is determined that violence or intimidation just isn’t obligatory to commit sexual assault. This means a brand new choice of sentences that now go from 4 to 12 years, while it was six to 12 years ago.

Although some criticized, because the facts which have already been checked were checked and reduced, feminist organizations of SAID seek the advice of, which the victim often must consider them, and never a greater or less less punishment.

The judge's judgment on Thursday – in the general public environments, and one which was reported and broadcast worldwide. Rubiales weren’t sent to prison, but what is essential for Hermoso is that she finally feels that folks consider her.

The process leaves many things back to us, which is the victim's repeated revival in court. When the defenders examined the player's behavior, the defenders focused on the behavior of the player after Rubiales had sexually attacked them. They wanted the proper victim to refuse to rejoice a world championship since it had happened. One who couldn't laugh or couldn’t rejoice. They wanted a victim who just cried within the corner that was not her fault.

Hermoso was impressive in her testimony of the judge on the primary day of the trial. She showed herself as a robust one who met her or followed her profession, knows that she is, and he or she portrayed an imperfect victim, definitely within the eyes of the defenders. She was a victim who, despite what had happened, was in a position to enjoy her skilled success.

Hermoso didn’t team up in front of her attacker in court. She had the chance to testify within the courtroom without ruby, but she said no. She sat down from her attacker to provide her statement and answer questions from his lawyer Olga Tubau. She even kept her concentration and kept her cool several times, as ruby ​​whispered and commented on as she spoke.

“I don't have to cry in a room or throw myself on the ground if the act happened to do not like (the kiss),” Hermoso told the court. “At that moment when I celebrate the nature of world champions, alcohol and food, I am happy and smile because it is the greatest performance I can achieve in my life.”

Society often looks for the proper victim who acts as everyone desires to do. The attacker could make mistakes, they’re an individual. But the victim has to behave like a victim, otherwise they can be publicly discredited.

If this process has taught us that a girl can sexually attack and behave afterwards and still be considered a victim, we must be grateful ceaselessly.

The courage she has shown will help the victims, the results.

CLAYTON – One person suffered third-degree burns to 60% of their body after a Toyota Prius caught fire near Marsh Creek Road Sunday afternoon.

Within an hour, the burn victim was stabilized and flown from Clayton Community Park by a medical helicopter.

It's unclear what began the single-vehicle fire just before 1 p.m., which was not reported as a part of a collision or other incident near Divide Reservoir in unincorporated Contra Costa County.

Emergency responders and medical personnel haven’t confirmed the fireplace victim's age or gender because of the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District's ongoing investigation, based on Capt. Victor Daniel.

First responders quickly stabilized themselves and transported the fireplace victim by ambulance to Clayton Community Park, which is about 2.5 miles west of the fireplace scene identified in a PulsePoint report. A Reach Air Medical Services helicopter was later cleared for transport to UC Davis, home of the Firefighters Burn Institute Regional Burn Center.

However, as of Sunday evening, neither CCCFPD nor UC Davis Health officials could confirm the burn victim's location or his condition.

Emergency responders from the California Highway Patrol and Clayton Police Department were also on the scene Sunday afternoon, and Cal Fire quickly extinguished the vehicle fire that had ignited about 200 feet of grass on Marsh Creek Road.

Today is Sunday, September twenty ninth, the 273rd day of 2024. There are 93 days left within the yr.

Today in history:

On September 29, 1982, extra-strength Tylenol capsules laced with deadly cyanide claimed the primary of seven victims within the Chicago area; The case, which led to legislative and packaging improvements to forestall product tampering, stays unsolved.

Also on this date:

In 1789, Congress officially established a daily army under the U.S. Constitution.

In 1954, Willie Mays of the New York Giants ran over his shoulder to catch a ball hit by Vic Wirtz of the Cleveland Indians in Game 1 of the 1954 World Series; “The Catch” would turn into probably the most famous plays in baseball history.

In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed laws establishing the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts.

In 1990, construction of the Washington National Cathedral was accomplished, 83 years to the day after the cornerstone was laid in a ceremony attended by President Theodore Roosevelt.

In 2005, John G. Roberts Jr. was sworn in because the nation's seventeenth chief justice after receiving Senate confirmation.

In 2017, Tom Price resigned as President Donald Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services amid investigations into his use of costly charter flights for official travel at taxpayer expense.

In 2018, Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk agreed to pay a complete of $40 million to settle a government lawsuit that claimed Musk misled investors with misleading statements a couple of planned takeover of the corporate.

In 2021, a Los Angeles judge suspended Britney Spears' father from the conservatorship that had controlled her life and money for 13 years, saying the agreement reflected a “toxic environment.”

In 2022, rescue crews piloted boats and waded through flooded streets to avoid wasting 1000’s of Floridians trapped after Hurricane Ian destroyed homes and businesses and left thousands and thousands at midnight.

Today's birthdays:

• The author and director Robert Benton is 92 years old.
• NASA administrator and former Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, is 82 years old.
• Actor Ian McShane is 82.
• The jazz musician Jean-Luc Ponty is 82.
• Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa (lehk vah-WEN'-sah) is 81 years old.
• Television journalist and sports reporter Bryant Gumbel is 76.
• Olympic gold medalist Sebastian Coe is 68 years old.
• Rock musician Les Claypool is 61.
• Actor Zachary Levi is 44.
• Actress Chrissy Metz (TV: “This Is Us”) is 44.
• Actress Kelly McCreary (TV: “Grey’s Anatomy”) is 43.
• Football Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson is 39.
• NBA All-Star Kevin Durant is 36.
• Pop singer Halsey is 30.

Perhaps not since Michael Douglas's selfish role in Fatal Attraction saw an unfaithful husband try so doggedly to persuade others – including, apparently, his wife – that he deserved sympathy for being the article of a lady's supposed sexual obsession.

But that's exactly what surrogates for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. try to do for the married 70-year-old former presidential candidate, who’s already embroiled in one other sex scandal – this time over his allegedly inappropriate “sexting” relationship with star political reporter Olivia Nuzzi.

Kennedy's friends told the New York Post over the weekend that Nuzzi, 31, was “obsessed” with the Trump-supporting Kennedy member of the family, who’s married for the third time to television actress Cheryl Hines. Nuzzi tried to “set a trap for Kennedy” by repeatedly sending him pornographic photos of herself, even after her number was blocked.

“She came at him aggressively,” a source told the New York Post. “She targeted him pretty hard. Bobby kept blocking her. It was a little scary. She was obsessed with him. I think she still is.”

Another friend, journalist Jessica Reed Kraus, wrote on Substack that Kennedy met Nuzzi just once, when she visited his home within the Los Angeles area and went climbing with him for a portrait published in New York Magazine in November 2023. Puck News reported that the 2 began “sexting” and Nuzzi sent Kennedy “modest” nude photos.

However, Kraus said Kennedy blocked Nuzzi two weeks after the profile was published because she allegedly made “a flirtatious remark” to him in a text message. Over the following eight months, Kennedy blocked her with few exceptions, Kraus said.

“After unblocking him, she bombarded him with increasingly pornographic photos and videos that he found difficult to resist,” Kraus wrote. “After a brief exchange, he blocked her again.”

“It had nothing to do with romance,” Gavin de Becker, a security expert hired by Kennedy to handle the Nuzzi case, told Kraus. “He was being chased by porn.”

Nuzzi has vehemently rejected the concept she made Kennedy the victim of a “fatal attraction” scenario – wherein she is the “obsessed” other woman who relentlessly pursues the environmental lawyer turned anti-vaccine activist. because the New York Post reported. People near Nuzzi deny that she single-handedly initiated her “digital relationship,” but admit that the connection can have been turbulent at times.

“It is absolutely untrue that she was the aggressor, but both parties were aware of the high pressure and high risk of the circumstances and because of that, their communication was very erratic,” an individual aware of the situation told The Post.

“In Olivia's opinion, it is completely inaccurate to speak of a relationship or affair. At most it was a flirtation,” said one other source near Nuzzi.

Meanwhile, Kennedy's cheating wife spent the weekend leading the world to consider that she was not upset by last week's revelations that her husband of 10 years had a “personal relationship” with a reporter covering the 2024 presidential election.

Hines celebrated her 59th birthday during Milan Fashion Week. Photos on social media show her and her daughter Catherine Young within the audience on the Gucci show. People magazine reported. Notably, Kennedy's daughter Kyra Kennedy walked the runway on the show.

But The Daily Mail also reported that the “Drop It, Larry!” actress was photographed in Milan without wearing her wedding ring. Other reports quoted her friends as saying that they had warned her against becoming Kennedy's third wife, given his repute as a womanizer and his controversial views. The Daily Beast said.

Kennedy also reportedly kept a sex diary in 2001 wherein he recorded his affairs with dozens of other women during his marriage to his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy. because the New York Post originally reported in 2013.

Kennedy's latest scandal – after a string of scandals in his life that include the sex diary, his anti-vaccination stance, his infection with brain worms and his recent boast about disposing of the body of a bear cub in Central Park – erupted last Thursday when his alleged “personal relationship” with Nuzzi made headlines after New York Magazine sent a note to readers saying she had been placed on leave due to it.

The magazine's note said Nuzzi was placed on leave after she “entered into a personal relationship with a former individual relevant to the 2024 campaign,” with a source confirming to CNN that Nuzzi's “personal relationship” involved Kennedy.

The memo also said the connection was “a violation of the magazine's standards regarding conflicts of interest and disclosures” and that if the magazine had known about it, Nuzzi “would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign.”

Nuzzi issued her own statement to the media, confirming that “the nature of the communication” between her and “a former reporting subject had become personal.” She added, nonetheless, that in that point she “neither reported directly on the subject nor used it as a source.”

“The relationship was never physical, but it should have been disclosed to avoid the appearance of a conflict,” she said. “I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I have disappointed, especially my colleagues in New York.”

But now Nuzzi will not be only a reporter under fire for violating skilled ethics, but, in response to Kraus, she can be facing a civil suit from Kennedy. Meanwhile, Kraus and other sources at Kennedy try to essentially equate her with Glenn Close's crazy, ugly Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction.

But Daily Beast author Lily Mae Lazarus had an issue with this portrait of an obsessed Nuzzi and a beleaguered Kennedy. She said the statements about his apparent inability to withstand the seduction of Nuzzi's “pornographic” photos reflected the self-critical rhetoric he employed in his alleged sex diary.

In the thick red diary, which the New York Post has obtained, the son of Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of John F. Kennedy recorded his sexual encounters throughout the seventh 12 months of his marriage to Mary Richardson Kennedy, the mother of 4 of his six children. Kennedy recently denied to the New York Post that he had kept such a diary.

However, the Post claimed that the diary was found sometime before Mary Richardson Kennedy's death. Vanity Fair also reported in July that Kennedy was known to send nude photos of girls to his friends throughout the marriage, and that his friends consider Kennedy took the photos himself.

In his diary, Kennedy assigned each woman he slept with a number between 1 and 10 that referred to sexual intercourse. The number “10” meant that he and the girl had sexual activity.

But in his diary, Kennedy also portrayed himself as a victim of seductresses, the Daily Beast's Lazarus said. He used the term “ambushed” when he felt seduced and was, from his perspective, an innocent, unwilling participant.

“I narrowly escaped being attacked by two women,” he wrote in a single entry, the New York Post reported. “It was tempting, but I prayed and God gave me the strength to say no.”

Kennedy would rejoice a “victory” if he didn’t succumb to women’s temptations or survived a day without sexual temptation, a source near Richardson told the New York Post in 2013.

Kennedy's diary ended up within the hands of the New York Post after Richardson committed suicide in 2012. She and Kennedy had separated in 2010, and he or she was distraught over her husband's repeated infidelities and impending divorce before her death, the New York Post reported.

Originally published: September 23, 2024 at 16:14

A Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) worker was arrested near his San Jose home Sunday afternoon for the suspected killing of a VTA bus driver he knew, a Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office spokesman said Sunday evening.

The suspect was identified as Duc Minh Bui, 33, sheriff's spokesman Brooks Jarosz said. Neither the victim's name nor the character of the connection between Bui and the victim were released, although Jarosz said the 2 knew one another.

The shooting occurred around 9:40 p.m. Friday within the parking zone of the VTA's Chaboya Division Yard on South seventh Street in San Jose. A 911 call alerted the San Jose Fire Department to the shooting. Emergency crews arrived on the scene and located the victim had been shot at the least once. He was pronounced dead on the scene, Jarosz said.

A law enforcement source told the Bay Area News Group that they imagine the victim was “targeted.” VTA Executive Director and CEO Carolyn Gonot said Saturday that the shooting appears to be an “isolated incident.”

The shooting occurred greater than three years after a disgruntled VTA mechanic shot and killed nine of his colleagues on the VTA Guadalupe rail depot in San Jose before shooting himself.

The May 2021 mass murder, the deadliest in Bay Area history, sparked discussions about long-term improvements to workplace safety on the agency and increased security measures for workers on the murder scene.

The families of those killed in addition to a former bus driver have filed multiple lawsuits against VTA, the sheriff's office and Allied Universal, a non-public security company hired to guard VTA facilities. He claims his post-traumatic stress disorder was exacerbated by the mass shooting.

Friday's shooting shocked and confused VTA employees, said Raj Singh, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union. Some employees had just gotten off work on the time of the shooting, Singh said, while others learned of the shooting through text messages.

VTA offers psychological support to employees who need it.

In addition, Cindy Chavez, Santa Clara County Councilwoman and chair of the Valley Transportation Authority Board of Directors, said security measures at transportation facilities have been increased following the shooting.

Anyone with information in regards to the shooting is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 408-808-4500 or contact the Sheriff's Office anonymous tip line at 408-808-4431.

Originally published: September 22, 2024 at 21:00

OAKLAND – A lady has avoided prison time and a murder conviction by pleading not guilty to aiding and abetting a fatal January 2022 shooting allegedly committed by her pimp, court records show.

Mariah Bostick, 32, pleaded no contest to aiding and abetting the death of 45-year-old Virgil Earl Robinson III on Jan. 18, 2022. In exchange for the guilty plea, prosecutors dropped the murder charge against her. She was formally sentenced in August to 2 years' probation and time she had already served while in jail awaiting a resolution to her case, court records show.

Bostick was a sex employee who met Robinson near San Antonio Park, an area where prostitutes are known to bring clients. The East Oakland park was the scene of a previous murder that involved a shootout between a pimp and a john that left a girl dead. According to court records, she and Robinson got into an argument, and Bostick called her pimp to the world.

She allegedly told her pimp, “Get lost, daddy,” and the pimp responded by shooting Robinson, authorities say. The pimp was never publicly identified or charged in reference to the shooting. Bostick was arrested and charged with murder.

Bostick was released from prison last yr and ordered to attend parenting classes. She received only grades of “good” and “exceptional,” in keeping with progress reports filed in court, and was praised for her overall “great” performance.

At Bostick's preliminary hearing on March 12, prosecutors argued that while she was not the killer, she was “the one who instigated and directed the conduct of the unknown accomplice” and that she continued to achieve this when the pimp told Robinson, “I'm going to shoot you.” Bostick's attorney on the time argued that she was a victim of human trafficking with an indignant and hostile john caught in a bind.

“In sex work, if you're sent to work and you lose money or you don't come back with money, there can be consequences… she's at risk of harm,” attorney Jeff Wozniak, who didn’t represent Bostick at her sentencing, said on the preliminary hearing.

Judge Thomas Reardon convicted Bostick of murder, citing the relatively low legal hurdles for preliminary hearings, but openly doubted that she had truly intended Robinson's death.

“I think she created and participated in a situation that was done with reckless indifference to human life and what could happen under those circumstances,” Reardon said on the hearing. “But that she intended to kill him, I just don't see that.”

DELANO – A Bay Area native who previously allegedly killed the co-founder of a notorious skinhead group in Orange County was killed in his jail cell, authorities announced Friday.

Jacob Kober, 35, was stabbed multiple times in his cell at Kern Valley State Prison on Thursday, authorities said. His cellmate, 39-year-old Matthew Perez, also suffered injuries consistent with a “prison-made weapon,” in keeping with a news release from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Authorities said only Kober and Perez were within the cell on the time of the murder.

Known as an area methamphetamine and marijuana dealer within the Livermore area in 2015, Kober was serving a life sentence for killing a longtime friend on the fourth hole of a golf course. But in 2018, he was again implicated in murder, this time for a jail stabbing that had repercussions throughout the state's prison system.

The victim was 48-year-old Devlin Stringfellow, an Orange County native and co-founder of the skinhead gang Public Enemy Number One, or PENI. Prosecutors now say his murder was ordered by an Aryan Brotherhood member named William Sylvester, who was convicted of organized crime last April and now faces a life sentence.

Prosecutors say Stringfellow's 2018 murder was a typical Aryan Brotherhood attack. It happened during a training exercise at California State Prison in Sacramento. Someone hit Stringfellow on the pinnacle with a rock to stun him, then Kober and 49-year-old Stephen Dunckhurst allegedly stabbed him, in keeping with testimony at a trial of Sylvester and two other Aryan Brotherhood members.

While awaiting trial, Sylvester reportedly boasted to other co-defendants about ordering Stringfellow's death. Another PENI co-founder, Donald “Popeye” Mazza, later agreed to testify for the federal government, partly due to his grief over Stringfellow's death, Mazza said during his testimony on the organized crime trial.

Kober was sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for killing his friend Kenneth Robert Ogden, 28, amid mounting tensions between the 2 men. Kober had previously accused his girlfriend of getting sex with Ogden, and in addition they had a dispute over money, authorities said on the time. Kober made his money selling drugs and lived just yards from the fourth hole of a close-by golf course, where Ogden's body was found, court records show.

According to authorities, Perez was serving a jail sentence for assault with a firearm and gang activity.

Originally published: September 20, 2024 at 3:25 p.m.

OAKLAND — An Oakland police officer called 911 last month to report that he had been dragged from his truck by an armed carjacker who pulled out a gun and drove off with the vehicle. But investigators don't imagine his version of events, in keeping with multiple law enforcement sources.

Officer Eduardo Arrizon reported his 2016 Chevy Silverado stolen just minutes after several witnesses saw the truck driving erratically and crashing into stationary objects. One of those witnesses identified Arrizon in a photograph as the driving force of the truck, who appeared and fled after the truck disregarded a stop sign and got here to a stop, authorities said.

Arrizon, 31, has not been arrested or charged in reference to the hit-and-run crash, however the investigation is ongoing. He has been placed on administrative leave, multiple law enforcement sources told this news organization. An attorney with the firm representing Arrizon declined to comment, and a message left on the officer's city email account went unanswered as of Friday afternoon.

The investigation began just a few minutes before 5 p.m. on Aug. 3, when several Oakland residents called police to report a tree blocking the roadway within the 1900 block of 69th Avenue. When police arrived, they found Arrizon's Chevy smoking and broken down next to a broken stop sign, authorities said.

Witnesses reported that the truck struck a parked automobile after which uprooted the tree and pulled it into one other parked vehicle. The Chevy continued down the road while the girl, who owned certainly one of the parked cars, angrily tried to follow it. With the tree blocking her path, the girl got out of her vehicle and tried to catch as much as the Chevy on foot. She then watched in horror because it struck a stop sign and got here to a stop, police said.

The driver of the Chevy was then seen exiting through the passenger door and running north on Church Street, authorities said. Arrizon's driver's license was reportedly found on the ground of the truck.

Four minutes after the crash, Arrizon called 911 to report he had been the victim of a carjacking, authorities said. He was reportedly driving the Chevy within the 2100 block of 69th Avenue when he encountered several men loitering next to a double-parked automobile blocking the road. When he honked to get them to maneuver, a person with a gun approached him, pointed the gun at him and told him to “run.” He abandoned the truck out of fear for his life, he reportedly told police.

Investigators couldn’t confirm Arrizon's version of events. They say residents' security cameras showed the Chevy traveling at a standard speed down the block and up 69th Avenue, where it will definitely ran a stop sign. Another resident reported that he didn’t notice a bunch of men loitering or a carjacking and was especially alert that day because his grandson had been playing within the front yard all afternoon.

Three witnesses received photo lineups showing Arrizon, police said. One of them reportedly identified him as the driving force of the Chevy, while two others couldn’t discover him.

Several witnesses provided an outline of the driving force that broadly matched Arrizon, including mentioning that he had “sleeve” tattoos on one arm. But Arrizon also provided an identical description of the automobile thief, authorities said.

Police didn’t reply to Arrizon's 911 call until 4 hours after he reported the automobile theft. When they did, they were unable to achieve him. He called again the subsequent day, in keeping with authorities, and said he fell asleep within the early evening of Aug. 3. In the following interview, he provided more details, claiming that after the automobile theft, he ran a brief distance to his house, jumped the backyard fence and made the 911 call, authorities said.

On Sept. 3, Arrizon voluntarily showed up at police for an additional interview. When he arrived, investigators showed him a signed court order authorizing them to take a DNA sample after which took a swab from his mouth, records show. They hope to match the DNA to existing samples found contained in the Chevy to verify or disprove the existence of a automobile thief.

Arrizon was accused of driving over 100 miles per hour while intoxicated in 2018. Alameda County prosecutors charged him with a felony, claiming his blood alcohol level was nearly twice the legal limit on the time. The consequence of the case is unclear; local media never responded to it, and the case now not appears within the court's database.

Arrizon was a part of a notorious graduating class of the Police Academy in 2016, the 171st Academy for Basic Recruitswhose graduates have repeatedly made headlines for alleged criminal offenses.

One of them, former police officer Brian Bunton, was arrested in 2016 for obstruction of justice and prostitution in reference to the sex scandal involving woman Celeste Guap. Although he retired from the police force, his case was dismissed in court in September 2017.

The young police officer Matthew Santos was released during his probation period in 2016. allegedly threatened a person with a weapon paint his apartment door. Officer Trevor Stratton was sent on paid leave and named in a lawsuit filed by the family of an Alameda County probation officer who was allegedly attacked by one other drunken police officer in December 2015.

Another of the 171st, Samson Liu, was investigated earlier this yr after the Bureau of Cannabis Control raided a property in Antioch belonging to Liuwhere a big marijuana plantation was situated. Contra Costa prosecutors declined to prosecute Liu because there was no evidence, authorities said.

OAKLAND – For months, sometimes years, female inmates at Dublin Federal Prison remained silent while they were sexually abused by their guards.

Who could they tell when the warden himself, who was accountable for investigating abuse cases within the prison, sexually abused three of them? Who would consider that the prison chaplain they’d sought out for spiritual guidance was quoting Biblical parables to coerce and manipulate them into sex? How could they reveal it when their tormentors had the ability to make life in a jail cell much more unbearable?

“All of us who were victims were completely helpless once we were inside,” said Darlene Baker, whose attacker has still not been charged.

On Saturday, greater than two dozen former inmates who were victimized in the course of the all-women's prison's “rape club” culture gathered at an Oakland church to inform their harrowing stories of abuse and explain how they finally mustered the courage to come back forward. Their brave actions over the past two years — and the efforts of lawyers, relatives and members of Congress who took up their cause — led to criminal convictions of the warden, chaplain and 6 other prison guards, a class-action lawsuit and, ultimately, the prison's abrupt closure in April. Twenty-nine other prison employees are on paid administrative leave while the investigation continues. A special prosecutor found that so many prison guards were furloughed that the power could only operate with half its staff on the time of its closure. A federal judge called the prison a “dysfunctional mess.”

Saturday's gathering, sponsored by the Dublin Prison Solidarity Coalition, whose members filed the class-action lawsuit, featured former inmates who traveled from as distant as Seattle and Arizona to attend the emotional reunion, starting early within the day with a non-public healing circle.

“Coming together in a group of other women who have been through the same thing I have brings us closer together,” said former inmate Windy Panzo. “It allows us to share this pain and empower each other.”

By Saturday evening, no less than 4 of them were able to tell their stories publicly – and provides their names.

“My name is Windy and I was raped by the chaplain,” she told the greater than 100 people crowded right into a conference room on the First Unitarian Church in downtown Oakland, including relatives of the victims and other advocates.

She was serving a 25-year prison sentence for drug offenses and was “emotionally devastated. I was mentally devastated. I was physically devastated.”

She turned to Chaplain James Highhouse in the hunt for hope and was as a substitute “raped multiple times.”

She found her breath caught as she described her name being called over the prison's PA system to fulfill the chaplain. “He did everything he could to get me to go to the chapel,” she said. “And I had to go. You couldn't say no. You couldn't walk away.”

When she asked for a transfer and told her prison counselor in regards to the abuse, he turned her down: “I'm retiring,” Panzo recalls the counselor saying. “I don't want to hear that.”

“Who do you tell when the director, the chaplain, the guards, the kitchen staff, all are dirty,” said Panzo, “and if they are not directly dirty, do they hide it from everyone else?”

As other victims got here forward with stories of rampant abuse by the hands of prison guards, Panzo finally spoke out about her own. She testified against Highhouse, who’s now serving a seven-year sentence for sexual abuse. During the sentencing, the judge noted Highhouse's “persistent predatory behavior toward traumatized and defenseless women in prison.” Panzo also found the strength to testify before a congressional committee on a video call.

Former prison warden Ray J. Garcia was sentenced to just about 6 years in prison in 2023 for sexually abusing three inmates. Garcia, who was promoted from deputy prison warden to the highest management position within the midst of the abuse case, had boasted to his victims that he could “never be fired.” The chaplain and the prison warden were two of eight correctional officers charged. Seven were convicted.

No charges have been filed against the doctor who, based on Darlene Baker, locked the door to the doctor's office and sexually assaulted her, she said.

“He pushed me into the back of the hospital room and sexually assaulted me. And I said, 'No.' I said, 'Stop,'” Baker told the group. “And then I realized very quickly that I was completely helpless, completely helpless.”

She told a jail psychologist, who said, “We don't have any mental health services.” If she was suicidal, he told her, she could go into solitary confinement. “And that was the end of my conversation with him.”

When her abuser came upon she had complained, he retaliated by withholding her prescription medication for 2 months.

Baker's family contacted then-U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier of San Mateo, who helped bring the scandal to light.

The California Coalition for Women Prisoners, a part of the Dublin Prison Solidarity Coalition, filed a class-action lawsuit in August 2023 demanding fundamental reforms on the prison and systemic changes on the federal bureau of prisons. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers appointed a special counsel, Wendy Stills, to oversee reforms there. Stills and her team had been on site for little greater than every week last April when bureau of prison officials announced the approaching closure — a move inmates said was a brazen try to cover up the scandal and obstruct investigations. The special counsel immediately turned her attention to the chaotic transfer of 603 inmates to other federal prisons for ladies across the country — most on the East Coast. In her report last month, which called conditions there “unacceptable,” Stills described how she prevented numerous buses from leaving on the primary day. Some inmates were left in a parked bus for 4 hours while she ensured that transfers were properly tracked and that anyone near release was held back. Several inmates, including victims of sexual abuse, were released on humanitarian grounds.

After the closure, the Bureau of Prisons filed a motion to dismiss the category motion lawsuit, arguing that the prison was closed and the problems raised within the lawsuit were moot. Last week, Judge Gonzales Rogers dismissed the lawsuit. A trial is scheduled for next yr.

The women who gathered Saturday are still waiting for justice for the opposite correctional officers who remain on paid leave and plan to proceed to advocate for prison reform.

“It's very healing to be able to share our stories with each other. But it also gives us strength, doesn't it? It gives us a voice,” said Kendra Drysdale, whose abuser has not been charged. “Our goal is to give a voice to those who are still there, still in prison, so we can stop any abuse and try to make a change.”

Originally published: September 8, 2024 at 12:42