A former correctional officer at the women’s prison in Chowchilla was sentenced to 224 years on Thursday for sexually assaulting nine inmates over an 11-year period.
Wearing shackles and a Madera County Jail inmate jumpsuit, 47-year-old Gregory Rodriguez stared blankly into the courtroom as Superior Court Judge Katherine Rigby read each of the 62 counts and the accompanying prison sentence.
Thursday’s hearing was a continuation of his sentencing hearing in July where several of Rodriguez’s victim’s spoke about the rampant sexual assaults he was convicted of in January. The victims described being preyed upon and manipulated by Rodriguez who was a correctional officer at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla for 15 years.
The victims accused Rodriguez of rape, sodomy and sexual battery.
One additional victim spoke Thursday. She was only identified as Breanne.
“I’m sorry that all of you don’t really know who this man is, but let me say this, work and home are two different things, hearing how good a family man he was is a joke and honestly sickening, because this is not what all this is about. This is strictly based on a jury found him guilty on these charges for sexual assault.” she said. “He’s a monster.”
Prosecutor Eric DuTemple, supervising deputy district attorney, said Rodriguez would call the women into a parole board hearing room where he would sexually assault them, out of the way of any cameras.
Breanne said Rodriguez would peek through the window blinds of the office to see if anyone was coming while he raped her.
Rodriguez’s family members told a different story about him. They described Rodriguez as a family man, who doted over his daughter, hosted family get-togethers and served as a role model to the family’s younger generation.
One of his nieces, Brianna Rodriguez, spoke Thursday, saying she had a hard time reconciling the man accused of these heinous crimes and the man she knows as “Uncle Greg.”
“Throughout this trial, Greg’s character has been diminished and his reputation irreparably damaged,” she said. “The descriptions of him felt so foreign, so misaligned with the Greg that I know and love. How could these words be associated with Greg? The events seem so far out of the realm of what is possible.”
About 30 of Rodriguez’s family members and supporters attended Thursday’s sentencing hearing.
Roger Wilson, Rodriguez’s defense attorney, said his client maintains he did nothing wrong.
“I think it was telling when a couple of the inmates actually testified that they approached him because they wanted to hook him. That was a word they used so that if anything happened between the two, they could use that as leverage to get things from the outside world,” Wilson said. “He still believes that that didn’t happen. He’s consistent with his statements to me that he didn’t do any of these things. He still maintains his innocence for all the counts.”
Wilson is filing an appeal of Rodriguez’s conviction.
Madera County District Attorney Sally Moreno was grateful to the victims who came forward.
“We are confident this verdict represents justice for some of the most vulnerable members of our community,” she said. “We appreciate the courage of these victims in testifying, and the time and effort devoted by the jury and Judge Rigby in reaching this result.”
The former correctional officer’s conviction happened amid increasing scrutiny of the Chowchilla women’s prison, which last year came under a sexual abuse investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. In just the last few years, women have launched hundreds of lawsuits alleging sexual abuse, including rape, at the prison. The lawsuits have alleged that a code of silence allowed employees to abuse incarcerated women, The Sacramento Bee previously reported. The state settled one separate civil lawsuit filed by six women against Rodriguez in 2023 for $3.7 million.
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