Former Dublin federal prison guard Lawrence Gacad will not be trading places with the people he once supervised. Instead, the ex-correctional officer at the now-shuttered Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin walked out of court with five years of probation and no prison time after pleading guilty to abusive sexual contact with an inmate.
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers handed down the sentence last Wednesday, ordering that Gacad spend the first year of his probation on electronic monitoring at home. The case folds into the broader, years-long investigation into staff misconduct at the women’s prison, which has since been closed.
Judge imposes probation and ankle monitor
In court, Gacad admitted to kissing and exchanging written messages with a woman identified in filings as S.L. Judge Gonzalez Rogers sentenced him to five years of supervised probation, with the first year served on electronic home monitoring. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys told the court they agreed that a prison term was not necessary in this case.
Prosecutors said Gacad’s conduct did not involve penetration and that investigators found no evidence he threatened or intimidated the victim. According to KTVU, Gacad resigned from his position in 2022 following the allegations.
Plea agreement spelled out his conduct
Gacad pleaded guilty in August as part of a written plea agreement that, according to prosecutors, detailed kissing, groping, the exchange of handwritten notes and emails, and the use of fake email accounts to hide his identity. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oakland said investigators from the DOJ Office of the Inspector General and the FBI led the probe, and that Gacad continued having contact with the victim after he left the Bureau of Prisons.
Both sides urged the judge to impose probation in their sentencing filings, arguing that Gacad’s conduct differed from many of the other Dublin cases that have come before the court. As outlined by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of California, the plea and the underlying investigation were publicly announced in August 2025.
How this fit into the Dublin scandal
Gacad’s case is one slice of a far larger scandal that has engulfed FCI Dublin. In total, 10 staff members have been charged with sex-related offenses tied to the prison. KTVU reports that nine of those ten have been convicted so far.
After years of reports of staff-on-inmate abuse, inmate transfers, and civil litigation, the Bureau of Prisons announced in April 2024 that FCI Dublin would close, according to the Associated Press. Lawyers for survivors and prisoner-rights advocates say the prosecutions and the shutdown highlight chronic failures of oversight and the ongoing challenge of keeping incarcerated women safe.
Legal notes
Gacad pleaded guilty to abusive sexual contact under federal law, a charge that covers unwanted sexual touching of a person in official detention. The offense is set out in 18 U.S.C. § 2244, which defines the elements of abusive sexual contact in a custodial setting and spells out potential maximum penalties that vary with the circumstances, per Legal Information Institute.
In this case, prosecutors told the court that the applicable statutory maximum fell at the lower end of that range. Judges, however, must still weigh the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines along with the factors listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553 when deciding on a sentence.
With Gacad now on supervised release and electronic monitoring, the Northern District of California continues to work through the remaining Dublin-related prosecutions, which include a mix of home confinement sentences, multi-year prison terms, and cases still headed to trial. The status of those defendants, along with upcoming court dates, is detailed in public court dockets and DOJ filings, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
