OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) 鈥 A former federal correctional officer was sentenced Friday to more than five years in prison for sexually abusing two inmates at a women鈥檚 prison in California where the warden and other employees were charged with similar conduct.
A federal jury in June on two counts of sexual abuse and three counts of abusive sexual contact involving the two women between 2019 and 2020 at FCI Dublin, about 20 miles (30 kilometers) east of Oakland.
He was sentenced to five years and three months behind bars on Friday.
U.S. Attorney Ismail J. Ramsey for the Northern District of California, whose office prosecuted the case, said the sentence "makes clear that the sexual abuse of inmates by guards will not be tolerated.鈥
鈥淭his conduct was a disturbing deviation from the expectations and requirements of all federal correctional officers,鈥 Ramsey said in a statement Friday. 鈥淏ellhouse violated his oath and abused the power given to him, all to victimize the people he was supposed to protect."
Bellhouse鈥檚 was the eighth case against the facility鈥檚 correctional officers for sexual abuse crimes, The prison鈥檚 former warden, Ray Garcia, in December of molesting inmates and forcing them to pose naked in their cells. He was in prison.
revealed a culture of abuse and cover-up that had persisted for years at the facility, prompting the Bureau of Prisons to launch new training for wardens and create specialized teams aimed at curtailing sexual abuse at the nation鈥檚 federal prisons.
An attorney for Bellhouse, Shaffy Moeel, didn鈥檛 immediately return a request for comment. reported that Bellhouse did not make a statement during Friday鈥檚 court proceedings.
In court documents, prosecutors wrote that Bellhouse 鈥渂egan to express an interest in a particular female inmate and started calling the inmate his 鈥榞irlfriend鈥欌 in 2020. Authorities said he inappropriately touched the woman and that she performed oral sex on Bellhouse twice in the prison鈥檚 safety office.
All sexual activity between a prison worker and an inmate is illegal.
Prosecutors said Bellhouse allowed one woman to use an office phone 鈥 a violation of Bureau of Prisons policy 鈥 and also gave her earrings. Another inmate was tasked to act like a lookout during at least one of the sexual encounters, prosecutors said.
