Chowchilla Women’s Prison Lawsuits: Rodriguez Case and Payouts

The Chowchilla women’s prison lawsuits are hundreds of civil claims filed by women incarcerated at the Central California Women’s Facility, alleging years of sexual abuse by correctional staff and a violent August 2024 use-of-force operation against inmates. As of September 2025, nearly 500 individual suits had been filed. California has paid millions in settlements so far, a former guard is serving 224 years in prison, and the U.S. Department of Justice has an open civil rights investigation into the facility.

The Gregory Rodriguez Case at the Center of the Suits

Most of the sexual-abuse litigation traces back to Gregory Rodriguez, a correctional officer who worked at CCWF for roughly 12 years after transferring there in September 2010. ¹ Reports of his abuse date to 2014, but CDCR did not open an internal investigation until July 2022. ² He retired the following month after being approached by internal affairs.

At trial, witnesses testified that Rodriguez summoned women to phony “appointments” in a parole board hearing room without cameras and assaulted them there, silencing them with discipline threats or small rewards like cigarettes and chewing gum. One victim testified she was placed in solitary confinement after reporting the abuse in 2014. ³ Investigators identified at least 22 potential victims. ¹

A jury convicted Rodriguez on January 14, 2025, of 59 felony counts, including rape, rape under color of authority, oral copulation, sexual penetration, and sodomy, plus five misdemeanor counts of sexual battery, for crimes against nine victims. ³ On August 14, 2025, he received the maximum sentence: 224 years. ⁴

How the Civil Lawsuits Are Structured

The suits are being brought as individual actions rather than a single class action, so that compensation can be tailored to each plaintiff’s circumstances. They fall into three main groups.

Federal Suits by Rodriguez’s Victims

Attorney Robert Chalfant filed the first federal complaints in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California in December 2022, with more plaintiffs joining in June 2023. Attorney Joseph Virgilio filed on behalf of six additional victims. ⁵ In late 2023, the state settled six of these cases for $3.7 million in Sacramento federal court. ⁶

The Consolidated State Court Action

In December 2023, a separate case was filed in Sacramento Superior Court on behalf of more than 140 women incarcerated at CCWF and at the California Institution for Women in Chino. Jane Roe et al. v. State of California (Case No. 23CV013894) alleges systemic sexual assault, battery, harassment, and institutional negligence by correctional staff across the two facilities. ⁷ No trial date or settlement in this proceeding has been publicly reported.

Total Payouts So Far

Between 2022 and 2025, CDCR spent more than $6.8 million on settlements tied to complaints of sexual assault, sexual harassment, and gender violence across the prison system. ⁸

The August 2024 Use-of-Force Suits

A separate line of litigation grew out of an incident on August 2, 2024. Correctional officers removed more than 150 women from their cells for what was described as a housing unit search and held them in a dining hall for hours. Plaintiffs allege they were denied food, water, and medication in extreme heat, and that officers then deployed pepper spray, tear gas grenades, flash-bang grenades, rubber bullets, and batons against women who were complying with orders. ⁹

Reported injuries included traumatic brain injuries, seizures, respiratory distress, long-term vision loss, and at least one stroke. Plaintiff Wisdom Muhammad said she was zip-tied, dragged onto a lawn, and struck by four tear gas grenades, one of which left a permanent facial scar. ⁹

Two of the suits allege the operation was not a routine search but retaliation against women who had filed sexual misconduct complaints under the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act. One claims it was led by the head of a group of guards known as the “Delta Dog” gang. ⁹ CDCR said officers were attempting to break up a fight between two people. ⁸

In April 2026, California agreed to pay $1.9 million to settle a federal suit filed in March 2025 by 13 of the women involved. Individual payouts ran from $50,000 to $200,000 based on injury severity. CDCR did not admit wrongdoing or agree to policy changes. ⁸⁹ A larger class action filed in May 2025 on behalf of nearly 160 women present that day remained active and was scheduled for mediation in 2026. ¹⁰

CDCR found 41 staff members had violated policy in connection with the incident. Consequences ranged from termination to salary reductions and transfers, in what the department called one of its largest sets of corrective actions arising from a single event. ⁹

Federal Civil Rights Investigation

On September 4, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a civil rights investigation into conditions at CCWF and the California Institution for Women. The inquiry, brought under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, is examining whether CDCR is adequately protecting incarcerated people from sexual abuse by staff. ¹¹ As of mid-2026, the DOJ has not published findings, interim reports, or agreements from the investigation.

What the Suits Say the Prison Did Wrong

The complaints share a common thread: that supervisors knew or should have known about abuse and failed to stop it. A March 2024 report to the California Legislature by a working group of advocacy organizations described “longstanding cultural deficiencies” at CCWF, including an “unsafe and inaccessible reporting process” and an “absence of staff accountability.” ¹¹

Civil suits against Rodriguez alleged that former acting warden Mike Pallares had prior notice of his predatory behavior and failed to take steps such as installing cameras in the hearing room where the assaults occurred. ¹² Pallares was removed from CCWF in January 2023 and reassigned within CDCR after two employees sued alleging he had sexually harassed subordinates and retaliated against complainants, and an inmate lodged a separate complaint. CDCR said it investigated and “found no evidence to sustain” the allegations. ¹³

The California Office of the Inspector General, in a December 2025 monitoring report, found that at least 279 incarcerated or formerly incarcerated women had sued CDCR, accusing at least 83 prison employees of sexual misconduct. CDCR legal staff took an average of nine months to refer cases to investigators, and five correctional officers accused of sexual assault remained state employees. ¹⁴

Reforms Since the Lawsuits Began

Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 1069 into law on September 30, 2024. Authored by Senator Caroline Menjivar, the law restored investigatory authority to the Office of the Inspector General, which had been largely stripped of that power in 2011. Before the change, CDCR’s internal Allegation Investigation Unit handled misconduct inquiries and wardens decided on findings and discipline. Since 2014, only 17 correctional officers had been fired or resigned after hundreds of sexual abuse complaints in California’s women’s prisons. ¹⁵

Under SB 1069, the OIG expects to expand its oversight from about 30 sexual misconduct cases per year to roughly 350, and to review some 9,600 additional grievance decisions each year that CDCR’s screening team had previously declined to refer for investigation. CDCR also implemented emergency regulations effective January 1, 2025, eliminating “local inquiries” into staff misconduct and centralizing investigations in a single unit. ¹⁶

CDCR has said sexual abuse and harassment are “completely unacceptable” and that it enforces a zero-tolerance policy, while acknowledging “there is more work to be done.” ¹⁷ Advocacy groups have said many reforms CDCR points to, including body-worn cameras and surveillance systems, were the product of federal court orders rather than voluntary changes. ¹⁸

1
CDCR. CDCR Refers Internal Investigation Into Former Correctional Officer to District Attorney for Charges of Sexual Misconduct of Incarcerated Women
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KQED. Former Guard at California Women’s Prison Found Guilty of 59 Counts of Sexual Abuse
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Prison Legal News. Former California Guard Convicted of 64 Counts of Sexually Abusing Prisoners
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ABC30. Former Correctional Officer Sentenced to 224 Years in Prison for Sexually Assaulting Female Inmates
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Prison Legal News. California Pays Millions to Prisoners Allegedly Raped by Guards
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Prison Legal News. DOJ Opens Investigation Into Sex Abuse at Two California Women’s Prisons
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Courthouse News Service. Roe v. CDCR Complaint, Sacramento Superior Court
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