FCI Dublin union president testifies he 'hates dirty officers'
Former FCI Dublin officer Darrell Wayne "Dirty Dick" Smith enters court in Oakland on his second day of a sex crime trial. March 18, 2025
OAKLAND, Calif. - The union president for the correctional officers at the all-women's prison called FCI Dublin took the stand on Thursday to testify as a defense witness in a sex crime case against Darrell Wayne "Dirty Dick" Smith.
FCI Dublin Union L-3584 President Ed Canales' testimony aimed to paint Smith as a victim of Bureau of Prisons management and himself as a whisteblower who didn't tolerate sexual abuse – despite allegations from KTVU sources that claim otherwise.
"I'm a whistle-blower," Canales testified. "I hate dirty officers. They give us a ‘stigmatism’ (sic). They are an embarrassment and I can honestly say that I hate them."
Dirty officers, Canales continued, are the reason that the Bureau of Prisons shut down FCI Dublin in April 2024, leaving many of his union members without jobs or being forced to transfer.
Canales said that he never reported Smith, a union member, for alleged misconduct.
However, he did testify that he reported on others, including Warden Ray Garcia and correctional officer John Bellhouse, both in management, though nothing was done about it.
There was no way to independently verify whether Canales had reported these allegations as the BOP does not comment on such personnel matters.
Canales' testimony centered on Smith – charged with 15 counts of various sex crimes with incarcerated women – being the subject of lagging BOP investigations and the "retaliation" he said Smith endured for reporting on alleged management misconduct.
Canales was the final defense witness in the trial, now in its third week, against Smith – the last of the eight FCI Dublin correctional officers charged with sex crimes. The other seven FCI Dublin correctional officers have all pleaded guilty or been found guilty by juries and sentenced to prison.
The jury was told to go home for the day, though U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said she didn't know at this point when they should return.
Smith, who lives in Florida now, has been present for the whole trial. He has not taken the stand to testify on his own behalf.
A decision on whether Smith will take the stand is expected to be made on Friday. If he chooses not to testify, the judge said closing arguments will be on Monday.
FCI Dublin President of Local 3584 Ed Canales said he doesn't want the prison to shut down. April 19, 2024.
Over the years, several sources who requested anonymity have told KTVU that Canales was not a whistleblower, but a union president who enabled correctional officers and swept their alleged misconduct under the rug.
Tess Korth, a former unit manager at FCI Dublin who supervised Smith, said Thursday in a phone interview that she told Canales several times that Smith was a bad officer and that the union shouldn't keep representing him or getting him out of trouble.
She said that Canales told her that while he "hated dirty officers, he had to go after management to get the process right."
Canales has denied such allegations, which he emphasized in court on Thursday, by saying it was "insulting" that anyone would accuse him of misusing his position as union president to help out an officer during an investigation.
Speaking on the witness stand, Canales it seemed like management was retaliating against Smith by demoting him, misplacing his paperwork and telling him to work in a "mop closet," which was infested with rat feces and mold.
Some of the retaliation came after Smith reported on a Human Resource manager bringing her daughter to work near sensitive documents, Canales testified. Management was also upset, Canales testified, after Smith participated in a protest against executives of the Western Regional BOP office.
"I have never seen such an attack on anyone like Mr. Smith," Canales said.
Smith is charged with the most counts of the seven other former guards.
He faces a 15-count indictment, accusing him of abusing five women. The exact charges are abusive sexual contact, sexual abuse of a ward, aggravated sexual abuse and deprivation of rights under color of law.
During the trial, the defense team put on a handful of formerly incarcerated women who testified that the culture and abuse at FCI Dublin wasn't as bad as some of the victims claimed.
However, many more women, both incarcerated and released, testified in detail over the last two weeks that Smith asked them to flash him their private parts, pinned them against the wall, fingered their buttocks and vaginas, bribed them with cellphones in exchange for sex, served as lookouts for him when he had sex with others, and entered their cells while they were naked and showering, watched them shower while masturbating.