Prosecutors have charged seven current and former San Francisco Bay Area police officers in a sexual misconduct scandal involving a teenager. Warit Utappa was charged with misdemeanor knowingly and without permission conducting a search of an official criminal justice data and computer systems without an authorized goal, and Tyrell Smith, who resigned during the investigation, was charged with four counts of the same charge. A had ever had personal contact with Oakland police Officer Brendan O’Brien, who reportedly mentioned being involved with the teenager in a suicide note found after he took his own life a year ago. Another retired earlier this year: Sergeant LeRoy Johnson. None have been arrested, and there are no warrants out for their arrest.
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Prosecutors will go after some of the officers for committing sexual acts with the teen, and others will be charged for obstruction of justice, The SF Gate reports. It was unclear if any of the seven officers charged had obtained a lawyer or entered a plea. Nancy E. O’Malley, who said she could not file the charges until the teenage woman at the center of the scandal returns to California after being sent to a rehabilitation program in Florida by another agency. “We need to get the witness back to this state”.
Officers at other Bay Area law enforcement agencies have also been implicated in the case, including in the district attorney’s office, where former Oakland police Capt. Ricardo Orozco was sacked for contact with the woman.
Mobile app users can watch the District Attorney’s video here.
According to the East Bay Times, Ms Guap has gone to rehab in Florida. She remains in jail under $300,000 bail, according to jail records.
But O’Malley said that the available evidence, obtained in interviews with Ms. “It is our duty to conduct a fair and impartial review”, she said. Black resigned from the department during the investigation.
Richmond Police Chief Allwyn Brown and department spokesman Lieutenant Felix Tan both did not respond to requests for comment today. “While I find most of the conduct we covered morally reprehensible and not befitting a sworn law enforcement officer, it is nonetheless outside of the criminal statutes”. Five of those officers were or are still on the Oakland police force.
No charges have been brought against any officers in San Francisco County and San Joaquin County, where investigations by the press uncovered other possible crimes. She acknowledged that she was only acting against law enforcement officers within her jurisdiction.
Sergeant Michael Andraychak of the San Francisco police said his department has an open internal affairs investigation, but no criminal investigation. Once those revelations became public, the city saw three police chiefs toppled in nine days.
“The action of a few have shone a negative light” on OPD, O’Malley said. “A back here”, she said, referring to Guap by a different name.
The Guardian andAssociated Press generally don’t identify people who say they are victims of sex crimes. And we protested once we learned she had been moved.
Deputy Ricardo Perez, of the Contra Costa Sheriff’s office, who has resigned, faces a felony for oral copulation with a minor and two misdemeanors for engaging in a lewd act in a public place; and Officer Dan C. Black of the Livermore Police department, who has also resigned, faces two misdemeanors for engaging in prostitution, and two misdemeanors for engaging in a lewd act in a public place. The officers charged with a felony could serve 16 months to three years in state prison if convicted, O’Malley said.
Four counts of Penal Code Section 502, misdemeanors, knowingly and without permission, Conducting a Search of Official Criminal Justice Data and Computer Systems without an Authorized Purpose.
Oakland police officer Giovani LoVerde faces a felony of oral copulation with a minor.
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Charges include oral copulation with a minor, engaging in prostitution, lewd acts, soliciting and failure to report sexual assault.
