“Anyone, particularly in a position of authority, who engages in sexual exploitation or inappropriate sexual conduct with a minor or a young adult will be held accountable if we have the evidence”, O’Malley said.
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On Friday, the announcement by O’Malley, that seven police officers would be charged with sexually exploiting a teenager was the latest red-hot scandal to hit the Oakland Police Department.
Four other Oakland police officers will be prosecuted: Brian Bunton, on charges of felony obstruction of justice and engaging in an act of prostitution; Warit Utappa and Tyrell Smith, who allegedly searched a criminal justice computer system without an authorised goal; and LeRoy Johnson, on charges of failing to report sexual misconduct against a minor. Smith resigned months ago.
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said in a statement that at noon she will announce her office’s decisions on charges in the criminal investigation.
O’Malley said she can not bring charges until the victim and key witness in the case, the 19-year-old woman who calls herself Celeste Guap, returns to California.
O’Malley criticized the Richmond Police Department for helping arrange for the teen, now 19, to stay at the center on the other side of the country, saying her unavailability could hurt the prosecution if she is unable to testify.
As for Guap, she was arrested last week for aggravated battery after allegedly attacking a security officer at a voluntary rehab clinic in Florida. Guap is now in a Florida jail after biting a guard at a drug rehab facility. The suspects could not be immediately reached for comment.
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.
These are the first criminal charges announced in this sexual misconduct scandal. Mr. Whent hasn’t been charged or accused of wrongdoing by the city, but left after questions were raised about the department’s investigation into the misconduct.
The wide-ranging scandal surfaced when a teenage girl who described herself as a prostitute said she had sex with about 30 law enforcement officials in Oakland and elsewhere in the region.
In March, a federal judge with oversight of the troubled department said he was dissatisfied with the internal affairs investigation and ordered a re-examination of O’Brien’s suicide. This case is tricky because the DA here can only charge for crimes that happened within the county and she says there’s evidence that some officers had sexual contact with the victim in other parts of the Bay Area.
Former officer Terryl Smith and Officer Warit Uttappa will both be charged for misusing police computer systems. McMaster said the woman applied for help through a victims advocate working for the district attorney’s office who was based at the headquarters of the Richmond Police Department, one of the agencies whose officers she accused of misconduct. Three successive police chiefs resigned in June in a department known nationally for its disproportionate targeting and use of force against Black people.
As for the victim, she has told various news agencies that she had been trafficked since the age of 14.
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Mobile app users can watch the District Attorney’s video here. Public outcry followed the news of the sex scandal, she said.
