The investigation of the police officers began on September 23, 2015.
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Representatives for the Oakland Police Officers’ Association could not be immediately reached for comment. One is a former officer in nearby Livermore, Calif., and the other is a former sheriff’s deputy in adjacent Contra Costa County.
Three Oakland police chiefs resigned in quick succession in June, after news of the scandal involving a teenage sex worker and police officers emerged in local media. None have been arrested, and there are no warrants out for their arrest.
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. Some of the encounters took place when she was a minor. “We need to get the witness back to this state”. As many as five Richmond Police officers are also implicated in the scandal, and an officer with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office also linked to the scandal was sacked last month.
Guap, who is the daughter of an Oakland police dispatcher, is participating in a rehabilitation program in Florida. She is now being held in a Martin County Jail on a $300,000 bond.
Contra Costa County Chief Assistant District Attorney John McMaster tells the LA Times that this accusation that she was sent to another state for some nefarious objective is ridiculous, and she can be brought back at any time by subpoena.
O’Malley said that Guap will testify in the case. The officers are not yet in custody, she said.
The fallout of the investigation has also been felt by Guap, who is now being held in Martin County, Florida, on aggravated assault charges.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has an ongoing investigation into whether any criminal charges are warranted.
Of the 28 officers, Guap said 14 were from the Oakland Police Department. The Contra Costa DA’s office told the Express yesterday that they do not have a chargeable case they can bring against any officers.
So far, no officers have faced criminal charges as a result of the scandal.
An Alameda County district attorney’s investigator was also fired earlier this year for having inappropriate communications with the woman. Richmond police Officer Jerrod Tong was placed on leave in connection with the investigation in July after he was reassigned away from positions where he had any interaction with youth. Another officer will be required to attend training classes.
“We want her back here where she is supported and safe”, said Ms. O’Malley.
Heavy press presence with the TBOC delegation pressured O’Malley into coming out of her office to talk.
They are referring to a federal compliance director who’s been assigned to oversee the department ever since a federal judge declared this necessary in the wake of the Oakland “Riders” case, settled in 2003, in which four officers were alleged to have kidnapped people, planted evidence, and beaten citizens, while other officers turned a blind eye to their misconduct.
“Whatever the hustle was that she thought she had under control was upended by this”, McElhaney said.
Oakland police Officer Brian Bunton has been charged with one count of felony obstruction of justice and one count of engaging in an act of prostitution.
Warit Utappa of the Oakland Police Department, charged with a misdemeanor count of conducting a search on a police database without an authorized objective.
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Criminal charges may be forthcoming. Former OPD Sergeant LeRoy Johnson faces charges of failing to report a crime. She’s now in jail there facing battery charges stemming from an altercation at the treatment facility.
