Barry Donelan, president of the Oakland Police Officers’ Association, made the comments in a statement issued Friday after a prosecutor said she will file charges against seven former and current San Francisco Bay Area officers in connection with the misconduct.
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O’Malley said the officers who will be charged are former Contra Costa sheriff’s deputy Ricardo Perez; former Livermore officer Dan Black; Oakland officers Brian Bunton, Giovani LoVerde and Warit Utappa; and former Oakland officers Tyrell Smith and Leroy Johnson. On Wednesday, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaff and City Administrator Sabrina Landreth said the city would fire four police officers over attempted sexual assault and engaging in prostitution, and suspend another seven without pay on grounds of failing to report the misconduct.
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said disciplinary action has begun against a dozen officers, including dismissal proceedings against four.
The charges come after what District Attorney Nancy O’Malley says was an exhaustive investigation of a scandal precipitated by the suicide of Oakland officer Brendan O’Brien a year ago.
The 19-year-old woman at the center of the scandal, Celeste Guap, said she has had sex with about 30 law enforcement officials from various law enforcement agencies across the Bay Area. She also told police she traded sex to protect herself from getting arrested and to get tips on possible prostitution stings. Once those revelations became public, the city saw three police chiefs toppled in nine days. Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Department didn’t immediately return a request for comment on Friday. O’Malley also announced two misdemeanors against Perez for engaging in a lewd act in public. However, she did reveal that she had found evidence that the teen had engaged in sexual activity with officers in other other jurisdictions outside Oakland including San Francisco, Contra Costa, and San Joaquin. She is now being held in a Martin County Jail on a $300,000 bond.
As for Guap, she was arrested last week for aggravated battery after allegedly attacking a security officer at a voluntary rehab clinic in Florida.
The controversy has done nothing to help the Oakland Police Department get out from under 13 years of federal court oversight following a police brutality scandal. The wide-ranging scandal was brought on by officers who were implicated by a teenage prostitute.
Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said Friday she was waiting until she’s certain the teen can be returned to California before filing charges against the officers. Both have resigned. O’Malley says they are now focused on getting Guap, whom she calls Ms.
One count of Penal Code Section 182 (a)(5), a Felony, Obstruction of Justice, One count of Penal Code Section 647 (b), Engaging in an Act of Prostitution, a misdemeanor.
Mobile app users can watch the District Attorney’s video here.
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Sergeant Michael Andraychak of the San Francisco police said his department has an open internal affairs investigation, but no criminal investigation. According to O’Malley, investigators also could not substantiate Guap’s allegation that she had intercourse with the officers when she was 16. The others faced charges of unauthorized database access and failure to report. Public outcry followed the news of the sex scandal, she said.
