In a protracted scandal that has rocked the Oakland Police Department for more than a year, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf announced Wednesday that 4 police officers will be fired and seven others suspended without pay for their involvement in a sordid series of affairs entailing three officers committing statutory rape against an underaged sex worker named Celeste Guap.
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The four officers, whose names were not released, were all disciplined on various charges involving sexual activity with the teenage sex worker daughter of a police dispatcher, Schaaf said.
On Wednesday, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and City Administrator Sabrina Landreth said that four Oakland police officers would be fired for their role in the scandal.
The young woman, who goes by the pseudonym Celeste Guap, said it all started when she was 17 years old and became romantically involved with O’Brien, who she credits with saving her from a unsafe pimp.
Brian Bunton of the Oakland Police Department, charged with a felony count of obstruction of justice and a misdemeanor count of engaging in an act of prostitution.
The investigation team reviewed 15,000 pages of data going back to January of 2015.
Guap, meanwhile, was flown to a Florida rehabilitation facility in August and was arrested for allegedly assaulting a guard on Aug. 29. Those officers will also be provided with remedial training for accessing law enforcement databases for personal gain, being untruthful to investigators, failing to report a violation of law or rules by not reporting allegations of a minor having sexual contact with Oakland police officers, and bringing and disrepute to the Oakland Police Department. For example, text messages and Instagram posts between federal police officer William Johnson and Guap appeared to show Johnson proposing to become Guap’s exploiter in order to sell her to others for sex. Schaff said District Attorney Nancy O’Malley was still conducting a criminal investigation, but “we have reason to believe she will be making determinations relatively soon”.
The probe began last September with the suicide of officer Brendan O’Brien, who left a note referring to Guap. The suspended officers failed to report their fellow cops’ misconduct, misused police databases or dishonored the department, according to Schaaf.
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.
The Oakland Police Department has been trying for years to come into compliance with court-ordered reforms, stemming from the 2003 settlement of case involving a group of rogue officers who were accused of beating and planting drugs on Oakland residents.
“We want her back here where she is supported and safe”, said Ms. O’Malley. A spokeswoman for the Alameda County district attorney’s office declined to comment on the matter Thursday. She added that she agreed to some of the sex acts in exchange for not getting arrested. The incident has raised questions about why a police agency would send a key witness in a major police misconduct investigation out of state with possible charges looming.
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Former officer Terryl Smith and Officer Warit Uttappa will both be charged for misusing police computer systems. Dan Black, a Livermore cop who quit yesterday, faces two misdemeanors for engaging in acts of prostitution and two more misdemeanors for engaging in lewd acts in a public place. She’s now in jail there facing battery charges stemming from an altercation at the treatment facility.
