June 2016
Badge of Dishonor: Top Oakland Police Department Officials Looked Away as East Bay Cops Sexually Exploited and Trafficked a Teenager
'Based on the information shared through this story, it appears that this young woman was the victim of trafficking.'
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/badge-of-dishonor-top-oakland-police-department-officials-looked-away-as-east-bay-cops-sexually-exploited-and-trafficked-a-teenagerdepartmen/Content?oid=4832543
June 2016
The Real Reason Why Oakland's Police Chief Was Fired
A sexual-misconduct scandal involving police brass at multiple agencies, leaked undercover investigations, botched oversight by Sean Whent — Mayor Libby Schaaf got it wrong.
At this morning's press conference announcing the departure of Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent, Mayor Libby Schaaf and City Administrator Sabrina Landreth told a room full of reporters that Whent was resigning for “personal reasons.” The mayor said it had nothing to do with a scandal involving rookie police officers who sexually exploited a minor, or the suspicious death of a police officer's wife and his subsequent suicide.
But the mayor and other city officials are either not being forthright about the extent of OPD officer misconduct and the reasons for Whent's resignation, or they are in the dark.
The Express has learned that the sexual-misconduct scandal involves more than just a few rank-and-file Oakland cops, but also high-ranking officials from departments throughout the Bay Area. A few committed statutory rape of the victim, who was an under-age sex worker at the time, and informed her of undercover police operations.
According to interviews with the victim, elected officials, and sources close to OPD, in addition to documents obtained by the Express, at least fourteen Oakland Police officers, three Richmond Police officers, and four Alameda County Sheriff's deputies had sex with the girl who goes by the name Celeste Guap. (The Express is not publishing Guap's real name because she was a sexually exploited minor when the abuse began.)
Despite the mayor’s claims, multiple city sources say Whent was forced out by Independent Police Monitor Robert Warshaw, who is responsible for overseeing OPD's progress with its 13-year-old federal reforms, and who hand-selected Whent to run the department in 2014.
The monitor recently learned that Whent's wife, Julie, knew of Guap's relationship with officer Brendan O'Brien as far back as June 2015, according to multiple sources.
This March, Warshaw discovered that Whent also knew about O'Brien’s sexual relationship with the underage girl. Sources with the city and inside law enforcement say Warshaw put OPD Deputy Chief John Lois in charge of the sexual-misconduct investigation — and ordered them not to report to Whent, but directly to him.
The rapidly expanding scandal has now cost Whent his job — but the blowback in the Bay Area is far from over.
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/the-real-reason-why-oakland-fired-its-police-chief/Content?oid=4826701
