7 Oakland-Area Officers Charged in Sex Scandal Spanning Several Departments
— -- Seven Oakland-area police officers have been charged in a sex scandal spanning several East Bay police departments, the Alameda County District Attorney's Office announced today.
Prosecutors say they conducted a "meticulous examination" of the massive amount of evidence they gathered for the case, including 2,899 pages of Instagram posts, 76,472 pages of communication on Facebook, 59,960 text messages, 6,069 images, 546 multimedia messages and 21 videos. The investigative team also conducted four separate interviews with the 18-year-old woman at the center of the scandal, said Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O'Malley.
The woman was a minor when several of the alleged acts are said to have taken took place, the charges against the officers suggest. She said she had sex with about 30 law enforcement officials throughout the San Francisco Bay Area over the last two years, The Associated Press reported. She also said she had sex with four officers before she turned 18 and sometimes traded sex for protection from arrest or tip-offs to planned prostitution stings, according to The AP.
Investigators also consulted with authorities in San Francisco and Contra Costa County where sex acts between some officers and the 18-year-old were alleged to have occurred, O'Malley said.
The following officers were charged in the scandal:
Ricardo Perez, an officer with the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office, was charged with felony oral copulation with a minor and two counts of misdemeanor engaging in a lewd act in a public place. Perez resigned from the sheriff's office during the investigation. The Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.
Dan Black, an officer with the Livermore Police Department, was charged with two counts of misdemeanor engaging in an act of prostitution and two counts of misdemeanor engaging in a lewd act in a public place. Black resigned from the department during the investigation. The Livermore Police Department did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment.
In addition, five Oakland Police Department officers were charged in the scandal.
Brian Bunton was charged with felony obstruction of justice and misdemeanor engaging in an act of prostitution. Warit Utappa was charged with misdemeanor knowingly and without permission conducting a search of an official criminal justice data and computer systems without an authorized purpose, and Tyrell Smith, who resigned during the investigation, was charged with four counts of the same charge.
Leroy Johnson, who retired, was charged with one count of failure to report, and Giovani LoVerde was charged with felony oral copulation with a minor.
The Oakland Police Department did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment. The Alameda County District Attorney's office will not be filing charges against anyone else, O'Malley said.
It was unclear if any of the seven officers charged had obtained a lawyer or entered a plea.
"I do not take lightly the fact that police officers engaged in sexual contact or online sexual communication with a teenaged self-described sex worker," O'Malley said. "This prosecution is holding the wrongdoers accountable."
O'Malley also said that the district attorney's office will do "all it can to ensure that the young [woman] at the center" of the scandal "receives the services and help she deserves."
It has been "widely reported" that the woman went to a rehabilitation center in Florida, O'Malley said, adding that the district attorney's office did not make arrangements for or participate in sending her to Florida and that it "protested her removal from California."
In June, O'Malley announced that an investigation had been launched into the allegations of sexual misconduct. Public outcry followed the news of the sex scandal, she said. The month before, the Oakland Police Department had announced that it had launched an internal investigation into sexual misconduct involving three police officers.
The Oakland Police Department has started dismissal proceedings against the Oakland officers implicated in the case, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said in a press conference Thursday, according to ABC station KGO in San Francisco. Schaaf did note that some of the officers might have previously left the department.
One of the Oakland Police officers implicated in the scandal killed himself last year, The AP reported. It is not clear which one.
The Oakland Police Officers' Association did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment. President Barry Doneland said in the statement today that the union is disappointed by the actions of the officers linked to the sexual misconduct, The AP reported.
The union previously said it would not be representing most of the implicated officers because the alleged misconduct occurred while they were off-duty, according to The AP.
The Oakland Police Department has experienced turmoil in the past few months, going through three police chiefs in less than 10 days in June as the news of the sex scandal came to light.
