Teen details police sex abuse scandal: ‘Hurry up and turn 18’

Former Oakland Police Sergeant Leroy Johnson leaves a court appearance at the Fremont Hall of Justice on Monday, Oct. 31, 2016, in Fremont, Calif. Johnson faces misdemeanor charges for failing to report a crime in relation to his department's sexual misconduct scandal involving a teenage prostitute. less Former Oakland Police Sergeant Leroy Johnson leaves a court appearance at the Fremont Hall of Justice on Monday, Oct. 31, 2016, in Fremont, Calif. Johnson faces misdemeanor charges for failing to report a ... more Photo: Noah Berger, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Noah Berger, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 20 Caption Close Teen details police sex abuse scandal: ‘Hurry up and turn 18’ 1 / 20 Back to Gallery

The sexually exploited teenager at the center of a Bay Area police scandal said she told investigators that four officers had sex with her when she was 16 and 17 years old, including an Oakland cop she considered her “boyfriend” and a Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputy who would pick her up and drive her to a rural road near the Caldecott Tunnel.

“I’d say about 10 times” in mid-2015, the teenager said, referring to the number of occasions they had sex in the deputy’s private vehicle. “It was consistent for about a month, six weeks, then we stopped for the month of August, then we did it again one more time in September.”

The Richmond teenager, who turned 18 in August, works as a prostitute and asked to be identified by her online alias of Celeste Guap. She spoke in a lengthy interview about events that have cast the Oakland police force into disarray and prompted investigations in other law enforcement agencies. She expressed ambivalence about the officers’ behavior — and whether they should be punished.

“I don’t want them to get in trouble,” said Guap, who says she was first paid for sex at age 12, was first trafficked on the streets of Richmond and Oakland at 14, and now works on a corner of International Boulevard in Oakland. “I guess they did take advantage, but I guess it was harmless.”

Asked if she feels she was abused, she said, “Yeah, in a way. I do feel taken advantage of.”

Guap, whose mother is an Oakland police dispatcher, said she had sex with 29 officers from several police agencies in the past two years, including more than a dozen from Oakland and three from San Francisco. The officers told each other about her, and an additional 15 engaged in sex-related online chatting with her, she said.

Payments and perks

A few of the officers paid her, she said, while some of the others abused their authority, tipping her to antiprostitution stings or running names of people she was curious about through confidential databases. One Oakland officer, she said, had sex with her at a hotel near the Oakland airport in February, then texted her later in the morning to warn of an undercover sting.

“Their perks become your perks,” Guap said. “They have resources. They can run things for you. They can find out s— about anybody. If they can find out s— about anybody, I can find out s— about anybody.”

Authorities are looking into the actions of all of the officers. The episode has raised concern about the Oakland Police Department and its ability to complete reforms ordered by the federal courts more than a decade ago after a brutality scandal.

One area of immediate interest to criminal investigators is the four officers who Guap said had sex with her while she was underage. They include Oakland police Officer Brendan O’Brien, who left a note referring to Guap when he committed suicide in September.

Guap said O’Brien was the second officer to have sex with her. The first, she said, was an Oakland officer who “was my boyfriend when I was 16,” and was initially hesitant about having sex with her. “When we first started talking,” she said, “he said, ‘Hurry up and turn 18.’ I was like, ‘It’s OK.’”

Guap said she had not revealed the officer’s name to investigators, adding, “I’m not snitching him out.”

She said the other Oakland officer contacted her through social media and that they had sex on multiple occasions before she turned 18. He knew she was underage, she said, and “broke up” with her after telling her to stop contacting other officers. She said investigators know the identity of this officer.

Oakland police officials did not immediately respond Wednesday to questions about the two officers and the department’s broader investigation. The Alameda County district attorney’s office is conducting an independent probe, and several other agencies are looking into the conduct of their officers.

Affair with deputy

Guap said she met the Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputy a little more than a year ago, sending him a Facebook message after he added her as a friend on the social network.

The deputy would pick her up while off duty and drive up Fish Ranch Road, off Highway 24 near the Caldecott Tunnel. She said no money was exchanged. Asked if the deputy knew she was under 18, Guap said, “I don’t think he asked.”

The deputy’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office declined to identify the deputy, who has been placed on paid leave. The Sheriff’s Office is conducting a disciplinary investigation, while Oakland police are handling the criminal investigation.

Sgt. Shawn Welch, president of the Contra Costa County deputies union, said he couldn’t comment on the case but called the larger scandal “horrific.”

“The amount of training officers go through in California now, I don’t see how these officers think what they did was close to justified,” he said. “It brings discredit to your agency, yourself and your profession.”

Civil rights attorney John Burris, whose police-abuse lawsuit spurred the court-ordered reforms in Oakland, said all the officers who had sex with Guap after she turned 18 should be aggressively pursued, not just those who exploited her while she was underage.

“That is participating in the sex trade of young women,” he said. “The officers become the pimp.”

Burris said the state attorney general’s office should take the criminal investigation out of the hands of police and prosecutors and should look at it “from a sexual abuse and human trafficking point of view.” In addition, he said, police departments must discipline or fire any officers who were “aware of this conduct but chose to stay silent.”

In the interview, Guap addressed questions about whether her interactions with officers had come to the attention of former Oakland Police Chief Sean Whent, even before O’Brien’s suicide in September. Whent resigned this month.

Guap said she was Facebook friends with Whent’s wife, Julie Whent. About a year ago, she said, they had a “friendly chat” on the social network, and Guap mentioned she was “dating” O’Brien. She was 17 at the time, she said, but added that she doesn’t know if Julie Whent knew she was underage.

Guap said she had no contact with Sean Whent, who could not be reached for comment.

Considering lawsuit

Guap said she was considering suing police officers and their departments, but added, “I don’t want to be all dramatic about it. Honestly, I just want it all to go away. Don’t get me wrong, I know what they did was wrong, but I don’t have a lot of fight left in me.”

Guap said her mother found out less than two months ago that she was a prostitute, after a frightening night in Oakland. A man who had hired her for an “overnight visit” proposed to her.

“I said no. That set him off,” she said. “He locked me in the house and wouldn’t let me leave. The windows were barred, but I was able to call for help through a window, and a neighbor helped me break a lock and then jump the fence.”

A police officer who responded, she said, recognized her as a dispatcher’s daughter — and called her mom.

Demian Bulwa is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dbulwa@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @demianbulwa

More: KGO-TV’s interview with Celeste Guap.