Witness in police sex scandal offered plea deal in Florida

A teenager who was sexually exploited by Bay Area police officers, and who goes by the name Celeste Guap, is pictured speaking to KGO-TV. A teenager who was sexually exploited by Bay Area police officers, and who goes by the name Celeste Guap, is pictured speaking to KGO-TV. Photo: Courtesy KGO-TV Photo: Courtesy KGO-TV Image 1 of / 22 Caption Close Witness in police sex scandal offered plea deal in Florida 1 / 22 Back to Gallery

A sexually exploited teenager whose testimony is central to a Bay Area police scandal remained jailed in Florida on Monday but was offered a plea deal that could hasten her return to California, where prosecutors say they are poised to file charges against seven officers.

The 19-year-old Richmond woman, who asked to be identified by her online alias of Celeste Guap, was arrested late last month on suspicion of felony battery after allegedly biting a security guard at a rehabilitation center in Florida’s Martin County. But the assistant state attorney in Martin County, David Lustgarten, said Monday that he is charging Guap with misdemeanor battery.

“The evidence did not lead me to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a felony was committed,” he said.

Lustgarten said he offered a plea bargain to the young woman, who is being held on $300,000 bail. While he would not disclose the parameters of the deal, he said, “I have a feeling this will be on the quick end of things.”

Neither Guap’s public defender in Florida nor her two attorneys in the Bay Area immediately responded Monday to requests for comment. But Martin County Assistant Public Defender John Hetherington said last week that his office had funds to help fly Guap back to California once her case was finished.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley’s goal is a speedy resolution to the battery case. She said Friday that her office planned to charge five current and former Oakland police officers, one former Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputy and one ex-Livermore officer with crimes ranging from obstruction of justice to oral copulation with a minor in connection with contact they had with Guap.

At a Friday news conference, O’Malley said Contra Costa County law enforcement officials should not have helped send Guap to a voluntary rehabilitation center across the country.

City and police officials in Richmond, as well as Contra Costa County prosecutors, have said Guap was simply offered resources available to crime victims.

Guap, who has worked as a prostitute, told The Chronicle that she had sex with 29 officers in the Bay Area in the past two years and that her relations with at least four officers occurred before she turned 18. A few officers paid her, and others warned her about antiprostitution stings or ran the names of people she knew through confidential databases, she said.

Ricardo Perez, a former Contra Costa County deputy who resigned in June, will be charged with felony oral copulation with a minor and two misdemeanor counts of engaging in lewd acts in public, O’Malley said. A Livermore officer who recently resigned, Dan Black, will be charged with four misdemeanors: two counts of engaging in prostitution and two counts of engaging in lewd acts in public.

Oakland Officer Giovanni LoVerde will be charged with felony oral copulation with a minor, and Oakland Officer Brian Bunton will be charged with a felony count of obstruction of justice and a misdemeanor count of engaging in prostitution, prosecutors said.

Oakland Officer Warit Uttapa is to be charged with one count of misusing computer databases, and Terryl Smith, who has resigned, will face four counts of the same allegation. A retired Oakland officer, Leroy Johnson, will be charged with failing to report sexual misconduct despite being required to make such reports as part of his job, O’Malley said.

If Guap is convicted at trial of misdemeanor battery in Florida, she faces up to one year in county jail.

Lustgarten said his decision to charge her with misdemeanor battery took into account that she was in a treatment center, was dealing with mental-health issues and had never been convicted of a crime. However, he said he did not take into consideration Guap’s status as the central witness in the Bay Area case.

“It was not factored at all,” he said.

Kimberly Veklerov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov