OAKLAND — One of the biggest and longest-running police scandal investigations in East Bay history, replete with lurid allegations of sex abuse of an exploited teenager by men sworn to serve and protect, took a new twist Friday with Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley announcing criminal charges against seven officers, including five in Oakland.

“Any person who engages in this type of behavior of sexual exploitation, particularly someone in authority, will be held accountable if we have the evidence,” O’Malley said. “It doesn’t matter if they are a police officer or if they’re a doctor or a probation officer or a lawyer or a judge.”

The criminal cases may not end there. In announcing the impending charges, O’Malley said she found evidence of officers committing crimes in Contra Costa, San Francisco and San Joaquin counties, all outside her jurisdiction. She said she has contacted her counterparts there to pursue criminal action.

In announcing the charges, O’Malley also addressed the relationship involving the woman who goes by the name Celeste Guap and the Oakland officer whose suicide note launched the scandal and initial investigation. Contradicting statements made by Guap that she and Officer Brendan O’Brien were romantically involved, O’Malley said the evidence indicates the two never met in person.

The most serious Alameda County charges — felony oral copulation with a minor — will be filed against Oakland Officer Giovanni LoVerde and Contra Costa Sheriff’s deputy Ricardo Perez, O’Malley said. Perez, who resigned from the Sheriff’s Office in June, also faces two misdemeanor counts of engaging in a lewd act in a public place, on suspicion of having sex with Guap in his car. Oakland Officer Brian Bunton also faces a felony charge of obstruction of justice and a misdemeanor charge of engaging in prostitution.

Three other Oakland officers will be charged with crimes: Officer Terryl Smith, who resigned in May, faces four misdemeanor counts of conducting unauthorized searches of a criminal justice data and computer system; Sgt. LeRoy Johnson, a retiree recently living in Texas, a misdemeanor charge of failing to report the abuse; and Officer Warit Uttapa, a misdemeanor charge of conducting an authorized search of a criminal justice data and computer system.

Officer Dan C. Black of the Livermore Police Department, who resigned last week, faces two misdemeanor charges of engaging in prostitution, and two misdemeanors of engaging in a lewd act in a public place.

O’Malley said no others in Alameda County will be charged, but the pending prosecution of seven officers makes it one of the largest criminal cases against cops in the East Bay; larger than the Oakland Riders police brutality and drug planting of 2000 and a scandal involving the Contra Costa Narcotics Enforcement Team that occurred a few years later.

The DA’s sweeping, months-long probe began when Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf requested that independent prosecutors take over the city’s investigation; Oakland Internal Affairs had been looking into allegations of sexual misconduct with Guap since O’Brien committed suicide last September and left a note with names of officers allegedly involved with her, while saying that he did not have a physical relationship with the teen.

The scandal spread to several police departments after Guap went public with claims of sexual trysts with some 30 Bay Area officers, including 14 who work in Oakland. During the fallout, Oakland lost three police chiefs in nine days in June, beginning with Sean Whent, who oversaw the initial investigation.

O’Malley said her investigators found that in some instances, Guap’s statements contradicted evidence or statements from witnesses and officers. Investigators reviewed 150,000 pages of data from Instagram, Facebook, text messages and video, and while the exchanges showed many officers used sexually explicit or sexually inappropriate language in communicating with Guap, most did not rise to the level of a crime, O’Malley said.

But for seven officers, it did.

Guap in Florida

Guap, now 19, was taken to a rehab facility in Florida on Aug. 26 with the help of Richmond police to overcome drug addiction; O’Malley and Oakland leaders said they weren’t consulted beforehand.

Three days later, she was arrested on suspicion of biting a guard at the facility and remains in a Martin County jail on $300,000 bail, pending a hearing next week, said David Lustgarten, assistant state attorney assigned to Martin County.

O’Malley said it’s likely that formal charges against the officers will not be filed until Guap, the case’s primary witness, returns to California. Guap, the daughter of an Oakland police dispatcher, is expected to testify against the officers.

“If the agency that sent her to Florida does not pay for her to come back, we will pay for her airfare,” O’Malley said.

The district attorney’s case was outlined two days after Schaaf and Oakland City Administrator Sabrina Landreth announced 12 cops will be disciplined, including four who will be fired.

In a statement, Schaaf said, “The consequences of poor judgment and bad behavior can end careers and shatter lives.”

Additional crimes found

Evidence shows Oakland officers Smith and Uttapa, according to O’Malley, had sex with Guap in Contra Costa County. Two other officers committed crimes in San Francisco, as did a federal police officer located in San Joaquin County who attempted to serve as Guap’s pimp, O’Malley said.

Contra Costa District Attorney Mark Peterson, whose county also includes five Richmond officers under investigation by their department, did not respond to calls and emails. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon said on Friday that the city’s investigation is not complete, but when it is, he will review it for possible charges.

The San Joaquin DA’s office has a pending case against the federal officer, deputy district attorney Robert Himelblau said.

Staff writers Matthias Gafni and Malaika Fraley contributed to this report.