Teen in police sex scandal out of jail, returning to state

A sexually exploited teenager at the center of a Bay Area police scandal was freed from a Florida jail Wednesday and was on her way back to California, where she will testify in court against officers, sue several police agencies and seek counseling, her attorneys said.

The 19-year-old Richmond woman, whose lawyers asked that she be identified only by her first name of Jasmine, walked out of jail in Florida’s Martin County after agreeing to a plea deal on allegations that she bit a guard while at a Florida drug rehabilitation center. She and her attorneys then held a news conference, though Jasmine did not speak.

The attorneys, Pamela Price and Charles Bonner, said the teenager — who in the past has gone by the name Celeste Guap — would discard the pseudonym as part of reclaiming a life scarred by police officers in Oakland, Richmond and other cities who took advantage of her.

A teenager, who in the past went by the name Celeste Guap, and who prosecutors say was sexually exploited by Bay Area police officers, is pictured speaking to KGO-TV. A teenager, who in the past went by the name Celeste Guap, and who prosecutors say was sexually exploited by Bay Area police officers, is pictured speaking to KGO-TV. Photo: Courtesy KGO-TV Photo: Courtesy KGO-TV Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Teen in police sex scandal out of jail, returning to state 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

The lawyers criticized law-enforcement officials in Richmond who helped send Jasmine across the country to the rehab center, saying the move smacked of witness tampering. They said Jasmine is not a drug addict and should have been offered specialized counseling in the Bay Area for victims of sex trafficking.

“Celeste Guap is dead,” Price said outside the Martin County courthouse. “Jasmine is glad to be free and wants to go home. ... She’s going to create a life that every young woman should have. Jasmine is going to get a second chance.”

Among those who will help Jasmine upon her return is David Spiegel, a professor of psychiatry at Stanford, Bonner said.

The teenager wants to finish her education and become a veterinarian, while helping other victims of sexual exploitation, the attorneys said. As they spoke, indicating they would file lawsuits against at least seven police agencies whose officers had interactions with Jasmine, the young woman stood silently beside her father.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley is awaiting Jasmine’s return after saying last week that her office would charge five current and former Oakland police officers, an ex-Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputy and a former Livermore officer with crimes related to contact they had with the teenager.

After Jasmine was released Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the district attorney said the office had no timeline for when charges will be filed.

The young woman was arrested in late August on suspicion of felony battery after the incident at the rehab center, but Price and Bonner said she had reached a deal with Florida prosecutors to plead no contest to misdemeanor battery. As part of the deal, she had to write a letter of apology to the security guard whose arm she bit, said Assistant State Attorney David Lustgarten.

Price said Jasmine never should have been sent to Florida, saying, “She is not a drug addict. She’s a child victim of sex trafficking.”

This week, Richmond Police Chief Allwyn Brown clarified his department’s involvement, saying officers in the domestic and sexual violence unit worked with a local nonprofit aid group to secure funds from the state’s Victim Compensation Program for Jasmine’s treatment and trip to Florida. He said in a letter to city officials — who have emphasized that Jasmine went voluntarily — that no city funds were used.

The young woman told The Chronicle she had sex with nearly 30 cops around the Bay Area over the past two years. Four of those officers, she said, engaged in sex acts with her when she was under 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.

Alameda County prosecutors 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. 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.

Price, the attorney, called on society to do more to fight the sexual trafficking of women and girls. When a reporter at the news conference asked why Jasmine had sex with numerous police officers, Price said she had been coerced, trapped and “preyed upon.”

In a June interview, Jasmine told The Chronicle that she was first paid for sex at age 12 after she wandered away from home one night and was propositioned by a stranger who took her into his car and gave her $20. She was first trafficked by a pimp on the streets of Richmond and Oakland at 14, she said.

“Once a child is recruited into that life, there’s a trap,” Price said. “Take a look around — you don’t know who’s being sex-trafficked. ... It only survives because we tolerate it.”

Kimberly Veklerov and Evan Sernoffsky are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: kveklerov@sfchronicle.com, esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kveklerov, @EvanSernoffsky