OAKLAND — On the morning of Aug. 26, the day after her 19th birthday, the young woman at the center of one of the biggest police scandals in Bay Area history was driven to San Francisco International Airport by a Richmond police sergeant and whisked away to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, en route to an inpatient drug-rehabilitation facility.

“Florida the next month or so,” she wrote on her Instagram account, including a photo of her holding a Virgin America airline ticket.

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The teen was told by Richmond police that the trip to drug rehab would be like a “vacation” and she had to leave “urgently,” her attorney, Charles Bonner, said Thursday during an Oakland news conference where he outlined new allegations involving her controversial trip 3,000 miles east.

The plane ticket and rehab accommodations had been paid for by state victim compensation funds, facilitated by Richmond officers, a Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office employee and a nonprofit in the days and weeks before she left town on Aug. 26, according to officials and her attorneys.

When she landed in Florida, two strangers greeted her in the airport terminal holding a paper sign with her name written on it. She got into their car and the group drove for two hours in complete silence through Boca Raton and West Palm Beach, before reaching the Wellness Counseling and Detoxification center in Stuart, Bonner said.

Feeling uneasy and scared, the teen asked if she could call her father and was told no, according to accounts by the teen’s attorneys. Repeated requests to call home were also denied, Bonner said.

After three tumultuous days, the stay abruptly ended when the young woman bit a security guard after she tried to leave the facility. She was taken to jail, where she stayed until her charge was reduced to a misdemeanor. She pleaded no contest on Wednesday and was released to her attorneys and her father.

Bonner said the victim was not a security guard, as alleged in court charges, but rather a driver for the facility. Bonner said his client was surrounded by staff and injected with a “big needle” full of an unknown substance. He said the woman will undergo tests to see what the substance was.

“She didn’t voluntarily go,” Bonner told a media throng in front of Oakland City Hall. “Why would you need to send her thousands of miles away?”

“At the time she was taken to Martin County jail, she was absolutely in crisis,” her other attorney, Pamela Price, said.

The Thursday morning news conference before reporters was the first public comments since Bonner and co-counsel Price returned from Florida with the young woman, who had served 17 days in jail. This news organization is not naming her because she is the victim of sex abuse. She did not attend the news gathering, and her attorneys say she no longer wishes to use the alias used by many media outlets in recent months to identify her.

“First of all, (she) is safe,” and is under the watch of private security guards, Bonner said. “She is a new lady and committed to a new course of conduct.”

Bonner said his client would receive “major psychiatric intervention,” return to school to get her GED and pursue a career as a veterinarian.

“She’s a very smart girl,” he said.

Attempts to reach Sgt. Matthew Stonebreaker, who Bonner said organized the trip to Florida, and who the teen said drove her to the airport, were unsuccessful Thursday. Richmond police Assistant Chief Bisa French said Bonner and Price were taking advantage of the fact that her department could not comment on the ongoing criminal investigation.

“There is no legal way we can force anyone into recovery,” French said. “She knows our hands are tied on this, so she can make any statements she wants, but the truth will eventually come out.”

The woman has said she had sex with about 30 Bay Area police officers, including some when she was underage. Months before she was sent to Florida, the woman told this newspaper she had sex with five Richmond police officers after turning 18, prompting criticism of the department’s role in sending her out of state. None of those officers are facing criminal charges, but Richmond officials said some will be disciplined or terminated for their involvement in the scandal.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley plans to charge seven officers with crimes related to the scandal, and was waiting for her primary witness to return to California before filing the charges. Both O’Malley and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf have criticized Richmond police for their role in sending the young woman so far away.

Price said Thursday she reached out to Alameda County prosecutors since her return but was told O’Malley was on vacation and it would have to wait.

DA spokeswoman Teresa Drenick confirmed that O’Malley was in Washington, D.C., Thursday on a work-related trip. The office had not filed charges as of Thursday, but sources said O’Malley’s absence would not prevent the team of prosecutors assigned to the cases from doing so. The pending charges involve officers in Oakland, Livermore and the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office. Four of the seven have already resigned or retired.

The allegations first surfaced to police after Oakland Officer Brendan O’Brien committed suicide in September 2015 and left a note implicating officers who were involved with the woman.

Price criticized the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office for not pursuing criminal charges in the case, particularly after O’Malley announced that her office found criminal actions by Oakland officers in that county. She said Contra Costa prosecutors reached out to her recently asking to speak to the teen because they wanted to investigate.

The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office released a statement Thursday saying it was “recently” made aware of additional allegations of possible criminal conduct in that county and is reviewing that evidence, but it has not completed its investigation.

“It goes without saying that our office will always investigate any alleged sexual assault or human trafficking crimes that occur within our county, and we’re committed to holding anyone who committed such crimes in Contra Costa County accountable for their actions,” District Attorney Mark Peterson said.

The attorneys plan on filing lawsuits on behalf of the woman against each city and county implicated in the scandal, but on Thursday afternoon no claims — the precursor to a lawsuit — were filed in Richmond,Oakland or Livermore, city officials said.

Staff writer Karina Ioffee contributed to this report.